Catfish

            The movie “Catfish” is an intriguing documentary of online friendships, fraud and manipulation of technology. It was one of my favorite documentaries that I’ve ever seen, as it captures the reality of information sharing on the Internet and how easy it is to put yourself out there, even if it’s not your real self. It is reflective of Web 2.0 because users can create and interact with each other on a new level. It shows just how democratized the Internet is because people can do whatever they want and be who they want to be. I could relate to it because I use Facebook and I learned some of the dangers that people often neglect when immersing themselves in the online communities out there.

            Photographer Nev Schulman’s life was no longer the same after he received a painting from an eight year-old named Abby Pierce. He found her work to be incredible for someone her age, and he continued to receive packages for her. After a while he developed a friendship with this young girl, her mother Angela, and her stepsister Megan. He became Facebook friends with them and communicated with them regularly. Before long, he developed feelings for Megan, and the two had sort of an online relationship. He hadn’t met any of them in person, but they talked on the phone and on Facebook frequently. Nev and Megan looked forward to the day that they would meet in person.

            One thing that seemed a little weird about the friendships was that he could never get Abby on the phone, and he could never get on the phone with them all at once. They also were seldom available whenever Nev got the chance to connect with them face-to-face. Finally, Nev started to discover he had been living a lie for several months when Megan, who claimed to be a talented singer, sent him a cover of a song that he found already existed online. He started to question the relationships he’d formed online, and set out with his brother Ariel and his friends all the way up to Ishpeming, Michigan to figure it all out. After uncovering several clues, he found out that Megan had no idea who Nev was and lived far away from her family, and her Facebook profile, along with several other profiles, were created by Angela. She took pictures of someone else off of the Internet and created an entire network of people. Angela looked completely different in real life and lived with her husband Vince, Abby, and Vince’s two handicapped sons. Finally, Abby seldom painted and the paintings were works of Angela, whose initial motive was probably to get her paintings recognized. It became clear that Angela, a middle aged woman, had probably fallen in love with Nev.

            Nev was disappointed that his relationship with a girl he thought he genuinely liked was with a middle aged woman and he had been fooled. It is a scary thought to think that many of the people out there on social networks aren’t who they say they are. I learned that when I accept someone on Facebook, I should know who they are first because I am exposing them to my information, and especially if I am planning on talking to them. This movie will make me think twice before starting an online relationship or even friendship. One can hardly say that Nev was irresponsible, however, because Angela went to a lot of trouble to create such an elaborate lie. She had created over a dozen Facebook profiles to make Megan’s look more legitimate, and went so far as to upload so many pictures, post to the walls, and keep two phone lines for herself and Megan. She even created different personalities for each person. She admitted at the end of the film that through Megan, she was trying to live a life that she was never able to live. I found it rather pathetic, but very clever.

            In conclusion, being safe on the Internet not just about being careful about how much information you disclose. It is about using discretion when communicating with a stranger and thinking twice before engaging in any meaningful conversation or giving any trust to them. This could also pertain to blogs and any site that is democratized in this new Web 2.0 Internet, because much of what we see online is posted by someone we don’t know, and there’s no way to find out if they are credible. They might not be who they say they are; in fact, the person they say they are might not even exist. Or, they might exist but have no idea someone is using their pictures in a fake profile. The pictures of “Megan” were of a young model and photographer named Aimee Gonzales, who Angela had no relation to. I just hope my pictures aren’t being used for someone’s fraudulent scheme all the way in Ishpeming.