The documentary film “Catfish” by Nev and his brothers, Ariel and Henry is telling the story about Nev’s relationship with Angela and her family (Abby, Vince, and “Megan”) by Facebook. In the beginning, Nev(a man lives in New York City) knows Abby(eight years old girl from Ishpeming, Michigan) on Facebook as an artist(painting). Abby paints a lot of picture, that she saw in Nev’s Facebook and post it back as a painting. After that, he starts having a friendship with Abby and it becomes stronger. Nev gets some of Abby’s painting by mail, that send by Abby’s mother(Angela). Nev has a good relationship with Abby and her family but, Nev never talks to Abby by phone only talks to Angela. Farther more, Nev knows Megan(Abby’s sister) via Facebook. She is an artist and professional dancer. Nev starts having some conversation with Megan by chatting and posting on Facebook.Nev and Megan’s relationship becomes stronger and stronger. Nev starts talking and texting by phone with Megan. Finally, Nev is falling in love with Megan. Also, he listens to Megan cover’s song that she post on Facebook. One day, Nev found out that the cover’s song, that Megan post is not her song, but she just pick that song on “you tube” and posted it. Nev starts feeling weird and he wants to know the truth. Nev and his brother decided to go to visit Megan’s farm and Abby’s house in Michigan. When they arrived to Megan’s farm, they found out that no one lived there. Nev is checking in the mail box he found  his mail still in there. Next, they go to the Abby’s house, and they found out all the truth that no Megan, Abby doesn’t paint, all painting is from Angela. Nev have been talking with Angela as a Megan. Even all of Megan’s friends, they do not exist, Angela creates all of them.

Relate to the “curate the exhibition of the self” (Marche 9) Angela wants to show her self that she want to be from her dream(professional dancer), but in the real life, she is a painter and she does not look like her profile picture. Also, she creates all multiple selves from Facebook to assume Megan’s friends. In my opinion, How can we know, that who is real or not? How we can trust the online world. Except my real friends that I know them.

Nev and his brothers track down the real story, the truth through using Google, Google Maps, GPS Navigation, a call to a real-estate agent, in-person visits, interviews. In my opinion, the most important thing to do to find the truth is in-person visit.

In the car, driving back from fake Megan’s fake house, Nev states his feelings for her was “genuine” (“I really cared about this girl … now, I don’t even know what to feel”). Can he have genuine feelings even the situations/people were fake (or non-existent)? In my opinion, We can have genuine feelings even they were fake because we have relationship with someone even by social media, sometime when we believed that real, we can not get out of it.

If I were Nev. I would feel bad for all of the story because even when Nev having real face-to-face conversation with Angela. She still lies about her cancer, chemotherapy, and about Megan.

For, Turkle claims that technology “changes not only what we do, but also who we are” (1). I support Turkle idea, example from the documentary “Catfish”, Angela using technology in the wrong side, lying to people. This is show us that we can not trust the social media. We don’t know who is real or not real.

For, Turkle claims we confuse “conversation with connection” (3). Nev ultimately asks Angela for a “real talk” “sit-down conversation to sort of go over a couple things and clear some stuff up.” Is he attempting to establish real “conversation at this point? If so, does he succeed? In this claims, Nev wants to have real conversation, and his succeed, because he can know all the truth from Angela.

The documentary “Catfish” was very current and dramatic. We follow three best friends on their journey to find the truth about this “Facebook Family” that has touched all of them through contact on the internet. It is a cautionary tale and in the end lessons are learned.
When Yaniv has a child named Abby introduce herself online, he becomes very attached to her. She is so special, a child with talent and evidently quite accomplished. She writes about her life as an artist but also as a little girl. When she describes the death of her snake, she moves quickly on to her new pet. Yaniv or Nev as they call him is impressed. He then comments, that she can understand the “circle of life”.
Although he only communicates with Abby online for sometime, he speaks to her family on the phone. He learns about Angela (the mother) and her other children, Megan and Alex. He regularly communicates with them all and develops a crush on Megan. The family seems loaded with talent and he can relate to this. He describes Angela as fantastic, “look at her children” Nev says.
His relationship with Megan grows very quickly. Much of the conversation borders on pornographic. Although, he is a film maker with a busy life, this seems to be his other life. Since most of the time he is working and spending time with the same people, this is a separate life. He shares some of it with Rel and Henry. When Megan sends him tapes of her music, they all listen to it. She wrote it for him and her brother helped her record it. When Abby sends paintings, they all wait for the box to be opened.
Nev seems to never catch Abby at home for a phone conversation and when he does, something is not right. When the friends discover that Megans’ songs are not hers, they
investigate. Nev wants to know who he has been talking to. His brother(Rel) and Henry are filming this and he is clearly upset. “This is my life” he yells at his brother, maybe we should stop filming. He made a commitment to film this but now he is hurt and confused. They continue to uncover lies and when doing a job near the “Facebook Family” home, they decide to drop in.
During the trip, they used music in the documentary to help the viewer stay involved. The lies are exposed one by one. The suspense was real. I wanted to know what kind of a person would do this?
The sad answer is a very lonely one. Nev was lonely and vulnerable as well. I felt sorry for all involved during the uncomfortable “face to face”. Even with Nev there, Angela continues to lie. It is a long scene with answers to questions that needed to be asked. I feel that Nevs reaction to being lied to is not very emotional in the end. He has it figured out. He seems to have accepted it. There is no choice.
I found it interesting that they remain “Facebook Friends”. Angela stays connected with this life she so desperately wanted access to and Nev remains open. On some level, he must feel sorry for her. I believe Nev has learned a lesson and remaining connected is a reminder he may need. After all, he answered Abbys friend request when he did not have to.

