Catfish

After seeing the movie Catfish, I realized some of the strange parts of technology in our world today. All my life I have always been uncomfortable by the idea of starting a relationship completely online. It was the lack of human interaction that truly scared me about these individuals. The woman who fooled everyone went to great lengths to try and deceive others she created over sixteen Facebook accounts in order to fool one person. One thing I think the movie did not touch enough on which is that this woman was motivated in large part by money to deceive Nev. One of the largest reason, Nev uses and sells these painting were because he believed they were coming from Abby a young brilliant and talented mind. Angela continues to lie to Nev in order to maintain the opportunity in front of her and use Nev. She uses Nev kindness and trust for profit which sickens me. I think Nev is incredibly patient and sympathetic towards Angela, a girl who lied to and manipulated him. He reacted in a way I do not believe I would have the strength to do. He keeps a level head about himself when she had been lying to him and leading him on for over eight months. I would not have such patients with her. I would probably have words with her in a respectful manner, leave and send all her paintings I have in inventory back to her. I would also probably blast her on social media. I am just not someone who likes people who fake who they really are. I am just so glad I live in a world where Skype exists.

Shadow Puppeteers

I have been acquainted with principles of internet safety for pretty much as long as I can remember, largely due to the fact that, since my dad works with computers, he pays more attention to those sorts of precautions than perhaps is usual. Certain things seem like "no-brainers"--the basics, the "why would anyone do otherwise?" bits of advice: in some random chatroom or forum or other function on a random website, don't just give out your personal information (your real-life, or real, information, if you will) to anyone--your real name, your home address, your credit card number, all that sort of thing. --And yet, this advice is evidently not so obvious as one might think, judging by the amount of resources you will find warning folks not to do these exact things! There may not be a sucker born every minute, but there are, at any given time, enough persons sufficiently uninformed to fall for obvious-in-hindsight cons.

And yet, with social media, perhaps our barriers are lowered from the beginning. After all, this isn't some out-of-the-way website with a no-account, unmoderated forum: this is the safe zone! This is where people present their real selves to the outside world! ...Right?

I have never thought of social media as another means by which to perpetrate these sorts of false-identity scams; then again, I have only ever "friended" (isn't it funny how that has become a verb?) people that I have already known for a substantial amount of real-life time.

The question of identity, of self, however, remains, and I find it an intriguing one. Being in control brings a feeling of power; whenever you know something that someone else doesn't, you have the advantage over them. The internet has simply made it possible for us to take our daily game of "act this way around this group of people, act another way around another group of people," to an entirely new level.

We each have the potential to be puppetmasters... Yet, how much are we being puppeteered? Not necessarily on a malicious level, mind you--but if the inclination arises not to divulge certain of your interests to given groups for any reason, then can that facet of ourselves truly be seen as our true self, or just a shadow of ourselves?

I would think that only Nietzsche's nobles, caring absolutely nothing about the opinions of others, would be willing to show the same face to everyone no matter the situation.

Hiding behind a screen

Behind a screen, we can be whoever we want to be. It is extremely easy to take a picture of someone else, set up an online account, and pretend to be someone you're not. After watching the documentary, and several episodes of the MTV show Catfish, it's disturbing to see how many people lie about who they actually are. In this day and age, almost everyone has some sort of social media account. We have hundreds of friends of Facebook, Instagram, and twitter, but how many of those people do we actually know? I have over 500 friends on Facebook and I can honestly say that I don't really know anything about them besides what they post online. Is any of the stuff they post true? Are they actually who they say they are? I guess I'll never know..

In the documentary, Angela went through great lengths to stay in contact with Nev. Not only did I feel bad for Nev, I also felt a little bad for Angela. I thought it was admirable how Nev handled the situation, because spending nine months talking to a "family" that doesn't even exist is crazy! I felt bad for Angela because it was obvious that she was desperate to escape from the reality that is her life. Living with her husband, young daughter, and two mentally-handicapped step sons obviously put a lot of pressure on her. One thing that stood out to me was when Angela said that she found "parts of herself" that she forgot existed in the people she pretended to be. There is no doubt that she has a problem, but instead of just labeling her as "crazy," I thought about it for a while. This woman obviously lost part of her identity, so coming up with these elaborate stories about these different people probably made her feel like "herself" again. She found small parts of herself in each and every character. I am in no way saying that it was okay, because at the end of the day, not only did she disappoint her family, but she led a stranger on for almost an entire year! Catfish, the documentary and TV show does an amazing job of letting the public know that you should always be cautious because lying on the internet is a piece of cake. 

