Catfish Dilemma

During class on Monday and Wednesday we watched the original movie of how the MTV series "Catfish" came to be. The host of the tv series, Nev, was indeed "catfished" himself. To be catfished is to fall in love or fall for someone whom you've met via the internet. Usually when falling for someone online there is no formal meetings--communication is restricted to social media, texting, or speaking over the phone without physically seeing or meeting the other. This obviously poses many problems and room for lies, which is what we saw in the movie.

We see that Nev is betrayed by Angela. Angela pretends to be someone she is not. She used social media as a means to escape her hard life. Angela makes a lot of sacrifices for her husband and his two mentally challenged sons. She doesn't live the life she dreamed of or wanted for herself. I feel sympathy for Angela but I still do not stand by her and what she did to Nev. She told lie after lie to Nev and actually fell for him and made Nev fall for her. Ultimately it is not fair to mess with someone's emotions. If you really want someone to fall in love with you or fall for you the better way to have them do it is for them to fall in love for who you truly are.

This is the problem with social media today. People like to pretend they are who they aren't. People create fake profiles and use images that circulate the internet and make others who don't really know them, believe a personality that the person sitting in front of the computer is not. The internet is very deceiving and full of lies and those being catfished are extremely vulnerable. By knowing what social media can do and knowing what kinds of things can be accomplished through the internet, people should be more aware of what they are doing or who they are talking to. I honestly don't think falling in love through the internet is a means of falling in love--those who say they are in love are desperate. When you really fall in love you fall for that person's touch, voice, presence, and for the things they do for you. Actions speak much louder than words and so often people need to "hear" words of reassurance that they are beautiful or that they are something they strive to be. Everyone just yearns to be WANTED.

I don't think it's a bad thing to want for yourself, but you have to be careful who you get it from or you'll end up like Nev and so many other people: catfished. Yes I sympathize and pity Angela but that does not justify what she did. What she did was wrong; she lied to someone because it made her feel good about herself. It made her feel like for a moment she wasn't living the life she is living, which in turn is a lie to herself! Catfish is based on many lies and those who are catfishing others need to find their purpose in life because it's not fair for them to create a world that invites vulnerable people in, and crushes their ideals of love.