The Documentary ‘Catfish’ Directed by Ariel Schulman talks a lot about an average guy named Nev whom starts falling in love with a Girl named Megan that he met through Facebook. At the beginning of the movie it all sounds so sweet to me that they seem to have this nice relationship through long distance. As time goes on in the documentary they seem to realize suspicious things and get to the bottom of things just to realize that what they were believing was all a lie. 

My reaction to when Nev found out that Megan didn’t live in the farm that she told him about wasn’t much of a surprise to me, but when he found out that Megan didn’t exist and that it was Angela all along threw me off too much. I found it to be really pathetic to have lied about so many things just to hurt someone without “noticing”. I feel like this is a perfect example of why we must not believe in everything you’re told online. I felt really sorry for Nev because he really did fall for this chick named Megan who was actually a Model named Aimee and she had a husband and family. The image below of Nev holding a camera with the saying “Who do you think you’re talking to?’ seems like a good question to always keep in mind for when you’re meeting someone online.

Nev.

I relate this to “does Facebook Really make us lonely?” because this totally connects with the way that this documentary went, Angela, a woman that created fake accounts to satisfy her imagination of personalities she wanted to be but never could or images of her from her past. I feel like Angela felt really lonely because she was in her own little Facebook world she didn’t notice how badly she hurt Nev through Facebook. Angela did these things to make herself feel better she also didn’t realize she wasn’t living her life. She was stuck inside this fake online life and according to the text “Is Facebook Making us lonely?” it says “We gather less. And when we gather, our bonds are less meaningful and less easy.” There was a clip in the movie where Nev confronts her and asks her about Megan. Her respond was that she had Cancer, that she knew Megan and lived down town. She also mentioned that the girl in the pictures was a family friend. Clearly she had no idea about the girl in the photo, there was never a Megan and she lied about having Cancer. That proves that her bond with net face to face is meaningless than how it was online.

In conclusion of this Video Response Summary of ‘Catfish’ a documentary Directed by Ariel Schulman seems to be a great video to watch to show that not everyone online seems to be what they say they are and its really shocking. Angela clearly is a good example of how people can disguise there face behind a screen and show another one. How people seem to life a visual life instead of making a real one.

the documentary “catfish” is a documented and directed by Henry, and Ariel  involving  Nev as he builds a romantic relationship with a young woman on Facebook.. Nev is a photographer and he lives in New  York with his brother and friend…Abby is an eight years old girl lives in Michigan and is also a paints and she send Nev a painting of one of his picture and they became friends on Facebook including her whole family,her mother Angela,Angela’s husband Vince and Abby’s half sister Megan.. Ariel and Henry video  Nev as he begins an online relationship with Megan..they talk on the phone,chat on Facebook.. he also revives packages from Angela Megan’s mom .Megan also writes him songs,but Nev find the same song on YouTube so he started to think that they have been lying to him.he later found out that Angela and Abby have lied about other details of Abby’s art career. so they planed to go to Michigan to meet Megan and  confront her about everything..once they reach the house Angela answered the door with so much happiness and Vince was there too..She also tells him that she has recently begun chemotherapy for uterine cancer.Angela try to call Megan multiple times to tell her that Nev was there to see her but she didn’t answer  she drives Nev and Ariel to see Abby herself; while talking with Abby and her friend alone, Nev learns that Abby never sees her sister she don’t really paints… The next morning, Nev wakes up to a text message from Megan saying that she has had a long-standing alcohol problem, and has decided to check into rehab and cannot meet him,but Nev thinks  that this is likely another lie from Angela..Angela admits to Nev  that the pictures of Megan were not really Megan they are of a family friend, that the real   Megan really is in rehab downstate and that Angela had really painted each of the paintings that she had sent to Nev not Abby..he than realize that the whole time he thinks he was talking to Megan he was really talking to Angela..As he sits for a drawing, Angela confesses that the various Facebook profiles were all used by her..she thought that being friends with him help her reconnect with the world of painting which has been her passion since she was a little girl,but she gave it up when she decided to marry Vince who has 2 kids who are handicap and need a 24/7 care..at the end Nev had a little with Vince where Vince told him a story about “CATFISH”..Nev also found  out that Angela does not have cancer,and that all the 16 accounts were all fake it was all her..after watching this you get to see what Turkle said about how technology lets us change what we are but who we are it lets us present our self as who we want to be…also Marche has mention about loneliness and that exactly what happen to Angela because she is so lonely and want to live the life she wants but can’t live which is sad and it makes you feel bad for her but its not an excuse for what she did,because she was playing with Ven’s heart ..he was really starting to fall in love love with”Megan” and to find out the girl you think  have been talking to is not  even real it’s sad..

