How is the identity of women mediated via the internet and why is this problematic? - ej

Catfish is a  reality thriller/documentary film that follows the journey of the main character Nev a photographer based in New York, and his relationship with a family he becomes friends with on Facebook. The relationship begins when an 8 year old girl Abby contacts Nev on Facebook asking if she can paint one of his pictures.  He then becomes  friends with the family including the mum Andrea, the older half sister Megan, the step dad Vince as well as the brother.  Nev regularly receives packages of paintings of his pictures and eventually after forming a good relationship with the entire family which includes having phone call conversations with the mum and older sister he begins to find out what he has been told might not be entirely the truth.

In the film catfish, the main (only!) female character mediates herself via the internet through her multiple profiles on the website facebook. She creates different identities on the site using multiple fake names and pictures and uses them to represent different parts of her personalities. She  creates an entire family on  Facebook and uses them to convey the lies and events that she has been telling the main character Nev. She mediates herself as her 8 year old daughter Abby who is a rising star artist who paints nevs photos and owns a gallery.  She also mediates herself as the sister Megan who is supposedly a singer and creates a long distance relationship with Nev. She also mediates herself as the mum using a back dated image of herself and creates the story that she has cancer.  When Nev finally meets her he realises that none of these things she has mediated her self as are not true.

The way the character Angela mediates herself is problematic for multiple reasons. The first is that by using the internet and face book you can become anyone you want and angela has been stealing identities to mediate herself as the different parts of her personality that she has not been able to live herself.  The second major problem for the way Angela mediates herself is that she is committing crimes by stealing peoples identities and this can be a major crime. The fact that people can become anyone they want on the internet through social sites like facebook, twitter ect means that relationships made on the internet can be fake. It can also lead to more dangerous things such as murder, rape and abduction especially when the ones been influenced by fake identities are young children and adolescents.