All About "Catfish"-ing

With today’s technology, Catfishing has become easy to do. This statement is true considering the fact that we have ability to use all forms of social media sites, youtube, and just the internet in general. In addition, we have cell phones, specifically smart phones that have texting apps that allow you to use a fake number. Back in the day when people only communicated through hand written letters, it would have been less convincing to come up with a completely different identity. Like shown in the Catfish documentary, Angela was able to create Facebook profiles with fake pictures and friends using photos from people she knew. She used youtube videos of people singing covers to songs to make her story more believable. She also communicated through cell phones and the house phone. All these different components helped to hide her lies for so long to the point where Nev actually gained feelings for this “Megan” who was actually Angela all along. 

Catfishing can be evident today in dating sites and social media. People can create profiles to make them seem more attractive whether that be finding pictures of someone else off the internet or using pictures of oneself from years ago. People can lie about their hobbies, interests, talents, age and more. Catfishing can seriously cause hurt and pain in one’s life. Although Nev took everything so calmly in the documentary, someone who gains feelings for an individual and participates in a somewhat long distance relationship could be severely hurt by the fact that this individual does not actually exist. Another form of catfishing that could be harmful is when it involves children. Bad people can form fake identities on gaming websites or social media and eventually harm children if the child were to met up with the “catfisher” somewhere. 

I personally believe it is morally wrong to Catfish because it involves lying. Despite the reason behind the individual catfishing someone, it is still wrong to mess with someone’s feelings and life like that. I think the catfisher could be participating in this unjust act due to a number of reasons: loneliness, insecurities, boredom, or even sadistic and sociopathic tendencies. Although it is easy to have sympathy for individuals with low self esteem or with no friends, there most be another solution than gaining friendship and confidence through creating a relationship with someone through a fake profile on the internet.