Vector Image

I was absent for this class. but here it is.

i created the black image.

Interesting Social Networking Statistics

I found these statistics to be insane and the fact of the matter is they will continue to grow.

Catfish

       The documentary Catfish was a really interesting film. After watching it I returned back to my dorm room and went on facebook. Facebook seemed different. I noticed on my newsfeed there were people I was friends with that I didn't know. Are they really who they claim to be? Social networking has become such a norm in todays society. There are no laws in the world of democratized media, therefore we are free to do as we please through websites like twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. 

      In the film Nev is like most of us today who social network. We are expanding ourselves and who we are through a Web 2.0 technology.  We are able to expand our identities but in reality we can be whoever we want through a website like Facebook just like Angela did. This flaw in social networking is usually overlooked. Angela had made 15 profiles in which she took pieces of who she was but made them into different people. Any average person would not have ever thought that the 15 people were actually one insecure woman. Nev believed everything that she was saying because her profile seemed to be realistic. . This what seemed to be harmless, flawless affair via the internet had turned into something more complex than he would have ever imagined. 

     Angela had been using her 8 year old daughter, Abby, to get in contact with Nev a photographer and film maker, by sending artwork created by the little artist. Nev's relationship with the 8 year old artisitc prodigy expanded into a relationship with her entire family. He soon got to know Abby's mother Angela, Abby's older sister, Megan, and her brother. Nev starts to create this relationship with the entire family which leads to a more intimate one with Megan. He discovers something is "off" with Megan after hearing the music that she claimed to have written on youtube performed by another individual. His brother and friend decided this would be a great story for a documentary. He continued contact with the family and took it to the next level by turning a virtual relationship into a face to face one. The three friends went to Michigan to see who really was on the other side of the computer. Upon reaching their destination Nev and his two companions learned a lot. 

    Angela turned out to be a woman who had two disabled sons, a daughter named abby who did not paint, and a daughter megan who was not even in the picture. This part of the film really began to creep me out as I observed how infatuated this woman was with the Nev. While watching the scene where Nev was being drawn my feelings of unease were succeeded by feelings of empathy. She began to describe to Nev that the 15 profiles were a representation of her that she was not able to live out in her everyday life by the hindrance of her living situation. The three companions waled away from that house with a new outlook on life and facebook. 

   The connection of catfish to humans was very interesting. There are people in life who always keep you on your feet like the cod do for the catfish and Angela is a perfect representation of that. After Nev's experience with Facebook he is now more alert with the way social networking can be skewed. Web 2.0 has definitely been great for society but it has also given us a way of creating a facade that doesnt truly represent who we are as people. Democratized Media has just given people an outlet to hide behind their true identities because anyone can be anyone on the internet these days.  

   Overall, I think the film was very interesting and certainly makes one question their interactions with people on the internet. I did find it kind of creepy how we can literally be who we want to be by creating a profile and friending people. "Does social networking make us more outgoing, or more narcissistic? Does the Web foster happy communities of far-flung, like-minded people, or does it provide cover for predators and scam artists?"


quote taken from:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/movies/17catfish.html