On Tuesday night, “Catfish: The TV Show†returned for its second season on MTV with the story of Cassie and her fiancé, Steve, whom she has never met. So make that “Steve,†because as viewers of “Catfish†know, online romance shrouded in mystery rarely ends well.
“Catfish,†essentially a dating show that tries to unite people with the online loves they’ve never met (though they almost always prove to be fake), makes for fascinating television. But for insight into the show’s treatment of the intersection of technology and identity, I spoke with Jenna Wortham, New York Times technology reporter and Internet culture columnist. Excerpts from our conversation are below, but beware: there are spoilers about the truth behind “Steve.â€
Jon Caramanica: First off, on a scale of one to Lurch, how creepy did you find Gladys, the best friend who was behind te fake-hottie profile, in last night’s episode?
Jenna Wortham: Poor Gladys. I both felt for her and felt afraid of her, and I agreed with the host, Nev Schulman, that she not be let near Facebook again for quite some time for the sake of humanity. Still, Gladys embodies an archetype of the kind of person that lies dormant in all of us, someone capable of doing bad things, regardless of whether or not technology is involved.
JC: Which is to say: the kind of person who feels compelled to lie in order to further our own goals?
JW: She’s a baby troll, maybe, but not a malicious one. She came from a place of love and care for her friend.
JC: I couldn’t help but feel that Gladys wasn’t just being benevolent. There was severe manipulation at play there â€" she wanted her relationship with Cassie to remain essentially unchanged, so she created a fake persona that would can! cel out the parts of Cassie that were getting away from her.
JW: Yeah, maybe I’m being too optimistic. One way to read it is that Gladys wanted to keep Cassie to herself, using the excuse that she wanted to protect her from her self-destructive behavior, and came up with a sick, twisted Alicia Silverstone-in-“Crushâ€-way. I would guess that she also didn’t quite realize that an online relationship could take on the weight and significance that it did for Cassie and Steve.
JC: I agree, which brings up the question that’s more basic to the show: Why would Gladys feel safe behind a false persona, and why would she believe she wouldn’t be caught? In essence, what could the persona do that Gladys could not?
JW: That’s easy â€" be honest. Everyone knows this. It can be much easier to be honest when there is a layer between that interaction. But it’s also easier to be dishonest, clearly.
JC: Do you think all he people on this show want to be caught in some way? That getting caught is actually their path to truth?
JW: It’s less about getting caught and more about facing something you can’t do alone. I saw Nev speak in Austin at South by Southwest and he seemed really convinced that these kids who are getting catfished are putting themselves at risk by opening up to strangers, who I think he thinks are bad people who want to hurt people, intentionally or unintentionally. But I don’t think that’s true. You can see that most of the people aren’t bad people. I genuinely think they’re just open to love and the possibility that this person could be their person. You saw how upset Tony was â€" he looked like his heart was breaking right alongside Cassies.
JC: Yes, Tony. Gladys’s cousin, whom she roped in to performing the phone part of the Steve persona, and whose conversations with Cassie had apparently become very sexual. That portion of the show was! extremel! y difficult to watch - it felt like a violation far beyond anything the show has tackled before.
JW: Behind Tony’s emo reaction was someone who engaged in phone sex with a person who was not consciously consenting to have it with him, given that she thought she was talking to Steve. That was so skin-crawlingly disturbing and creepy. Cassie’s right â€" she was violated. I was disappointed that show glossed over that entire bit.
JC: Me too. I feel like it wasn’t just unethical. It almost verged on criminal, an act of sexual-psychological violence. You could say that Gladys had pure intentions, but Tony didn’t seem to have that cover.
JW: I think Gladys made the mistake of thinking her actions were harmless, that it would peter out after a few weeks or months and she would be able to tell Cassie about it and they’d laugh and go out for margaritas or something. But that didn’t happen.
JC: So if the catfishes are not bad people, then what are they?
JW: What I see are people who are lonely and afraid of rejection if they are their true selves. The catfishees are in the same boat, in a way. And I don’t think the show ever touches upon the reality that it is entirely possible for these scenarios to turn out well.
JC: You’re arguing is that there’s something productive about these false identities.
JW: I would argue that the catfisher personas are really a manifestation of what people have always done on the Internet â€" create an alternate or idealized version of themselves as a way to become comfortable interacting with strangers online. I’m not trying to justify the behavior of the catfishers â€" I’m just trying to put it into context of a larger Internet that existed before Facebook.
JC: Is this, therefore, sort of an “old Internet†show?
JW: No, it’s very much steeped! in the n! ow. It’s about a world where people are so pressed into being “themselves†all the time online and projecting a personal brand that they can compare and contrast to their peers that they need a reprieve because for whatever reason they don’t feel good enough.
JC: And creating these false identities is a form of retreat from that?
JW: In a way, but average people who feel those same pressures don’t lie and trick people online! These people clearly have issues. I would guess that if they weren’t catfishing, they’d be acting out in some other similarly inappropriately way. But I don’t know anyone who has never lied online.
JC: When the show first arrived last year, how did you feel about how it represented these sorts of interactions? To me, they felt foreign, but I sense that to many others, it felt both familiar and accurate.
JW: The thing I always liked about the show is that it captures, maybe indirctly, how real these conversations can feel, and how intimate and personal and true it feels to talk to someone online, because it’s consistent and constant. It’s almost like sharing a personal, private joke with someone 24/7. I’ve experienced all of this and it’s not fake or a falsehood or manufactured. Some of my closest friendships and relationships blossom over text, chat rooms, e-mail, instant message, even Snapchat.
JC: Have you ever been catfished, to your knowledge?
JW: I think a better question is, hasn’t everyone been catfished at some point? Anyone who as online dated has been a victim of catfishing, in one way or another.
JC: Do people lie more online than in real life?
JW: Lie is not the right word. Exaggerate, posture, project, sure. I think “lie†casts what they’re doing in too harsh a light. You’re making me sound like I’m team catfishers!
JC: I think ! you are! ! That said, if it’s that common, maybe the success of this show is connected to the fact that everyone is paranoid about the integrity of their online communications.
JW: I think it taps into a deeper human fear about rejection and realizing that what you think you know is not the truth and how tenuous and fragile something as deep and mysterious as love is. It’s not just about getting duped online. But it definitely resonates because unlike earlier decades, we’re at a point in human history where most of us are living online and largely interacting with each other through a screen, and there’s a lot of trust at stake â€" and required â€" to make that technological infrastructure sustainable.
JC: Given that people are aware of the conceit of the show, and also of the very obvious methods Nev and Max use to solve these cases, why are there still endless situations for them to choose from? Are people that willfully tech-illiterate?
JW: I honestly wonder. It is insanel easy to reverse-image search to find whether someone is real or not, but it’s also an overstatement to expect the average person to know how to do that and blame them if they don’t. But by now, given the popularity of the show, most people do, which makes me wonder if there will be a “Catfish†Season 3!