In the video “Catfish” produce by Nev and his brothers mainly was about an eight year old girl name Abby that was on Facebook and became friends with Nev. As Nev and Abby started conversing though Facebook Nev found out that Abby was a child that love to paint art and they became close friends. Abby started sending Nev painting of her pictures. Even though Abby lived all the way in Michigan and  Nev lived all the way in New York they both stayed connected really good with the help of Facebook. As Nev got to know Abby really well he then became mutual friends with Abby’s Mother Angela and half sister Megan. After a few conversations with the family Nev became really attached to Abby’s family and considered them his “Facebook family”. Nev then became really attracted with Megan and they both started a relationship though Facebook. As the relationship between the two grew Nev found out a lot of suspicious behavior with Megan he first realize that the talented Megan was pretending to be someone she was not after running a few research on the songs Megan send to him using Youtube. After becoming suspicious about a lot of the false information that Angela and her daughters was giving to Nev. Nev and his brothers decided to take a trip to go pay Angela and her daughters a visit to see what was the real story behind the story they been told. When Nev arrived at Michigan they went to the horse farm but realize that they wont really any horse there. Before leaving Michigan Nev decided to go pay Megan’s Mom Angela a visit. When Nev arrived at Angela’s house he was in shock and heartbroken because Angela was nothing compare to what she claimed to be though Facebook nor her husband Vince and the two sick children that they lived with, by this surprise Nev knew their were a lot to find out about this family cause it was clear enough to see that nothing was matching up to what he been imaging it too be all along. As Nev and Angela talked Nev realize that Angela was a really happy person and she also mention to Nev that she was really sick and soon had to under go chemotherapy. Angela then told Nev to come with her to Abby’s friend house where Nev found out that Abby’s haven’t seen her older sister in so long and also that Abby couldn’t even paint as good as he thought, it was Angela painting him pictures all along. After gathering enough information to prove that the whole story was a lie, Nev ask Angela to do him the favor of just telling him the truth about everything. Angela agreed to share the truth to Nev where she told him that Megan wasn’t even real and that the pictures was use from a really close family friend, and that also all the sixteen profiles that was use to like, comment and post on Megan’s, Abby and her profile was all made by her . After listening to Angela’s story Nev realize that Angela had a really bad problem which was she was really unhappy and lonely. Therefore Angela made all these profile to express the person she would love to be and it also helped keep her entertain and to escape her lonely life though social media. The video “Catfish” relates to the article ” The Flight From Conversation” by Sherry Turlke because she stated that ” texting and e-mail and posting let us present the self we want to be” which shows that even though Angela was living a lonely and unhappy life she portrayed herself on social media as the most happiest person she could ever be. In the story about Abby there where no authenticity cause all Angela did was take pictures of other people which showed that she just violated others privacy but not with the intensions of doing so, she just did it to make herself in to everything she ever wanted to be her entire life.

