The first time I hated the Internet, I was 11 years old. My older brother and I were holed up in his room, he was in front of his dial-up modem and I sat on the floor watching the finale of the first season of “American Idol.” The program had just started, when all of a sudden Andrew called me to look at the computer with an enticing, “Hey, come look at this.” I obliged and was immediately horrified to see Kelly Clarkson’s face plastered across the home page announcing her victory in the singing competition. Night ruined, season spoiled. I didn’t quite comprehend how the show had already aired on the East Coast and I didn’t have enough Web experience to understand that you never, ever check the Internet when there is a major television event happening.
The second time I hated the Internet was when my mom’s best friend showed me a certain viral video involving two females and a drinking receptacle, but we won’t talk much more about it because I think I have post-traumatic stress disorder or something.
I’ve been very vocal about my distaste for the Internet, from idiots with webcams to mommy bloggers and everyone spewing their self-righteous opinions. However, there is a whole new breed of crazy happening online right now and it can all be summed up in one word: “Catfish.”
The documentary came out in 2010 with tons of buzz surrounding it. There’s nothing I love more than a good twist, so when I heard what this film was about and that it had an absolutely mind-blowing turn at the end, I knew I had to see it.
The story follows real-life filmmaker Yaniv “Nev” Schulman who falls in love with a stranger online. After talking with this girl for an extended period of time on the Internet, as well as on the phone, he and his buddies decided to drive to her house and meet her. When they arrive, they are stunned to find the young, beautiful girl he fell in love with is actually a sad, lonely, middle-aged woman using fake pictures and pretending to be someone else.
This phenomenon turned into being “catfished” or being a “catfish.”
Earlier this year, Schulman, his friend Max Joseph, and MTV teamed up to create a documentary TV show about people in online relationships who are being catfished or are perpetrators doing the catfishing.
What is chronicled in this new TV show are tales of people who spend countless hours, days, months and, in some cases, years involve in online relationships with other people based on complete lies. In almost all cases, the people use fake pictures and some even lie about their gender.
Each episode is a fascinating case study into the eyes of the lonely, the discouraged and the troubled. The people who lie about their lives suffer from sexual identity issues, extremely low self-confidence and some seem to have serious sociopathic issues.
Despite the troubled minds of today’s youth and the seemingly easy judgment that could be thrown at them, Schulman approaches these catfish with so much sympathy and understanding, there’s almost no way to be mad at these people. Each week, I find myself stunned at how these people could do such things, but Schulman intervenes and suddenly, all is forgiven.
Schulman relates to these people as he experienced a similar situation in real life and can identify with these peoples’ stories firsthand. Schulman’s compassion is refreshing, endearing and can teach a great lesson to troubled youth.
However, I think some people might be learning the wrong lesson here. I’m not saying Schulman is reinventing the wheel with the concept of “Catfish,” but it’s also giving people tons of ammunition and insight on how to create these types of online relationships for themselves.
One example that immediately comes to mind is the absolutely fascinating story of Manti Te’o and his “girlfriend” Lennay Kekua. A recent Deadspin article chronicled the alleged story of University of Notre Dame’s famed linebacker and the emotional strife he went through when his grandmother and his girlfriend, who was suffering from leukemia, died within eight hours of each other. After some digging, it was revealed that this Kekua person never existed and Te’o has since come out alleging he embarrassingly entered into an online relationship and claims he is the victim of yet another catfish-type hoax. If you ask me, the whole story is fishy (no pun intended) and there are tons of details that don’t add up, but I don’t even think Te’o knows the truth.
Keep an eye on this story because it’s one of the most fascinating things that’s happened in years. In the meantime, stay away from the Internet because I promise nothing good ever comes from it. From people being thrown in jail for piracy to “Gangnam Style,” it’s all just going downhill from here.
