Misrepresentation is a notion whose etymological root is found in the Latin language: misrepresentation. This action refers to modifying the meaning of a speech or event to cause misinterpretation.
For example: “The mayor accused some journalists of misrepresenting their words to generate discomfort in the population”, “We cannot misrepresent the auditors’ report: we will have to tell the president what the economic reality of the company is”, “The opposition is dedicated to distorting information to weaken the government. Suppose an employee tells a colleague that he will not be able to fulfill his obligation to send all outstanding quotes to the finance department because his computer is malfunctioning. His colleague, for certain reasons, decides to change the story and tell the boss that the delay is due to a lack of responsibility.
In the best of cases, when a person is the victim of a manipulation of the truth like the one exposed in the previous example, they always have the opportunity to clear their name by explaining the situation to avoid the unjust consequences of lying. Of course, this was relatively possible until a few decades ago, but with the advent of the media and, more recently, social networks, the speed at which a slander travels is supernatural: in a matter of minutes, the news spreads . the world, regardless of its veracity. The ease with which today we can twist the truth and involve a person in an event in which they did not participate is alarming, and affects not only celebrities, but all of us who are exposed. Nobody remembers the promise – not so old – that “technology must be at the service of human beings”; Although this is true in many areas, its most outstanding face today is the Internet and social networks, the constant risk of identity theft, the invasion of our privacy with cameras that fit in a ring and the lack of commitment in the relationships. Perhaps the most alarming thing about the excess of information on the Internet is that hardly anyone bothers to check what they read, to corroborate the veracity of a piece of news or to doubt an unexpected complaint. There are many examples of meticulously crafted montages to distort a message from a famous person or company, which when they reach the eyes of Internet users are devoured without hesitation, without requiring validation of the source, without approaching the alleged culprits to hear their version of the facts. history.
A young man who borrows his father’s car and hits him while driving distracted while talking on the phone, in turn, may twist the facts and tell you that the accident happened because he tried to avoid a dog that unexpectedly crossed in front of the vehicle. . In this case, the young man starts from a real event (the crash), but distorts the causes to prevent his father from punishing him. In short, it can be said that distorting is equivalent to distorting, falsifying, interrupting or altering something with the intention of generating an effect different from that produced by the real facts. It is worth mentioning that, as with many other terms in the Spanish language, there is a common tendency to confuse this word with “tragiversar”, which is not accepted by the dictionary of the Royal Academy. This can be compared to other errors, such as saying “pharmacy, police station, cocretes, toothpaste” or “tergopol”, instead of “pharmacy, police station, croquettes, toothpaste” or “telgopor”, respectively.