Nev’s film “Catfish” filmed by his brothers is basically about how Nev creates an online relationship with 8 year old Abby and her family, especially with her older half sister Megan. The friendship first begins between Abby and Nev. Abby as a child has very artistic skills. Abby sends Nev a painting of one of his photos all the way from Michigan to New York City. They became Facebook friends and later on Abby’s mom Angela and her sister Megan joins the friendship. Nev finds Megan to be very attractive, so they eventually start a romantic relationship online. Megan sends him songs saying its her own but Nev discovers that they are all from youtube. Later he also finds out that Angela and Abby were lying about Abby’s art. After all that, Nev and his brothers feel suspicious about Abby’s family so they decide to travel to Abby’s house in Michigan. First they visit the place where Megan said she lives at, but they find out she doesn’t live there, then they went to Abby’s house. Angela answers the door and seems happy to finally meet Nev. She tells him that she begun chemotherapy for uterine cancer. Nev meets Abby and talks to her about her paintings and her sister. Abby tells Nev that she doesn’t paint and that she doesn’t talk to her sister or know where she lives, she doesn’t even know how she looks. After meeting the family, Angela tells Nev that the pictures of Megan was a family friend, and her daughter Megan is in rehab. She also tells him that the paintings she sent him are all painted by her and not by Abby. Angela confesses that she was running all those Facebook profiles herself. By then, Nev realizes that it was Angela who was pretending to be Megan throughout their relationship. Nev talks to Angela’s husband Vince (who has two mentally disabled sons), Vince tells Nev that Angela lied about her relationship between Nev. Later Nev finds out that Angela didn’t have cancer, there was no Megan, and she doesn’t know the girl in the pictures, it was just a professional model. Angela deactivated all other 15 profiles and changed her Facebook profile to a picture of herself. Nev and Angela are still friends on Facebook. Angela was hiding the truth from Nev about herself and her family.

Angela curates the exhibition of the self (Marche 9) with her own profile as well as the other profiles she created. She did that by organizing and setting up everything the way she wanted. She made herself look younger and better online and on her painting. This is similar to what Sherry Turlke said in “The Flight From Conversation,” she stated that “texting and e-mail and posting let us present the self we want to be.” There was no authenticity at the beginning of the film, but the truth was revealed at the end. Nev trusted the family because their relationship and the way Angela set everything up seemed very real and trustworthy. which included, texting, messaging, phone calls etc. Nev had feelings for someone fake because at first he didn’t know she was fake. Angela lies online and when she is face- to- face with Nev about her cancer and Megan.

As Turkle said, “technology changes who we are and what we do” that’s exactly what happened to Angela and there was no authenticity in it. Angela takes other people’s photos from online and uses them, she didn’t think about their privacy or ownership because she was so eager to present the self she wanted to be. Nev’s visit displays the “mess of human interaction.”(Marche 8) I think Angela did all this because of loneliness. Vince’s story about the “vat full of codfish” means that there are things in life that keeps us active, he compares Angela with the  catfish.

In the documentary “Catfish” by Nev Schulman, his brother Ariel and his friend Henry, it’s a story about Nev meeting an 8 year old Abby and her family, her mother “Angela”, her sister “Megan” and her brother “Alex” through Facebook. Nev receiving some painting including one of him in the mail from Angela saying that Abby draw them. He started talking to Angela on the phone about Abby and her paintings. Then he started talking to Megan, she was a dancer and a singer. He felt in love with her and her music. They became very close she sent him a few songs but after he discovered the real song on YouTube. He became suspicious to find out the truth. He also found out the Angela lied about Abby’s gallery when he called the owner and found out that the place wasn’t sold yet. Nev and his friends decided to travel to Michigan to find out the real story. They went to Megan’s farm but discovered there was no horse as she said and he found the mail he sent her. Nev was heartbroken that he really cared about Megan and the whole family. The next day they went to Angela’s house and meet her two sick kids and her husband Vince they were surprised that she was a different person from the image they had. Angela seemed to be happy to meet them; she told them that she was going to start using chemotherapy  then they drove to Abby’s friend’s house when they meet Abby and her friend he found out that Abby doesn’t talk or see her sister Megan and she barely paint. The next day Nev received an email from Megan saying that she has alcoholic and she was going to get helped and cannot see him. He knew that it was probably another lie from Angela.  When he met Angela again he asked her for a real conversation, he wanted to hear the truth. She told him that Megan wasn’t real she was a family friends and she is the person with all the 16 friends Megan had on Facebook.  This is so heart breaking Nev puts his pain a side and decided to hear her till the end. Angela was the one that drew all the paintings she claim was Abby’s. After he heard from her he knew she had a serious problem. She was lonely and not happy with her life she wanted to live a different life with that fake image she created because she wasn’t satisfied with herself.

