Everybody Plays the Fool (online)

After you’ve watched the film Catfish at least once, it fairly easy to find the holes in Angela’s charade. Quite naturally we inherently want to be impressed by people we meet for the first time that we find incredibly attractive. In my analysis of Catfish, I will briefly cover some key components of communication that I missed the first few times I watched. I will also spend a little time speaking to the main character Nev, who routinely dismissed the results he received by the critical listening tool of skepticism, yielding to the constructs of perception and image management as intended by the character Angela.

Angela was able to keep Nev on her line as Megan, herself and Abby by being as mysterious as possible. She used tactics like speaking slower, lower and purposefully changing her voice and altering pitch and rate to fool Nev. Sure, her tactic backfired, but she was in control for much longer than Nev may be willing to admit. I’m pretty confident Angela used her distance as a tool to keep Nev interested. In my opinion I don’t think she ever had the intention of meeting Nev, much less ever having to confess.

It is unfortunate that in this microwave society, being able to zero in on your needs isn’t just something we desire, it is most necessary if we intend to be socially, economically, and professionally accepted. One of the oldest online tricks in the book is to reach out to someone you’re infatuated with and offer them something they can’t refuse. In this case, Megan/Angela offered Nev a painting of himself made by her. With just a little bit of research you can learn enough about someone to offer something intrinsic to them. I don’t think there is anything wrong with liking what/whom you like, however depending on the degree of shallowness, one can easily be deceived. Nev is no exception to this rule. Say what you want but I’m most inclined to believe the painting of himself opened the door, and the attractive photo of Megan sealed the deal.

I’m able to relate to Nev’s character because I’ve met a few men online and instantly fell in love with whom they presented themselves to be. It was earlier in my online experience and I had no idea how easily someone could track your interests, likes, desires and experiences. What’s more, is that they take the information you provided the world to see and find ways to enter your life through a door you hold open for them. For example, I used to post about my love for animals, anyone who knows me (or follows me online) knows I love my animals. In the early days of social media it wouldn’t be hard at all for a man to come along and tell me they had a cute puppy that needed a home and they ran across my profile coincidentally. I used to be so flattered that someone “found” me based on an interest we had in common. What’s more flattering than that, really?

Making a long story short, I think it’s important to understand that being deceived isn’t just the fault of the deceiver, but we have to critically assess what people tell us and match that with their actions. It’s important to do this from the very beginning because in hindsight don’t we all have 20/20 vision? It is highly doubtful there is a single soul who’s had any online experience that wasn’t at least infatuated with someone they “met” on social media, that failed to be exactly who they claimed to be through virtual communication/interaction. In other words, everybody plays the fools sometime.