You say you don’t use online dating websites. That’s fine, there’s more than one way to meet a person. But what if you started talking to someone on Facebook or Twitter or MySpace, maybe by accident, or through friends, or through mutual interest pages, and you just gradually fell into so many late night conversations with them, you eventually developed feelings? So then your feelings tell you this person is special and you want to meet them. Except a timid voice in your head says “What if they’re not who they say they are?” Maybe… they might be a catfish?
Schulman and “Megan”A catfish is a person who creates fake online profiles and pretends to be someone they’re not by using someone else’s pictures and information. In 2010, a New York based photographer named Yaniv “Nev” Schulman fell in love with Megan, a 19 year old girl in the Midwest. They texted, sent pictures, G-chatted, Skyped, and had all those late night, sleepy phone calls. His friend and fellow filmmaker, Max Joseph, jokingly recorded Schulman’s flirtations. When Schulman decided he wanted to meet Megan in person, since he was falling hard pretty fast, they both decided they needed to document the road trip and event. Then things started to get interesting when Megan’s story started to change the closer they got to her.
But I won’t ruin the movie. I highly recommend it though. It’s eye opening and a little heart breaking. After the movie, Schulman received countless messages from people who had been through similar situations. Some were actually presently in those situations and they wanted his help. So they decided to do a TV show. Catfish: The TV Show has already had 6 episodes aired on MTV. The same people that bring you True Life now work on bringing you a docuseries, as they call it, about dating someone virtually. I’ve watched a couple episodes and I am still astounded by people’s willingness to believe what they want to believe. So far, most of the couples in the episodes have not turned out as happy as Kip and LaFonda in Napoleon Dynamite.
Nev dissecting text messages for Jasmine from her boyfriend “Mike.”
I believe this TV show covers a topic that is fast becoming a common issue: a person’s online identity. It’s ability to combine journalism, reality tv, and online relationships, makes it a great show not just for entertainment’s sake, but for education’s sake as well. It shows you the risks and rewards that can happen when you’re involved electronically with a person.
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[via Los Angeles Times]
guest
I have a love/hate opinion with this show. It conveys how people need to be safe online but it also puts a negative light on LDRs.
guest
I met my fiance’ online on 01 on a google group when I was 12yrs old. We chatted here and there for 6yrs but lost contact. He found me on facebook in 2010. I went to England in May 2011 to meet him for the first time in person-I’m from Chicago. We got engaged when I visited in October of that year, and we’re getting married in early 2013. I’m currently filling out the fiance’ visa for the UK.
I’m a Huge fan of Catfish the tv show, but currently being in a LDR with some one I met online, I do agree it does shed a negative light on people like me. But also, it does make some of these people on the show look like complete idiots. Always do your research online like you would if you had met a new guy at the bar! We live in a day and age where google is easily accessible to look people up. Just sayin’
orchid / 160 posts
i just discovered the series and then watched the movie! it’s fucking amazing and really well done. otherwise, i don’t have an opinion about ldr’s that develop online. just be safe, i guess
guest
i want to start by saying i love this show.
now i’d like to say that the people ON the show are complete MORONS and make me want to punch every single teenager in the face that meets people online. how stupid can someone be? they talk to someone online for years, and there’s one red flag after another and they are seriouly stupid enough to talk to this person, give out personal information and live in complete ignorance that the person they claim to “love” is not the person they think they are.
guest
Like most reality shows on MTV, THIS SHOW IS SCRIPTED. Please. How can somebody realistically fake an entire Facebook profile? Maybe back then it was more possible, but now you’ve got tagged photos, hundreds of other people you’d have to add as well as their comments, grueling measures of verification…
And in the movie, why did Nev start filming that early on, way before he even had the slightest inkling of Megan’s facade?
Wow, Catfish inception.
P.S. There’s also just the red flags you get while watching the show. Just watching the people involved. Like that first episode with the blond chick and that LA “model” guy who turned out to be a heavyset 18 year old girl. “Oh yeah, you know, when you see a cute guy on facebook, you get curious and you guys start talking” I’m sorry, but who does that? Maybe during the antiquated days of myspace, but there’s a different dynamic on facebook. I don’t know anybody who does or would do that. I’m not saying there are people who wouldn’t, but come on, what are the odds.
And then all the scenes were just filmed like a movie. Everything was just perfectly set up. Especially when the hoaxer experienced a sudden change of heart about her long term habit, like it was right on cue. Give me a break.
Anyway, phew. Didn’t mean to ramble, but I just had to get that out there. It just kinda ruffles me that Nev claims to be against deception when the show is most likely misleading itself.
guest
I really dislike this show because, as other people have said, it puts a negative light on LDRs/online relationships. Not everyone lies about their identity online, and with skype and good webcams it’s getting increasingly harder to fake being someone else. I met my boyfriend in 6th grade on Yahoo instant messenger and we talked for years and years before ever officially dating in junior year of high school. We moved in together when we started college, just to say. But just use google, you’ll see much more happy stories than ‘catfish’ stories about people meeting up after meeting online but of course, as always, people would rather focus on the bad ones.
orchid / 248 posts
@Kaythan@xanga - there was a news story a month or two back, a girl had created a fake profile on a bunch of sites, added random people and photos and began a “relationship” with this boy she actually went to school with under the false name,she even texted his mom she eventually dumped him after months and months and he committed suicide from it. People nowadays can do pretty much anything unfortunately, the show is probably scripted but these things do happen in real life
guest
@Trueinnerbeauty -
Oh yeah, no doubt it does happen. I’ve heard stories like that too. But it sure doesn’t happen for real on Catfish lol
guest
that blond guy with the blue shirt is hot. but he’s the cameraman and not the one being filmed
schulman looks like a douche.
more interviews with the hot guy plz
guest
I actually like this show. Having met my husband online, I can definitely relate to all these people and what they’re going through. As much as people like to mock online dating, it happens, and the feelings involved are real and this show shows the reality of how it, and what actually happens; heartbreak,disappointment betrayal and hurt, or sometimes love and happiness.
guest
I met my now husband online back in 99-2000, I was 14-15 at the time and he was 19-20. We lived about 45 mins away from each other, we didn’t meet until I was 18 and he was 23, through the years before meeting, we were really just good friends, we would e-mail, snail mail, and talk on the phone. Eventually he ended up getting a girlfriend and although we were not “dating” I was heartbroken, we continued to talk via phone when he could. We eventually met up in April of 2004, and the rest is pretty much history! Not all online relationships end up crazy like they do on catfish, I love the show though and don’t have anything bad to say about it.