Catfishing: Why Do People Do It?
I started watching “Catfish: The TV Show” back in 2012. I followed all of the intricate scenarios with online love turning into chaotic drama right before my eyes. I listened to all of the reasons towards the end of the shows of why the catfishers did what they did.
People want to be accepted and to be loved, but sometimes they cannot feel it in their own daily lives. When we feel trapped, bored and depressed in our own lives, we may seek gratification and comfort somewhere else… perhaps in the online space.
Technology has advanced and the internet has become easy to access and use for the average person. It can be a tough job to navigate through it if you are not intelligent or savvy enough. People can scam you. People can fool you. You may even find yourself being the victim of a catfish.
Technology has become a part of life now. There is more online shopping and ordering available from various websites. There are more dating websites and apps to find love. You can research information and find the answers to your burning questions. It is easier to get what you want when you want it.
In love, we have to realize that not everyone has our best interests at heart. Whether it be online or in “real life,” we have to give our love to someone who demonstrates to us that we are valued in the here and now. If you are communicating with someone online in the hopes of having that person as a potential partner, you should feel like there is honesty and respect involved. If there are dozens of question marks in your head that are not getting answered, it is time to move on.
We can be drawn to people emotionally for a number of reasons. Sometimes our emotions get the best of us and keep us enmeshed in certain situations that may not be healthy. We may get satisfaction from just the words that are being said to us or texted to us. We may get comfort from talking to someone that we know will talk back to us if we have no one else that listens or understands us in “real life.”
When catfishers create false identities online, it is for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the reason is for revenge. Perhaps “real life” is a struggle or has become boring. Perhaps there is no one for the catfisher to talk to in “real life.” It is all an escape essentially. An escape from a world that the catfisher believes that he or she has no way out of anymore and has settled for false reality. Don’t play into it. If you are making reasonable requests to understand the identity of the person that you are talking to and the other person doesn’t care, brushes it aside or changes topics, that person has just told you that your concerns are not important to them.
Your time and energy are both valuable assets. Creating false realities is a use of time and energy in which the end result will not have long term satisfaction. Being honest with yourself and others is paramount to building a basic foundation of trust between two people. Honesty and dishonesty have always existed. It has just become easier to “escape” when we want to.
