Hooked

I've been watching the new show on MTV called Catfish: The TV Show. It's a television show based off the 2010 documentary by the same name. I had never seen the documentary but had heard about it and the topic was interesting.  In the movie, the main character, Nev, began an online relationship with a female and the film crew followed him as he discovered who she really was. (And it was not who she had perceived herself to be.) She was indeed a "catfish," which Wikipedia defines as "a person who creates fake profiles online and pretends to be someone they are not by using someone else's pictures and information."

The premise of the show is very similar in topic and shooting style. Each week, the one hour TV-show follows someone who has an online relationship with another person, usually for an extensive period of time, but has never met the person. It's the job of Nev and his friend Max, to uncover what the real deal is. Spoiler: The person is rarely, if ever, who they really say they are.

In this day in age, people meet online all the time. Some through dating websites, Craigslist, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many other virtual ways. Watching Catfish I am amazed by the amount of people that communicate with strangers online and then somehow become friends or lovers (virtually). They maintain these relationships by chatting online and/or calling/texting each other. However, it is baffling to me that after communicating online or over the phone a few times, why a meeting wouldn't be set up. Wouldn't these people want to actually meet the person they are falling in love with? How are they not suspicious of who they are taking to? I mean, some people on the show have communicated for many years and even tell each other "I love you" and yet have never met in person. There was another relationship between two people that interacted for TEN years and never met until the show brought them together. How can you let something go on for that long without a face-to-face?

As I watch this show week after week, there are two questions that constantly go through my head:

1) If someone refuses to talk to you on the phone but will text and IM, how is this not suspicious? (Why won't they let you hear their voice? Unless of course they aren't who they say they are, right?)

2) If someone won't Skype or Facetime with you, how is this not suspicious?
(If the person looks like the pictures they have online and/or have sent you, why won't they video chat with you? Unless of course they aren't who they say they are, right?)

Clearly, by not doing these two things, someone is hiding something. Why don't these people see it? Are they blinded by the hope? Or blinded by the love that they have somehow developed for someone they have never met? Or are they super insecure themselves? I think its a combination of both things and its so shocking to me that this happens to so many people. I mean, I would never even accept a Facebook request from someone I never met or had no mutual friends with so maybe I am not the best person to judge. Wait, I totally am because I use common sense and some cautiousness online. There are A TON of creeps out there and people have to be careful. Watching this show should bring at least that awareness to those watching who are in online relationships with people who they haven't spoken to or video chatted. If you haven't seen it yet, def try and catch an ep. Catfish definitely "has me hooked." (See what I did there?)