Dangers of Social Media

When people think of social media, they think about cute Instagram pictures, funny memes, and keeping up with friends. People often forget, or consciously neglect, the dangers of social media because they think nothing bad will happen to them. Individuals will often accept friend requests from people they do not even know on Facebook or Instagram because most people are "follower hungry" and feel like the more followers they have, the cooler they are. Opening up personal information with individuals you do not personally know online can be dangerous. It is very easy for individuals to learn a lot of information about you in a short amount of time based on Facebook information, pictures, and friends. One specific danger of social media can come with starting deep relationships, especially romantic ones, with people you do not know.

In the Catfishing film, Nev became somewhat romantically involved with Megan despite the fact that he had never met her in real life. Nev first became introduced to Megan through his conversations with Angela, the mother of Abby, an "extraordinarily talented artist." Nev saw Megan as an amazingly gifted musician and beautiful based on his conversations with her over the phone and her social media profile. As expected, Nev soon developed some romantic feelings towards Megan. At one point, Nev even admitted to sexting, which is an extremely intimate thing to do, with someone he had not even met yet. This shows that people are often quick to trust people they do not even know very well. Nev confirmed his suspicions that something was off with the family he had been talking to when he made an impromptu visit to their home. Nev found that Angela was posing  as Megan, Abby was not even an artist, and the family was very different from what he was told.

It is scary to think that people can start such intimate relationships online with people they do not even know. People often stretch the truth or build up their positives to get people to like them online. Feeling like something is too good to be true usually means that it is not true. I think people need to make sure they get to know the real person deeply before they let themselves fall head over heels for anyone. If Nev had not developed such a close relationship with Megan before he got to know her in person, then he probably would not have gotten hurt at all. Also, people need to make sure they remember that social media websites are not dating sites because dating sites provide more in depth information and can involve background checks. Overall, I think people need to be careful with the relationships they establish through social media and not fully trust everything they hear or see.