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.

It could have been worse

The woman who has been creating all these false personalities based on other actual people is certainly messed up a little in the head.  She probably has a personality disorder because nobody in their right mind would create multiple different identities on the internet as she did.  This documentary is old but at the time of its release the digital world, the world of social media was just starting to take off.  With the perverse, nasty stories that make news headlines in current times, I was really expecting this story to take a much darker and dreadful turn than what it did.  It is not so much that I myself have a diluted mind but rather I have become accustomed to terrible acts people have done to others through social media.  

 My first reaction was to verbally rip this woman apart for leading Nev on and creating multiple false personalities.  How he handled it was exceptional and I applaud him for it, because I am unsure if I would have been able to do the same.  I do see some goodness in that woman.  I know very few people who would go out of their way to marry someone with two mentally disabled children such as those twins.  Taking care of them is a full time job and an immense sacrifice; I know what it is like to have someone mentally disabled in one's family.  She is most certainly in the wrong in this story and for the sake of her mental health and the health of her family, she  needs to stick with one profile that is hers and hers alone.  She cannot live in a fantasy world acting as somebody she is not for it will get benefit her at all in reality.

Catfish

This week in class we’ve been watching the documentary, Catfish. I never knew there was a story behind the actual MTV TV shows, Catfish, until now. The documentary is about a man named, Nev Schulman. He begins to form this online relationship with this family who supposedly their younger daughter, Abby, sends him beautiful watercolor paintings. After getting involved with the family and Nev meets everyone through Facebook, he begins to get romantically involved with the older daughter, Megan. However, Nev and his two friends discover that the people he is communicating with are not real. The only person who is real is the mom, Angela. She is the mastermind behind all of the characters that were introduced to Nev. She tricked him into believing he was talking to all of these people and that he had feelings for “Megan”. After this is revealed at first I was mad and thought this woman was crazy, but when I listened to her story and her personality my mind was changed. I feel bad for both Angela and Nev. I feel bad for her because it seems to me that she isn’t in her right mind and isn’t living the life she wanted. She mentioned in the documentary that she was a dancer and she gave that up to “have a good time”. Also, during the movie when she was admitting to Nev her confession she said she did have a daughter who was actually at a rehab center. However, at the end of the movie it said that there was no daughter at the rehab center. I feel bad for Nev because I feel like he fell under her spell. He believed all of these people were real and he believed he was in love. I couldn’t imagine what he must of felt. It is scary to think that this kind of idea happens everyday through the Internet.

White Bear

Last week in class, we watched the short film White Bear and to be honest, it was one of the more disturbing/confusing things I’ve seen in awhile. While I do agree that what the woman and her significant other did was wrong, is she really learning her lesson by going through the same thing everyday yet not remembering any of it? I think making her go through it all at once and then letting her sit alone in a cell and maybe showing her on video over and over again would be more tortuous than erasing her memory and doing it all again. What she did was wrong there is no denying that at all. She deserves everything that she was put through if not more. While it may be just I do not think that it was morally right. However, neither was kidnapping and killing an innocent little child, even worse was that she recorded it all happening and did nothing to stop it. If you live by the motto, “treat others how you want to be treated” then yes, it definitely is fair and just in all aspects of that. Yet, that is not the kind of society or government we live in. Everyone is expected an equal trial and a fair/just punishment for their actions. But that is not the case and I think that is what the film was trying to depict. Not everyone has a fair trial, it is often corrupted by false evidence or even from the biasness of the judge or even the jury for that matter. Even though they go through the jury “thoroughly” and try to prevent that from happening, people still aren’t one hundred percent honest even in the court of law. I am interested to discuss in class what other people think about this film and the real life justice system.

Pointless Punishment

The “White Bear” short film brings up an interesting discussion on justice.  It is easy to accept that in a land governed by laws and protected by military and police some people will break those laws and disturb the peace.  Often the discussion centers on the topic of what should or shouldn’t be criminalized.  For example, in class just a couple weeks ago we spent an entire class talking about the concept of over-criminalization and the role cops play in society. 

