Today: Mar 29, 2024

Catfish reveals truth about online relationships

Hosts Nev Schulman, left, and Max Joseph, right, take on the world of online dating in MTV’s show Catfish.

Nicole DellolioOpinions Editor

Last year MTV created a television series hosted by Nev Schulman and Max Joseph that seemed to take the nation by storm.  This documentary style reality television show is based on the 2010 film Catfish in which Schulman finds himself “catfished” by a middle-aged woman with two mentally disabled children.

Schulman’s personal experience being catfished has led him to make a television series trying to help others that have fallen in love over the Internet to learn the truth of who they are dating behind the computer screen.

The second season kicked off in June with an online couple named Cassie and Steve, but the unique part of their relationship was that they have never seen each other but they were already engaged to be married.  Now this obviously sounds crazy because how can you possibly fall in love with somebody that you’ve never even video chatted with or met in real life?

As the story unfolds, Cassie finds out that her best friend Gladys and Gladys’s cousin have actually created the online profile and posed as “Steve” over the past two years with the intent of getting Cassie back on the right track after her father passed away.

Catfish is halfway done premiering its second season and has continued to show the same red flags in every episode.  Every episode consists of an online relationship where one person is concerned that the person they have been talking to and fallen in love with has been lying to them or keeping something about their lives hidden.

With the popularity of the show increasing, it seems ridiculous that people are still getting fooled and taken advantage of by online relationships.  It seems like people are so desperate to be in love and to find that one person they can truly emotionally connect with that they are ignoring all of the blatant red flags.

Hosts Nev Schulman, left, and Max Joseph, right, take on the world of online dating in MTV’s show Catfish.
Hosts Nev Schulman, left, and Max Joseph, right, take on the world of online dating in MTV’s show Catfish.

Based on this season’s episodes we have learned a couple of important things.

First of all, if you’re talking to someone online and they refuse to video chat with you and keep making excuses why they can’t, they’re most likely hiding something about their physical appearance.  This has happened in every single episode, and in the majority of them the people behind the computer screen aren’t the people they say they are.

Second of all, never under any circumstances give a person that you are talking to over the Internet your bank information no matter how much you think you might be able to trust them.

Lastly, if you’ve been talking to someone online for a long period of time and they refuse to meet you in person, they are usually always hiding something important that they don’t want you to find out about.

One episode this season has defied all of these precautions and has actually ended in a happy ending for an online couple.  In the fourth episode of this season, Lauren has been involved in an online relationship with Derek for the past eight years without ever meeting with him in person or video chat.

It turned out Derek had been telling Lauren the truth the past eight years and was just honestly hesitant to meet her in person.  I guess some guys like taking things slow – very, very slow.

Surprisingly, this couple is still together and their online relationship has evolved to a real life relationship finally after all of this time.  The second half of this season of Catfish is on its way and has promised its viewers that the next half of the season will bring new twists and turns to the table.

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