Do you ever go through your “friends” on Facebook and ask yourself, “How do I know this person?” A lot of people have over 500 friends, and some people even reach up to 2,000! This makes us question our true intentions on the social networking site. Why do we need to have this many connections, and are these people truly our friends? The world of Facebook can be a scary place, and it is even more frightening to think that people MEET each other via Facebook.
In the chilling documentary, Catfish, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost begin filming Ariel’s brother, Nev, as he begins a friendship with a woman that he met on Facebook. He begins to manage connections with her entire family and friend network, but as the truth begins to unravel, things get a little scary.
After watching the movie, I couldn’t stop thinking about the ugly truth behind people’s intentions when they are online. As we move into an era that revolves so heavily around the Internet and social networking sites, we as Americans must constantly have our guard up and not allow ourselves to succumb to the trickery.
If all of this is happening right now, what will the future of social media be? How can we ensure that we are safe when we log into a computer and communicate with a “profile” of someone else? This is a scary world that we live in, and as the Internet becomes even more prevalent in society, our problems are only going to get worse.
Strategically Communicating 
After reading this blog post it really intrigued me to go and watch this movie. The way the story unraveled was crazy and kept me on my toes the entire time. It really is scary how much we put ourselves out there and how naive we can be. We use social media as a way to connect with people but how do you really know if the person you are talking to is really who you think they are. After watching this movie, naturally I got on Facebook to check my notifications. Coincidentally I had a friend request from someone who’s name I didn’t recognize. We had several mutual friends and he even sent me a message with his request. It really creeped me out after watching this movie. You really don’t know what people’s intentions are. We are too trusting with our personal lives and should definitely think twice about who we trust on the internet and the information we confide in them because unfortunately people abuse social media making it a scary thing for others.
By: sarahbrown13 on April 23, 2011
at 6:16 am
This looks like a really intriguing movie, and I am kind of scared to watch it after seeing the trailer and reading about your reaction to the film. My guess is that this “Megan” person is not who she says she is. The fact that it is a documentary scares me and I agree with you that we don’t know about people’s intentions when we are on the internet. We can talk about being safe all we want, and when we were younger I think it was a lot more enforced. However, as we grew up and started living online, and using the internet as a tool to promote ourselves professionally, we started leaking more and more about ourselves online. There are pictures everywhere, people know where we go to school, we check in to our current location, and in our case Madi, potentially where we live with our sorority affiliation. It is really scary and it is things like this movie that remind me that we still need to be careful with what we are posting online.
By: Dana Nicholson on April 24, 2011
at 10:51 pm
I watched this movie a few months ago and was extremely creeped out. It was really interesting, but it got me thinking about my friends, and whom I add and don’t add. I know so many people that friend a person just to add a number to their ever-growing list of friends. Although, I don’t add people I don’t know, the movie made me think about how easy it would be to create a new identity and get somebody interested in your life. Okay, maybe it wouldn’t be that easy, considering the woman in the film made up about 15 fake people, and updated their profiles constantly, but the fact that it is done makes me second guess my involvement with Facebook. I don’t think I would ever be involved in a situation like Nev was, because as a female I feel as though I keep my guard up when it comes to strange people who approach me online. Regardless, I think this movie does a great job of showing the effect Facebook can have on a person’s life and relationships.
By: hannakd on April 25, 2011
at 6:16 am