CATFISH: when Reality meets the Real on Facebook

WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS MOVIE SPOILERS!

After several of our class discussions on the Real vs. Reality, the movie CATFISH was really put into perspective. For those who haven’t seen the movie, the story addresses the dangers of online personalities and goes quite fittingly with idea of Facebook from the movie we had to watch for class. CATFISH is about a photographer in New York named Nev who becomes the subject of his brother’s “documentary” on long-distance relationships.

The story depicts Nev beginning an online relationship with Megan, the older sister of Abby, an 8 year old girl from rural Michigan who had sent Nev a painted reproduction of one of his photographs that had been published in a magazine. Via Facebook, Nev becomes friends with Megan’s entire network, including her mother Angela, her brothers and her close friends. Throughout this relationship Nev constantly exchanges love letters, pictures, and text messages with Megan.

The story begins to unfold when Megan sends Nev a song she claims she recorded for him which he later finds out was just a track she had stolen from YouTube. Nev then becomes suspicious with everything Megan and her mother Angela tell him and is persuaded by his brother to go and visit the family to get some answers. Upon arriving at the family’s house in Michigan, Nev immediately discovers that Megan does not exist. In fact, none of the personalities he had been introduced to online were real people. As it turns out, these online personalities, including Megan herself, were all created by Angela (who by the way looks nothing like the woman in the picture). Abby, Angela’s real life daughter, did not actually paint and it was Angela that had been sending Nev the paintings this whole time. To make her “family” more convincing, Angela even had two separate cellphones for when Nev called. When Nev called Megan’s designated cellphone, Angela would change her voice to sound softer and younger and talk to him for hours. After Nev confronts Angela about the truth, she goes on to explain that her Facebook world was her escape from her real life as a suburban housewife with two paraplegic sons. Although she is ashamed of what she had done, it seems to me that Angela did not regret her actions and was only ashamed because she got caught.


[Picture: (left) the face of Megan (right) the real Angela]

This story is an example of how one unfortunate man’s Reality becomes a victim of someone else’s attempt to submerge themself into the world of the Real. Angela Pierce was a woman who wanted to escape the realities of her life by creating a different life on Facebook. She stole pictures of a model online and posted them on her profile as Megan to convince others that this was what she looked like. Angela even went as far as to create friends for Megan, siblings of these friends, and gossip and rumours that Nev became privy to all while thinking it was real. According to the profile, Megan was a model, dancer, singer, actress, and photographer. This example of the Real was directed by Angela’s desires. Megan’s life was a life that was an impossibility for Angela; it was a life that she herself was unable to achieve in actuality so she decided to allow herself to achieve it in the realm of the Real via Facebook.

The collision of Angela’s Real and Nev’s Reality is a testament to how dangerous and scary the unknown of the Real can be and how it can, and always does, intrude into our everyday Reality. Here, the simple act of meeting someone through mainstream social networks like Facebook becomes dangerous and poses as a threat to the existence of the normative lives we live under in our own realities. Nev was a victim. For Nev, Megan was a reality; their relationship, their connection, and the feelings they had for each other had become a distinct part of his actual life. Maybe that is why people always say we should never believe everything we read online – including the personalities that we meet. This way we can preserve our Reality; we can keep the Real in check in order for us to avoid falling victim to its threat.