Online personas subject to manipulation, trickery
Due in part to a new hit TV series and the exposure of a college football player’s girlfriend hoax, the validity of online dating has been challenged once again as a legitimate venue for finding a soulmate.
Last week Manti Te’o, a Notre Dame linebacker, gained notoriety when his alleged girlfriend he met online was revealed to be fake. The individual behind the faux profile has been posing as this alter ego since 2008, and at least four others have fallen victim to the sham.
MTV’s new program “Catfish: The TV Show” is a documentary-style reality show that focuses on helping people meet and discover the truth about their partners from online relationships. Unfortunately, most of the stories end the same way: The person someone has fallen in love with online is rarely who he or she meets in person.
With expanding social media, it is no surprise people are starting to resort to technology and a handful of different websites for dating. Online dating has infiltrated our culture and changed the way people interact. The story of Manti Te’o and all of the stories told through “Catfish” are evidence that online dating is an unreliable and unrealistic method for dating. This is not to say it is never successful; however, when dating online, altering one’s profile is simple. People can easily mask certain characteristics or create an entirely fictional character, and it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fake.
Without seeing them in the flesh, there is no guarantee a person is whom they claim to be. Internet and texting have overcome our society and have made interactions between people impersonal. Many of the people on the MTV show have been in a so-called relationship with their online partner for years without ever meeting. It’s redefining what a relationship can be by stripping it of the need for actual human interaction. This is not limited to dating. In general, people can be so absorbed with texting and Facebook that our society is becoming dependent on these tools to interact with one another.
Many people are mocking Manti Te’o, but he is only one of countless people who have found themselves in this predicament. No one thinks he or she would be naive enough to enter a relationship with someone who isn’t real, but with our affinity for everything Internet, this is becoming more and more of a common occurrence. Hopefully people can take from these stories that you really never know who you are talking to online, and that in-person contact is still very necessary for a lasting relationship.
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