Catfishing

I feel very vindicated! I have always been slightly mocked by others for my lack of social media. I have always tried to find alternatives to social media because I don't trust what people say. I know they spend hours crafting "spontaneous tweets" and take hundreds of pictures for that one "didn't even really try that hard" selfie. I find it amazing that people are able to, in George Orwell's terms, doublespeak by lying on their online identities but believing other's identities as truth. It's a very naïve and hopeful viewpoint, but also a very dangerous one.

Thanks to our newfound ability to craft an online persona a new phenomenon has occurred. There are people who deliberately make profiles that lie about their income, interests, or even basic features like gender and age to attract people. This can only lead to hurtful instances in which one party is severely upset due to the other person's lies, and I think it's a waste of time for the liar. This is called catfishing, and it ranges from minor lies about your age to the extremely serious and dangerous stalkers and predators online.

This has gotten to be such a prevalent trend that there is even a show on television based around this phenomenon called "Catfishers". Usually this show ends with some severely enlightened, and upset, people. It's awful that people do this to one another, and it's only because we have provided the ability and tools to do so. I think there should either be a system in place to reveal catfishers or some sort of legal punishment for online personality fraud. Obviously, the second one would be a lot harder to enforce as you could argue that it infringes on people's First Amendment Rights.

I don't have a problem with the internet as a method to meet new people. My very own uncle met his lovely wife, and now my aunt, on an online dating service. It helps us connect to others in a world that has decreasing face-to-face interactions with strangers. Especially, if one has a full time job. The methods they use to pair people up with similar interests and tastes makes sense and has had a pretty good success rate.

This has been a recurring theme in my blog. The internet is an extremely powerful tool, the way we use it needs to be very cautious and controlled or we can run into serious issues. My advice is to always try to be honest with others online, because eventually the lies will come out into the open. Also to be cautious when you aren't sure who someone is. Maybe I'm not Adam Burstain, maybe I'm just a random catfisher? Thanks for reading.