“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” Benjamin Franklin. The meaning behind this iconic quote is that any secret shared between more than one person is bound to not be a secret for long. This quote isn’t wrong, —in fact, it is very accurate in today’s society. Although many may say that you must always tell the truth, keeping a secret really has nothing to do with the truth or lies. Keeping secrets to oneself hurts nobody and is often beneficial for everybody in the end.
First of all, keeping your secrets to yourself can prevent a game of “telephone-gone-wrong” from happening. This means that when you confide in someone else with a secret, it easily gets told to everyone at school, but worst of all, it gets twisted around into something that is worse than the actual secret itself. Instead of telling one person a secret and then having it spread around the entire school, it is best if you keep the secret to oneself. Unless a trustworthy confidant is at hand, it is wisest to keep a secret left unsaid to prevent any reputations—most notably your own—from being harmed.
Another reason that you should conceal your secrets is that you can prevent others from getting hurt. Although many people say that honesty is the best policy and that keeping a secret from someone is a form of lying, this is completely untrue; in fact, the people that say this are “pot-stirrers.” All they are trying to do is cause drama and conflict for their own entertainment. When one has information or a secret that could hurt another, it is best to keep that to oneself and not tell others.
Even though many may say that keeping your secrets to yourself is bad for your mental health and causes stress, they are wrong. Keeping secrets to oneself actually prevents stress and will not cause any mental illness at all. It prevents stress because one will not have to worry about rumors or their secrets being spread, and they are in control of the situation. Also keeping secrets to yourself does not cause detriment to mental health because there have been no cases of people becoming mentally insane or having mental illnesses just because of keeping a secret to themselves.
In the end, it is best to keep your secrets to yourself because you can prevent yourself and others from getting hurt, it will prevent large amounts of stress, and it is not detrimental to one’s health.