As exams approach, some students may be studying by tuning into MTV. This is because the new show Catfish has become a topic of study in one University class.
Internet Communities, a popular culture course taught by instructor Montana Miller, studied a few episodes of the show.
The show is about people who conduct a relationship completely online. The host of the show brings the people together to finally meet in person and captures the whole thing on camera.
The class watched two episodes and then discussed aspects of the show such as confronting reality, lying online and fear of physical interaction.
“Do we live in a culture that forces you to lie if you want to get to know [someone]?” Miller asked the class after a scene in episode three of the show.
The show depicted a couple who had been talking online for 10 years and were about to meet and the show host discovered some secrets about one of the people.
People may lie online for a few reasons.
“A lot of times, we’re afraid to confront the reality and we want to live in our fantasy,” Miller said. “Technology makes it easier to not meet people.”
Peggy Giordano, adjunct professor emeritus in the Sociology department, said the variety of online interactions could go both ways.
“It could open the person up to meeting different kinds of people, which may not happen in a bar scene,” Giordano said. “But they could be lying and exaggerating, which could be disappointing when meeting.”
The Internet allows people to edit themselves heavily, which isn’t possible in person, Miller said.
“Maybe it’s too easy to get intimate on the Internet,” she said. “Maybe it’s easier to talk about vulnerability … easier to write it down in words.”
Some positive factors that come with meeting people online include things such as the ability to respond slowly and not focusing on what the person looks like, Giordano said.
“If you’re not focused so much on what the person looks like, maybe there are elements of your personality that can come out,” she said.
Tanisha Fields, senior and student in the class, enjoys watching the show.
“It’s very interesting to see how these people have these online relationships for so long,” she said.
Though Fields has never had an online relationship, she said she thinks a lot of students do have relationships through the Internet.
“Students are into meeting people online,” Fields said. “I think you get more of a variation online.”
Giordano said she has heard of people finding others similar to them online and through dating sites that they may not have met in everyday life.
“[The Internet/dating sites] put you together with people who might share your interests,” Giordano said. “It’s like a sorting process.”
Meeting people online this way seems to be a more recent trend.
“Dating sites are way more popular than they would have been 20 years ago,” Giordano said.
Fields said she doesn’t think online relationships will become the norm or will ever outnumber in-person relationships.
“I feel like everyone’s different, some people do prefer to meet people online,” Fields said.
