With the growing Internet, it is getting easier and easier to find and share information and it is getting easier and easier to become connected with more and more people. Most people would find this to be a positive. A perfect example of this is yesterday's world changing news of Osama Bin Laden's death. I found out through a tweet by my friend here at Marist. My first thought was of course that he was kidding and that it was a joke, but soon there after, I saw the NY Times tweet that said "Breaking News: Osama Bin Laden Has Been Killed." I would almost guarantee that a large amount of people found out through some sort of social networking site that Osama Bin Laden died.
In this aspect, it can easily be argued that sites like these are a commodity in today's society. However, there are draw backs to not only social networking sites, but all of the online world. This is the main concept in the documentary Catfish. Who would have thought that something as simple as an eight-year-old girl painting a photographer's photos could cause this much drama?
The extent to which this woman, Angela, went to in order to keep this story plausible was astounding and almost admirable. Her creativity was amazing and the depth that she went into to keep up the story was so intricate. Even after she was caught, she kept up a different story, telling Nev that all the people she had made up were really just Megan's friends and young adults in the neighborhood.
So the story starts out with a photographer finding a fan who likes to paint his pictures. With the accessibility of the Internet, he is able to keep in touch with this little girl through email. As their relationship develops, the photographer (Nev) becomes more and more involved in not only the life of Abbey (the little girl and Angela's daughter), but her whole family's. Through email, Facebook, and phone calls, Nev becomes closer and closer to the family. This is what originally brings him in contact with Megan, Abbey's 19-year-old sister; all this connectivity.
Megan and Nev grow closer and closer, but then things turn awry when holes start appearing in the stories Megan and Angela and Abbey are telling Nev. Completely dumbfounded, Nev finds out slowly this family is a complete sham. In an effort to find out the truth, Nev goes to see Angela and her family. He definitely finds out a lot (true and false) about the life of Angela and Abbey and even Megan. As it turns out, Abbey is not the painter, but Angela and as for Megan, she exists, but has not at all been the one Nev has been talking to.
It begs the question as to why Nev would so easily be tricked into believing this family. While watching and finding out little by little that there is something fishy going on, audiences are the harshest critics. There is this feeling among audiences that you should never trust people you meet online or people you don't know because people aren't who you think they are. Even Nev gets mad at himself because he was so "naive." However, when you look at the situation, he really had no reason to believe these people were lying to them. They weren't asking for money or trying to take advantage of Nev, but instead it just seemed like they were looking for a connection and a relationship with him.
Ultimately though, this film was not made to exploit this family for their wrong-doings or Nev's naivety, but instead to warn audiences and others using social networking sites that the people you get to know and the relationships you develop through strictly online communication may not be what you think they are. People wear a mask when they are online. This is shown quite well by seeing Angela's Facebook profile picture in comparison with her real-life image. You can be whom ever you choose to be online and, unless someone shows up at your "horse farm" and house, you would never have to reveal your true self.
Social networking sites bring a lot of connectivity into our lives, but the growing usage of these sites can cause a lot of problems. Not only the situation with Nev, but cyber bullying has also picked up in the past few years. How great is a medium that brings so much social instability?
