1. Catfish
REAL VS. NOT REAL

2. THE INTERNET
In today’s society the internet is close to taking over. It plays a role in
almost every job scenario, school scenario, and life scenario. The
internet makes life easier in many situations, but in other situations, it
is beginning to chain people to the cyber world. The internet is used by
some people as a shield, something they can hide behind to pretend to
be something they’re not.

3. Young kids are specifically perceptible to interacting with
people who are not who they say they are. In chat rooms,
Facebook, Twitter, and any kind of social media really.
Not only children get caught up in the internet’s
mysteriousness though, even some adults fall victim.
SOCIAL NETWORKS

4. In 2010 a man named Nev Schulman
released a documentary about his
experience dealing with false
identities on the Internet. He was a
young man in his mid-twenties who
came in contact with a little girl
named Abby. Eventually, through
Facebook, he became friends with
her whole family and got more and
more involved as time went on.
Nev started to speak with Abby’s
older sister Megan and slowly began
to fall for her. He did not assume
anything out of the ordinary, until he
discovered she was lying about many
different things. Eventually, Nev, his
brother and their friend traveled to
where Abby and her family lived
putting more and more pieces of the
puzzle together.
CATFISH

6. REAL… OR NOT REAL… THAT IS
THE QUESTION
When Nev arrived at the house, he realized everything that he
had thought to be the truth was a lie. This brings us to the
philosophical question of real vs. not real. It is easy to
describe something that is real. It has a definite description, it
can be picked out when put into a group with other objects, in
the mind’s eye it can be seen. But what happens when
something can be described universally, when you talk about it
every one else knows what it is, but in reality it does not exist.
Does this make it real, or not real?

7. As was stated in another presentation, this can be related to
Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny. If someone asked you “Who
is jolly, wears a red and white suit and eats cookies” most people
would jump at the answer, Santa Clause. In reality though there
is no such thing as Santa Clause, but everyone knows who he is.

8. This brings us to the idea that
everyone’s perception of what is real
and what is not is based on
conceptualization. Conceptualization
is defined as inventing or contriving
an idea or explanation and
formulating it mentally. Each person
around the world has the same
general description of Santa Clause,
or the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth
Fairy. But the image in each person’s
head could be slightly different than
the next.
CONCEPTUALIZATION

9. Megan Angela

10. Although the pictures of Megan were falsified,
and they were of another woman, Nev and his
friends did not know that. So when he described
Megan to his friends, from then on they had an
image in their mind of what Megan looked like.
Every time Nev would refer to Megan, even
without saying her name, because there was an
image, they knew who Nev was talking about.

11. So in this case, was the girlfriend that Nev had
real? Or was she, in the end, just someone made
up by a lonely woman? Looking at it from the
same point of view as in the case of all imaginary
holiday creatures, yes Nev’s girlfriend would have
been real, because a solid description could have
been made of her.
REAL VS. NOT REAL

12. When this question first came into
my head, I was unsure of the answer
myself. Would Megan be considered
real even though she was made up by
Angela? Did it help that there was a
distinct image of Megan because of
the images Angela used for Megan?
Once I really begin to contemplate
an answer though, it dawned on me
that this person was created, and for
however short a time it was, she was
thought to be real. Someone believed
they were talking to a girl name
Megan, interacting and falling in love
with her. So yes, in the end, based on
my perception and conceptualization,
I do believe that this “Megan”, at
some point, was real.
IN THE END