            This post will take a turn from the parts that lead up to an arrest and will instead focus on the aftermath.  The question I’d like to consider is: What is the ‘just’ way to punish someone for breaking the law.  In my opinion, one of the first responses to this question is that it depends.  Like it or not, I believe that circumstances matter.  Everything classified illegal shouldn’t be punished the same.  The punishment for murder, rape, and treason should vary drastically from actions like fraud, underage smoking, and various other misdemeanors.  In fear of reopening the topic of ‘what is justice’ and rehashing the Greek philosophers, a safe assumption should be that the definition of justice would influence what we thing punishment should be. 

            If punishment is used to teach people to become better members of society, then clearly we're doing it wrong.  Recidivism (the rate at which people end up in jail again) is astronomical and shows an inherent flaw in the system if we're using jail time to teach people to act better.  Another way we might view punishment is that someone who commits a crime deserves to feel the same suffering that the victim went through.  However the problem with this is that some crimes are actually victimless, while that would also justify the death penalty and other brutal forms of punishment.  

            A third option was displayed in the short film we watched in class.  This movie displayed a form of punishment that said someone should suffer in a way similar or even beyond the crime they committed.  One of the scariest lines in the film was when it was said that death wasn't punishment enough.  Instead, the people running the 'camp' put the person through a torturous day of fear and pain over and over again so she could feel the pain she caused.  

           As stated earlier there are a lot of ways to use punishment.  I for one think the 'White Bear' method is completely unwarranted.  To wipe someone's memory and then put them through a situation like that only adds more injustice.  Yes, what she and her boyfriend did to the kid was terrible, but if it was unethical to do that to the kid how is it ethical to do it to her?  Ethics shouldn't change and punishment I believe should be used to add to society.  Our jails and legal system needs to stop focusing on punitive punishment and instead try and find a way to help these people improve their lives.  These people aren't soulless criminals who want to do nothing except break the law.  No, they're more often than not people who have fallen off and feel they have no other choice in life.  Punishment needs to be a balance making people realize actions have consequences but also that hope and forgiveness are real. 

White Bear

Last week we watched the short film “White Bear.” A woman is forced to relive a horrific day over and over again in which she is tortured. Her memory is erased so each day is a new horror. She is supposedly being dealt justice for torturing a little girl. The immediate reaction (I hope) is that people would say “this is wrong.” Clearly this is no way to deal justice. We scoff at third world countries who live by “an eye for an eye” and cut off children’s hands for stealing. The continual torture of this woman does not bring the child back, does not remove the parent’s everlasting grief, and does not represent a humane and rational society. To put it mildly, it’s an insane idea. Those in charge of our justice system are not those crazy commenters on Facebook who read about horrific things and then say “do the same thing to them.” Also, if her memory is wiped she is not being taught anything. This is a reason we have such high rates of inmates. We don’t focus on rehabilitating them and correcting their behavior. We just want to lock them away forever. We should evaluate whether or not rehabilitation is a possibility and decide on a course of action from there. Her best option would be a life sentence and perhaps the worst, if she shows no remorse, is the death penalty. We can not give into the actions of the inhumane by acting even less human. Obviously that is no way to keep society progressing and representing a rational people. The actors involved, the woman tortured, and the civilians watching are all being stripped of their humanity as they take part in this. This kind of justice is not justice.

The Morality and Justice of The White Bear

In class last week, we watched a short film entitled “White Bear”.  In it, a woman who kidnapped and murdered a young girl is forever living over and over a day in which she is tortured the same way she did to that little girl.  What was most shocking is that the events of her days were staged by actors in an attempt at justice for her crimes.  The big question being asked is, “is this a moral process for justice”?  I think that this form of punishment may be just, but it most likely is not ethical.  It is just because she is getting exactly what she did to the girl she kidnapped, but it is not ethical because there is just something simply inhumane about making someone go through the same torturous events over and over.  What I found most confusing about this form of punishment is that she doesn’t remember every day of her torture because her memory is wiped of it.  Even though it is cruel to make a human go through that kind of torture, it’s almost useless because she will never learn from it or even remember it for that matter.  Something that also interested me was the fact that everyday civilians were participating in this woman’s torture and humiliation.  It’s sometimes hard to believe that normal people could have the ability to do such terrible things to another person, but this film depicts that maybe we are capable of those kinds of things.  I am curious, however, about the significance of the image on the screens and cell phones. I feel like that was never quite explained. Overall, I really did enjoy the short film.  I really like movies and television shows that have a really good twist at the end and this short film definitely did that.