Catfish Essay Final

Catfish Essay

Social Media has changed how we live today.  We can become friends with people who live on the opposite side of the globe, another country; anyone from anywhere remotely possible.  We can look at their pictures, check out they’re hobbies and it’s almost as if we actually know them; like really close friends.  But how do we know that these people are who they really say they are?  We don’t.  A lot of the time we don’t even question the fact that these people could be totally faking who they really are.

 Nev Schulman, a New York City photographer is just your typical average Joe.  He has a Facebook and has a couple hundred friends.  One day, to his surprise, he gets a painting in the mail from an 8 year old, named Abby.  This was a painting of a picture that Nev took a few months back.  Nev is surprised by her incredible talent.  They become friends on Facebook.  Nev continues to talk to Abby about her love for painting.  Who knows maybe Abby will be the next Da Vinci!  But does Nev really know anything about Abby?  He knows what he has read on Facebook and her photos.  But is Abby really who she says she is? 

Catfish is a documentary about the hard truth in Social Media.  In 2007, Catfish was created and produced by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost. The documentary is full of deception, twists, lies, and conspiracies.  In this story Ariel follows his brother Nev’s eight in a half month journey of getting to know a family which he knew nothing about, except for what he read on Facebook.  Nev becomes intrigued with a talented young girl named Abby and her mother, Angela, and especially, Abby’s older sister, Meg.

Nowadays, none of take to heart the risks that are associated with getting to know someone online.  Unfortunately, Nev Schulman finds this out in a very difficult way.  He is lead on to believe that this amazing young painter Abby has this wonderful family and has an astonishing talent for painting; but is Abby really who she says she is?  Abby is an 8 year old who lives with her mother Angela and her father Vince.  She has a 19 year old sister named Meg.  Nev becomes “involved” with Meg.  Can you blame him?  From Meg’s pictures she is simply gorgeous.  Meg lives a few towns away from her family and owns a horse farm.  Nev and Meg begin a romantic relationship, without even meeting one another.  After some time, the things that Nev is being told slowly begin to not actually add up.  It all starts when Meg is on instant messaging with Nev and sends him a song that she covered.  When Nev realizes that the song is just someone else singing it, he begins to question what other lies Meg, and possibly her family could be telling him.  Nev and his colleagues go and make a surprise visit to Abby and her family.  Before they even show up, they go out and check out Meg’s farm, to find out if she even really lives where she says she lives.  Once they get there, they realize it is abandoned and up for sale; another thing that doesn’t add up.  Early in the morning Nev heads over to where Abby lives.  Angela, Abby’s mother, looks nothing like her pictures, and neither does her father Vince.  Nev now knows that his suspicions about this family are true; they are fake.  

Catfish unveils the hidden dark truth about the risks that Social Networks obtain.  Vince summarizes this very well by using an analogy about catfish.  When he was a fisherman, he would ship codfish over to China, but by the time he would get there, the fish would be spoiled.  He then tried placing catfish in with the cod, and they remained fresh by the time that they arrived in China.  Vince goes on to say that people are catfish too.  Catfish are people who keep you on your toes, ones who make you really think about what they say/do.  They keep things going and fresh.  So why did the producers name this movie catfish you might ask?  Abby’s family sent Nev on an adventure, with new twists and turns every day.

I really liked this movie.  It was very interesting and full of surprises.  I never would have thought that half of the things that happened in this movie were actually going to happen.  I would give this movie a 4 out of 5 star rating.  I would highly recommend this movie to, well, anyone.  This movie helps get out the real and somewhat shocking truth about how risky it is to believe what we read on our “friends” Facebook pages. 

Pure Edits

I edited Ashley and Dahmain's Essays.

Catfish Day 3

Nev found out that all that he was told and once believed was all completely a lie.  There was no Meg, Abby never painted any of the pictures; Angela made it all up.   Angela thought in the back of her mind she was going to get caught.  Angela got away with what she did for over 9 months.  Angela cried about what she did and felt bad, then deactivated the fake facebook accounts.  Angela felt trapped because when she married Vince, she began to take care of his two special needs children.  She used the fake facebook profiles to feel free again.  I was surprised at how well Nev took the whole situation.  He did not get mad or yell at her in anyway.  He aws completely calm about the whole situation.
The title of the movie has to deal with what Vince said.  He used to catch cod fish and take them on a boat over to China; but the fish would always be soild by the time he got there.  Someone once told him that if he put catfish in with the cod, they would stay fresh.  He then goes on to say that there are people in this world who are like catfish.  They always keep you on your toes, they keep you thinking and keep things fresh.  Angela is the catfish in this movie.  She took Nev and his friends on a wild field trip.  She mad them believe a whole different story then what was the actual truth.  Now Nev is probably more aware and cautious about the people who he talks to and gets involved with now. 
All in all this was a good movie with surprising twists.  I would deffinatly recomend this movie.

Catfish Day 2

So today was the second day of watching the movie Catfish.  So far Nev has found out that he has he was never actually talking to Meg, it was actually Abby's mom.  Nev has discovered that most everything that he was told was a lie.  Abby does not really paint that much, which leaves to believe that Abby's mom was the actual painter. Abby's mom created tons of profiles on facebook to try and help convince people that she really was Meg.  She also was the one who Nev was talking, texting and sexting too through the past 8 months.  It's saddening to see that someone has to lie about who they truly are and give so much effort to create a total second personality.  This whole movie is wierd, but the sad thing is, things like this happen all the time.

CatFish Movie Day 1

So far I like the movie Catfish.  Nev is a photographer and Abby is a 8 year old inspired painter.  Nev is lead to believe that Abby and her family are playing him and are total frauds.  Nev thinks this because some of the things that they have been telling him are false.  He also believes that Abby's sister Meg is lieing to him.  If I were Nev in this situation I would talk to the family very indeptly to find out more about them other then just going by pictures and information that he has gotten from them off of Facebook.  Maybe Nev should have used Skype to be able to see everyone to know that they are actual people instead of just 40 year old men.  I've been in simialr issues like this before.  I can see why Nev is sceptial of Abby's family because alot of people on the internet these days lie about who they are.  I think that through the rest of the movie, Nev will see that the family is actually being pretty honest with him.  Also, I think it is kind of creepy how Meg and Nev are beginning to start having a "romantic" relationship.  But I can not judge about that because I have done something similar like that before.  I really can't wait to see what else the movie Catfish has instore

Photoshop

Photoshop project

Just for fun:

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After:

Bitstrips

I used Bitstrips to make a funny cartoon which I'm sure alot of us can relate too.  I really like this site.  It offered  really cool and helpful tools to create and edit cartoons and strips and it was really easy!  I'm not gonna lie, I can see myself spending alot of hours on this site.  The layout was good and how to create a comic strip was really easy.  Some sites out there make it so that it is alot more difficult to create a comic, no Bitstrips!  Another greate advantage is that, all you have to do is make a really quick account for FREE and then you can just get started.  Bitstrips also offeres a lot of other cool features.  You can create you own characters and evenlook at other comic strips that others have created.  It also offers a wide varity of props and tools to place in your comic strip.  I would totally recomend this site for people who would like to make and create comic strips for a career or even just for fun!
The image below is comic strip that I created.  Enjoy!