• Angela created Facebook with someone else pictures and information. Megan the girl Nev felt in love with wasn’t real it was real it was all a lie from Angela and the goes back to what Sherry Turtle says in “The flight from conversation”  “texting and emailing and posting let us present the self we want to be” it was easy for Angela to present herself as if she was Megan. She also said that it’s easy to go back and read or change stuff on Facebook and that’s what helped her continue with her lie.
• NEV, Ariel and Henry tracked down the “Truth” starting from the song Megan (Angela) sent him as if it’s her song but they found the real song on YouTube, and when they called to find out about the place Angela said they bought for Abby’s gallery. So they decided to go to Michigan and find out the real story the “truth”. Then they found out that the farm that Megan (Angela) said was hers wasn’t really hers and she didn’t have a horse.  When they saw Angela she wasn’t the same person she said she was. When Abby and her friend told Nev that she doesn’t talk or see her sister Megan and she barely draws. The text the received from fake Megan that she has to go get help because she had alcohol problems and that she can’t see him. They knew that everything was made up by Angels and that there was no Megan. Finally when Angela told Nev everything. In “is Facebook making us lonely” Cacioppo says” Facebook is merely a tool, and like any tool, its effectiveness will depend on its user.” It affected Nev because he trusted and became friends with someone he don’t know.  And Angela affected him by making up all these lies and falling in love with an imaginary person.
• Nev loved Megan and cared for her, he proved it when his friend asked his if him and Megan will go out he said he won’t because he doesn’t want her to get hurt. When he found out that the farm wasn’t hers he was shocked and couldn’t believe that he was fooled or lied at. He said “I really cared about this girl, now I don’t know what to feel.”
• Turkle claims that” technology changes not only what we do but who we are.” Angela isn’t happy with her life when she give up everything to get married to Vince she knew that she can’t be what she wanted to be. But told her to go do what she wanted but she says that she wants to live with him and the kids, she wants “security” that shows that she is not secure. Therefore she draws the life she wants in her very powerful imagination through Facebook.
• Vince’s story about “Catfish” means that there are people in our life that keep us active and always thinking. Angela left Nev thinking by creating fake Megan and loves her, which are really “Aimee Gonzales” a professional model and photographer. Angela didn’t only lie to him of text with a fake account she lied to him when she said that it’s a family friend but she really doesn’t know her. I really feel bad for Nev its heartbreaking and unimaginable story he went through with all the lied Angela made up. I don’t think he would ever trust anyone on social networking that’s good he learned his lesson but the hard way. Everyone should know this story to learn from other people’s mistakes, experience.

The documentary “Catfish” by Nev and his family/friends was very heartbreaking, because this is more of an response than a summary, I can say my mind was so twisted when I found out Megan was Angela and eventually found out there was no Megan. Angela lied about having to do chemotherapy. Then to find out Abby doesn’t even paint! there’s no “Abby’s Gallery” She doesn’t even know who Megan is! Then to find out Angela made 16 fake profiles to carry out her double life was crazy! 😕  I was so sad for Nev. To have his heart dragged around for nine months to actually catch feelings for someone who isn’t who they say they are. To arrive and realize the person you thought you had a relationship with doesn’t even exist.

I love the way Nev handled the situation. Though he was heartbroken and devastated, he stayed calm and remembered that Angela has real emotional problems that are both internal and external.

In class we talked about how people use social media to mediate who they really are, so people think they’re a different person than they really are. Angela did that. She posted pictures of people that weren’t her, but that’s how she wanted to be perceived. Her thinking like that had consequences, as I mentioned in class although you may feel bad for Angela because he has a complicated life, and she gave up her dreams. She played with a innocent mans heart. He felt love for a woman that he thought was real, who actually is married with two kids living up in Vancouver! Angela had nine months to realize what she was doing was wrong and would have consequences.

Ive always watched the Catfish Tv show but I never knew his happened to Nev and that’s why he wanted to expose those who are Catfishes. “Catfish” is the perfect name for this. Catfish you don’t know what or who your dealing with a cat or a fish. you don’t know which identity the person is, they have two, the name just fits perfectly.

I didn’t see anything Authentic until the end because Angela came off phony in the beginning I suppose because she was figuring out a lie to tell. being that we knew from the beginning when she opened the door it was all a lie she didn’t look like her photo at all, maybe just the hair.

To be honest, one time I tried to create a fake profile with a friends photo. ONLY to catch my boyfriend in a lie, im crazy like that. 😆  but point is it worked. I deleted it after because I had no more use for it. I guess what im also trying to say is , its very easy to pretend to be someone else, its very easy to create a fake profile all you need is a Smart phone. Though I didn’t really like being some else other than myself, it had to be done.

I did enjoy the documentary. Im sad for Nev angry at Angela. But im glad they got passed it and moved on and im glad Nev made Catfish the tv show because heart aches are heart aches and they HURT. Those Catfishes need to be exposed!