Facebook has grown huge in a short period of time. I remember that like a year ago, only few people were on facebook. However, almost everyone has their facebook account nowadays. The development in social networking services has entirely changed the pattern of human relations, and now people make so much more relationship through the internet than in reality. I think there are definitely some positive aspects of social networking services. We are never alone and always connected to other people. However, there are also very dangerous sides to these services too. The movie Catfish criticizes the act of getting happiness and compensation from the cyberspace
After watching this film for the first time, I thought that this woman is pathetic and considering her unfortunate situation, her actions could be understood. However, after a while, I began to think that Angela’s actions should be blamed. Not for the sake of Nev, the one who was deceived by her false identity, but for the sake of Angela herself. In this movie, Angela tries to compensate the misfortunes in her life through her false identity on the social networking services. She pretends to be young woman, young boy and many other people. But can virtual reality compensate misfortunes in real life? I think it is limited to some degree. Well, we can get some consolation from the virtual reality, but it’s only running away from the reality. During the time she spent on making her false identity on the Internet, she could have spent that time differently on reality to make some real friends and really see some dance performances that she loved.
This is not only the special case of Angela, but instead it’s the story of all of us nowadays. Many people are trying to get happiness and satisfaction from the virtual reality, and not in the real life.
When there was no facebook, the thing that only mattered was whether people were really happy or not. However, nowadays people are more concerned with how they are seen by others through Social networking service and whether they are seen to be happy or not. We are letting other people decide our own happiness. For instance, when there was no facebook, when we go to delicious restaurant what it only mattered was whether I enjoyed the food or not. However people nowadays are more concerned with taking the photo of the food and posting it on their facebook wall to display that they went to the restaurant to other people. Although the case of the movie Catfish was little extreme, we sometimes also fake ourselves just to look good.
To sum up my point of view, I want to say that the attitude of trying to escape from reality is undesirable. The happiness or satisfaction that virtual reality can provide is limited. It would be waste of time and our life if we try to run away from the reality, even though we can concentrate on real life and really can change some things.
It is true that the film deserves some criticism for making the situation seem dramatic through editing techniques. However, I think it was necessary to make people awake themselves and realize what is truly important in life.
