The documentary 'Catfish' shows what happens when internet alter-egos get out of control. Often times, people create social media profiles under fake names, or aliases. This is especially popular for accounts which deal with issues they don't want their classmates, coworkers, friends, or parents to know about. Such issues include mental illness, LGBT+, etc. Under the cover of an alias, these people feel safe to express their true opinions and feelings. So, when exactly does an alter-ego become harmful to the account owner or their followers?
A social media account in which one completely and totally lies about their identity is harmful to both the account owner and the account's followers. The reason I use the words 'completely' and 'totally' is because to an extent we all lie on social media. As stated by Ash-bot in 'Be Right Back' we only post the most flattering photos online. Not many people talk about the struggles of their life. This type of lying is significantly less dangerous than what Angela does in 'Catfish', lie about almost every aspect of her identity.
Angela's alter-ego is so harmful because she lets it take over her life. She created at least 16 different FaceBook identities, all of which conversed regularly. She used photos of family friends and stock photo models to create an illusion of how her family really looked. She had different cell-phones to talk as 'Angela' or 'Megan', whoever Nev needed at the time. She pretended to be in a relationship with Nev, one where he thought he was falling in love with 'Megan'. Manipulating Nev's emotions is only part of the dangerous aspect of Angela's alter-egos.
For Angela, her alter-egos no doubt create a lot of stress on her part. She has to carry on different conversations with Nev and with her other identities on social media. Angela even states she has some difficulty remembering which alter-ego said what on FaceBook. Constant fear of messing up her alter-egos' stories seems to haunt her. It's really unhealthy for Angela to be creating this fake world because it doesn't allow her to deal with the stresses of her actual life, like her two special-needs sons.
If one creates a social media account and changes only their name, creating an alias, they are not harming themselves or their followers through lying. They are still maintaining key parts of their identity, like their personality and their physical identity. Alter-egos become destructive when they are created to specifically mislead someone into thinking a person is someone they're not.
2 comments:
Angela's tendency to manage and create many alter-egos (profiles) reminds me of someone suffering from dissociative disorder. She loses her grasp of reality losing herself in these alternative egos. It was very creepy or the feeling of uncanniness when the realization is made that they are not actually what they look like they are. I thought its was ethically wrong since lying concerns both ethical and moral implications. Secondly, I think its just wrong how Angela fabricated identities using Facebook all in the attempt to get in touch with Nev. Your point of the difference between aliases and alter-egos is agreeable, however aliases are seen in the name of hackers. Anonymous is one such example of the destructive capabilities of people not using fabricated profiles to deceive but use aliases to hide their identities from law enforcement.
You make a good point about the stress involved in keeping up so many different identities. Imagine fabricating the lives of sixteen different people. That's hard enough, but then having to post in the different personas each day on Facebook...that would take a lot of time. I agree that this time spent on Facebook does take away from her special needs sons and other family members. Who she is on Facebook seems to compete with her living reality whenever she sits down at a computer.
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