Catfish

This film is about a young man who meets a beautiful, multi talented woman on facebook. They build a relationship purely by using network and technology. They fall in love and when he finally meets her, it all falls apart because the person he thought he was in love with does not exist. I think this particular film connects to the subject of Network Culture directly, as the guy trusted a social networking site with no doubts that the person on the other end may not be who they say. It also touches on the subject of Identity construction online, as the woman constructed her online life to be something radically different even utopian, compared to what she had in real life. As Gilbey, R. (2010) quotes the film makers “Sure, I spent a lot of time worrying if it was the right thing to put it out there. We decided it's better to share it because it's an important story, and a lot of people can learn from it.” I could not agree more that this footage should be somewhat of a lesson to the public, to be more cautious of our and other web user’s online presence.

real

pretend

Gilbey, R., 2010. Trust me, I'm a film-maker: the men behind Catfish come clean. The Guardian, [online] 20 November. Available at: < http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/nov/20/catfish-fact-or-fiction-film > [Accessed 3 December 2011].