Catfish

          The social network, Facebook, is a phenomenon in the 21^st century. You can talk to friends, catch up with old friends or acquaintances, and meet plenty of new and interesting people. But is everyone on Facebook really who they say they are? In the documentary, Catfish, Nev Schulman, his brother, Ariel, and their roommate, Henry Joost, end up going on a trip where they discover the truth about the friends Nev has made on Facebook.

          Nev Schulman is a professional photographer who lives in New York. One day he receives a painting of one of his published photographs done by a child art prodigy from Michigan, Abby Pierce. They start off as pen pals in a way, where Abby will send him paintings she does of his published photographs, and then they become Facebook friends. Once he is friends with Abby on the network it spans out to becoming friends with her whole family. One person in particular whom he gets really close with is Abby’s half-sister, Megan. They develop a very close relationship through Facebook, which leads to intimate phone conversations where he starts to develop feelings for her.

          Nev’s brother starts to film their Nev as he receives more paintings from Abby and develops a closer relationship with Megan. Megan says she’s a dancer, veterinarian, and singer. She starts to send Nev songs she sings, but he and his brother and roommate, soon start to discover some flaws in what Megan says. She is sending them links that she stole from singers on Youtube. He has plans to then meet with her to see if she is actually as real as she says she is. They arrive in Michigan to meet Abby and her family, and hopefully find Megan and see who she is in reality. When they reach Abby’s house, they meet Abby, her mother, Angela, and her step-dad, Vince, but no sight of Megan. Megan’s excuses become more and more unrealistic and they discover later on that there really is no Megan. I don’t mean to ruin the ending, but Nev discovers that the woman he was having an intimate long distance relationship with was Abby’s mother, Angela. She then tells them that she has over ten fake profiles, and two different cell phones, one which is hers, and one which is “Megan’s.” She also lied about many other aspects of their family’s lives, where she must come clean once Nev discovers that it’s all a lie.

          So should you trust everyone you meet, especially on a social networking site, such as Facebook. We all know that there’s people out there that make up things about themselves on their profile, or over exaggerate on things that may not be true, but there are some out there that are fake and nonexistent. Nev discovered the hard way that everything may seem great on Facebook, but not everything’s as it seems, especially on social networking sites, where you have the ability to be whomever you want. He ended up learning a lesson. After figuring out this lie, he deleted many Facebook friends and decided not to trust everyone on Facebook, especially the strangers that may add him. In the end though, he did still talk to Angela, and she deleted her fake profiles, and now has only one which is her own, real one.