Friday, December 4, 2015
False Identities
We just finished watching the film "Catfish." It was so weird…and slightly creepy. We watched as the protagonist of the story, Nev, a photographer from New York, as he gradually become friends with a hypothetical family over Facebook. I personally do not engage in the world of social media, so it is a little easier for me to be cynical about his naivety to trust people online. Nev was under the assumption he was befriending a young, talented, eight-year-old artist, Abby, and her family, including her older, seemingly attractive nineteen year old sister. By the end of the film, we learned that most of the different "characters" and profiles on Facebook that Nev had friended and/or interacted with were actually false identities, created by the Abby's mother, the real artist, Angela. This was both a weird, sad, and slightly creepy discover. One of the saddest things about the film was realizing how difficult Angela's life really was--she had to take care of two mentally handicapped young men, he husband's sons from a previous marriage--and all that she had, and was willing, to give up to take care of them. She expressed her frustration in having to give up her career and childhood dreams to take care of her family, and how each of the different profiles she kept up with on Facebook were really pieces of herself. There were so many different elements that really made up this elaborate scheme, ultimately resulting in somewhat of a weird fantasy that Angela was trying to live out through Nev…which was super gross because he was like in his twenties or so… This film definitely succeeded at revealing the dangers of the anonymity on the Internet. Hopefully it will help other world wide web users a little more wary of the realities and dangers of believing everything people say, especially those online.
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I did share with you a certain amount of sympathy towards Angela for what she did because she seemed like a lonely woman and she got so much joy from talking to Nev even though she wasn't talking to him as herself. However, I am reserved to really feel sorry for her because even though two of her children were handicapped, she referred to them as retarded and didn't seem to care about their feelings. Also, she is virtually being unfaithful to her husband, who seems like a very nice man. It's just hard to completely feel sympathy for this woman.
ReplyDeleteI somewhat differ in my opinion of Angela than you. I see her as a manipulative person who knew exactly what she was doing and who she was seeking. She sought out someone who was gullible and sympathetic enough to fall for her tricks. Yes she probably did give up a lot of her dreams but that's not an excuse to enter into people lives with the intentions to do nothing but to get people emotions involved and to only hurt them in the end.
ReplyDeleteKieraka I support what you said. Angela wasn't confused or just leaning the wrong way a little. She had developed schemes and plans to manipulate Nev. The woman had two phones. While her intentions were not violent or perverse, Angela was well aware of what she was doing and she made sure to go to great lengths to convince Nev of how complex she was. Nev had believed everything she was telling him for 9 MONTHS...9 MONTHS!!! What the heck. She lived a very difficult and sad life and I do at times sympathize with her but to the extent that she fooled and manipulated Nev, I cannot turn a blind eye to what she did.
ReplyDeleteCaroline I completely agree with your comment. I feel bad for Angela but at the same time she had a family and marriage that she was to stay true too. So I as well find it hard to feel sorry for someone who can be so evil. She did not care about the fact she deceived Nev and calling her step sons retarded instead of handicapped.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Caroline because Angela did seem like a very lonely person who didn't really enjoy her lifestyle. I don't believe that she was being manipulative because I truly feel she was getting a lot of joy out of talking to Nev. Although, what happened to Nev is extremely horrible. Letting on another person isn't good in any situation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kiereka, Angela did all this for a reason. She wanted attention, and whose better than a young photographer jump starting his career. Angela even said that she knew the day would come where Nev would eventually find out the truth. This day came and she started to cry and feel bad but she caused this upon herself so I do not sympathize for her.
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