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Friday, April 15, 2016

A Circle of Lies

Social media is used by people all around the world; yet, this type of technology affects people in both positive and negative ways. One negative aspect is catfishing. Catfishing is the act of luring someone into a relationship by means of a fictional online persona. In the movie, Catfish, a woman named Angela deceives a man named Nev by posing as a someone named Megan. Nev’s and Megan’s online relationship originates from a connection with Megan’s younger sister, Abby.
Initially, Abby is presented as an enthusiastic artist who paints Nev’s pictures. During their process of exchanging pictures and paintings, Nev meets Abby’s family through Facebook. This is the time that Megan shows a romantic interest in Nev. As a result, Nev and Megan become affectionate towards each other. While Nev’s relationship with Megan continues to grow, he begins to think that Megan isn’t who she says she is. Specifically, Nev catches onto the lies being told and decides to travel to the horse farm that Megan claims she lives on. Once he arrives, he realizes that Megan does not live there and sees everything that he sent her still in the mailbox. This moment definitely makes him question if Megan is really Megan. Nevertheless, Nev continued traveling to the house of Abby and Angela, Abby’s mom. There he meets real people, but the people look nothing like they do on social media. Plus, there is still no Megan. As a result, Nev learns that Angela is the person painting his pictures and talking as Megan.
As I watched the movie, I understand that Angela does not have the life that she wishes to have. For example, it’s obvious that Angela and her husband, Vince, don’t have the best relationship. On top of that, Angela takes care of Vince’s twin boys who happen to be handicapped. With that being said, she appears lonely since her situation is overwhelming. Personally, I feel that she created all those profiles to represent the qualities she wishes she had.

Even though Angela easily expresses herself through the many profiles, catfishing is not acceptable. Her actions are morally wrong for a number of reasons. In my opinion, the biggest reason is that she constantly lied to Nev. I feel that she didn’t completely consider how Nev would respond, especially after telling the truth. Although circumstances became weird, Angela and Nev ended the movie by developing a true relationship. 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I do believe that what Angela did was very wrong, especially when used somebody else's pictures and used them as her own. This is basically like stealing someone identity which is morally wrong. Also when she kept lying to Nev I always wondered if she knew that her lies were going to catch up to her. She had to have known that she could not keep lying forever. I just hope now that she has been caught she can be accountable for her actions and understand that what she did is unacceptable.