Seriously, Who Are These People Getting Catfished?
Honestly, I don’t even know how to begin this, but I will say that after watching a Catfish: The TV Show marathon via OnDemand, I now realize the world is filled with gullible people. Not that I didn’t realize this before, but to have the gullible types blatantly thrown in your face, episode after episode is not only hilarious, but sad. This past week, the world came to realize that “Catfishing” is really a ‘thing,’ when news surfaced about Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o’s incident he allegedly had no involvement in. But what people fail to realize, even before the documentary and MTV show, duping people over the internet has been a thing, well since, the internet. And I’m quite sure, it was even going on when old school personal ads in the newspapers were popular.
In a recent Men’s Health article, Julie Spira, an online dating expert and author of The Perils of Cyber-Dating, Spira says there are thousands of men out there who have been hoodwinked by bogus Internet relationships.
“The World Wide Web is a lot like the wild wild west,” she says. “Some people may by trying to get back at someone, or playing a prank. Or someone who is unpopular may just want to reinvent him or herself.”
Although some of the blame can be pointed at the person doing the catfishing, I place the majority of the blame with the person on the receiving end. With the access to information nowadays, there’s no excuse for anyone to fall victim to catfishing.
A few people on the Catfish series, lived within close proximity to the person they were corresponding with, but why would it take 2 years to meet up? Then with technology like Skype, and other forms of video chat, you’re meaning to tell me, you find it odd that the person never wants to utilize any of those? But wait, it gets better. So you actually think you’re corresponding with a former Miss Teen USA, also? Umm. Ok.
Yeah, I get it. Some people are lonely and maybe a little gullible. But there’s no excuse in doing your own due diligence when it comes to figuring out if you’re dealing with a fake.
- If a person doesn’t want to meet you in person, they’re probably a fake.
- If a person refuses to Skype with you, they’re probably a fake.
- If a person sends you photos, that you think are “too good to be true”, run it through Google’s image search, it’s pretty accurate in finding copies of it online.
The internet gives us tools to use to figure out the fakes. It shouldn’t take a reality TV show to do that. But then again, there are some people that are so gullible, they probably shouldn’t be allowed within 2 feet of the internet, anyways.
Check out Huffington Post’s recap from last night’s confusing but highly intriguing episode of MTV’s Catfish: The TV Show, featuring a bi-sexual, lesbian, transgender, gay love hoax between Rod & Ebony:
every single time I watch an episode my reaction is, “whaaaaat?!” my boyfriend keeps telling me I can’t possibly be shocked at every episode…but honestly I am. I’m sitting here right now watching the Tyler & Amanda episode, and this black man is on the internet pretending to be a white woman. what in the hell? people are crazy!
I think a lot of people tell lies online. But usually they are smaller. A lot of men lie about having college degrees. Age or marital status are others.
It just means you have to vet the people you meet but also realize that a real person is going to want to meet you as soon as it makes sense/it’s creepy/doesn’t feel unsafe. I will never understand these people who say they have a boyfriend or girlfriend b/c they have been emailing a stranger for months. That is bizarre. If you have a BF or GF and haven’t met them then you should probably assume it’s a weird dude living in his mom’s basement.
Oh Lawd, this show is my trainwreck tv. I saw the episode mentioned above and that whole situation was just lie on top of lie, from both of them.
She lied about being transgender because she had been a lesbian “for 15 years,” and was just “looking for a friend” while she was going through a bout with cancer.
He lied about his name and sent pictures of his younger, more physically fit cousin. He was dissappointed that she was a woman because he’s “bi-curious.”
She was actually happy when they met, then got mad, then was happy again … until he told her that had she not been sending him money for the last couple of years that he probably wouldn’t have continued to communicate with her.
Oh, and she has an 11 year old daughter she had never mentioned.
My head was spinning by the time that episode was over.
Catfish just make me think, some people should be denied access to the online world. They should be banned from using pc’s, laptops, tablets, phones and etc. Catfish makes the history of thristdom look so quenched lol. The people on Catfish people are beyond thirsty. I don’t even know what to call them yet. I will just say they have mentally logged of life.
off life*