The origin of Catfishing

    I didn't realize until after we finished the film Catfish that the term catfishing originated with this documentary.  It was such an awkward look into the reality of what a person is doing when they "catfish" someone else.  I was surprised that any of the Facebook family actually existed.  Until they actually met Angela, I was expecting them to find that standard meme of a greasy obese man hiding in a basement. I was also shocked at the level of deception with rings within rings of interconnected Facebook accounts.  I thought that the deception would only be a few accounts deep, but it was layer after layer of accounts.  I also had always assumed that the ultimate purpose of catfishing was to extort the victim for some amount of money, but in Catfish, Angela was just using the experience as an emotional release and connection. As far as I understand it, the only thing she got out of all of her efforts was some attention. At the same time I thought it was weird how Nev took the whole situation in stride.  He was so wiling to follow the trail of addresses even though they could have lead to dead or dangerous ends.  He also was willing to stay around for more then just the initial meeting despite how sketchy the whole situation was turning out to be.  I thought it showed some strong character for him to stay around until he resolved the situation and then for him to willingly maintain a friendship of some sort with Angela after the whole ordeal.
    I think that the whole film puts an interesting perspective on what it means to really know someone.  So much of our lives nowadays is online that how much can we truly say that we know someone?  Just talking to someone over the phone is no longer any kind of indication that they truly exist especially with all the advances in AI and androids, let alone to only talking to them online. On the flip side of that though, how much do we see of the true self of people who we "know" in person?  It seems to be that a person is made up of so many different personalities or masks that they only show parts of their true "self" depending on the situation and the people around them. I believe that Nev got to meet an Angela that was as real and true as the one she presented to her family even with all the lies and deception.