Pumpkin Eaters

The movie "Catfish" brought up many questions about what is and isn't acceptable in technology. We have advanced so fast and we have to set some ground rules for things we never thought we'd have to worry about. One of the most controversial questions was "Is Angela guilty of cheating?" and it is a difficult question to answer, because not only was I instructed to avoid the topic by my professor, but also each relationship makes their own rules. I am an unsung hero in my attempts to rebel against authority for the sake of giving my biased, 18 year old, unqualified opinion on the subject of cheating. I personally think that Angela is guilty of a lot of things that would make me break up with her if we were dating, but she is not guilty of cheating on her husband. I think she was trying to accomplish something completely different from her actual self on Facebook to feel fulfilled in life, not just to sext some guy in New York. As "the family" continued growing closer with Nev, Angela was starting to get in over her head with the situation and it was around this point when people thought she was cheating. The texts from "Megan" were not examples of physical cheating, and I'm not going to use the term "emotion cheating" to describe it because there was no real emotional attachment, it was just a bunch of lying. Angela was very creative about it, but all she really did was lie on the internet like most people. I do think that there are situations that we face today that are better examples of how technology is allowing us to cheat. There are things out there that are seen as cheating or not cheating depending upon each individual couple. For example, porn is something that some people would say is off limits if you're in a relationship while others disagree and say that it's not physical or emotional. The problem isn't as simple as "porn or no porn" anymore because let's say that somebody is in a relationship and watches porn but only likes one particular star in the films, Does it become cheating if this person starts only watching that persons videos? What if this person starts communicating via text/call/webcam? There are so many options for flirting these days that it's hard to say where it crosses the line and becomes too far. I think that's why most people like to be possessive and just say no to any inclination or possibility of cheating. If there is one thing we can be sure of it't that Angela's actions are something that everybody does on a small level, but it becomes unhealthy after a certain point. It's almost like technology gives us so much freedom that we can do whatever we want and that will always end in good people doing good things and odd people doing odd things.