---- Original message ---- Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2013 09:45:44 -0600 From: devoldercar...@gmail.com Subject: Re: [tips] Have You Ever Been "Catfished"? To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu> >Since you brought this up, I'm going to ask a question that has been bothering me. Why do we care about this? That's a serious question--other than experiencing painful humiliation, did this young man do anything that merits the intensity of scrutiny by the media? Did he cheat, break any laws, do anything to gain from this? I'm (obviously) not a sports fan, so I'm pretty dumb about all of this. Isn't Mati Te'o's "crime" simply that he was a fool? Why make so much out of his humiliation?>Carol>>On Jan 19, 2013, at 9:11 AM, "Mike Palij" <m...@nyu.edu> wrote:>>> The popular media has been playing up the unfortunate situation involving>> Notre Dame football lineback Mati Te'o who had the bad luck to have>> his grandmother and girl friend die on the same day. Te'o was an outstanding>> athlete (he was a candidate for the prestigious Heisman Trophy; for more details on his outstanding sports accomplishments, see his wikipedia entry:>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manti_Te%27o ),>> >> Those who follow college football know that these "challenges" to Te'o>> and his team would become a sort of Cinderella story as Notre Dame would>> go to the BCS National Championship Game but, unlike Cinderalla, they>> would get whooped by Alabama's Crimson Tide. Unfortunately, that was>> just the start of Te'o's problems as it turns out that his girl friend did not die.>> In fact, his girl friend was a fiction. Te'o had never met his girl friend in>> person and had developed his relationship with her online and with phone>> calls. But his girl friend turned out to be a fraud. Here is>> one timeline of how Te'o got hoaxed and how it translated into his>> football activities; see:>> http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/local_news/water_cooler/manti-teo-timeline-of-quotes-in-girlfriend-hoax-story>> >> The term "Catfish" has been used to describe this situation because of>> the "documentary" "Catfish"; see the description on www.imdb.com:>> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1584016/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1>> I use the quotes on "documentary" because there is the question of>> whether it is a real documentary, say, like one of Michael Moore's>> films or a "documentary" like "Cloverfield" or the "The Blair Witch Project".>> In the "documentary", a person develops a "relationship" online on the>> basis of a person's description on a website. They communicate via>> phone and email/etc and develop a relationship. But inconsistencies>> develop which lead to a road trip to find the "truth" which, of course,>> is documented on videotape. The name of the movie comes from>> a monologue given at the end of the movie by a "Forest Gump" type>> character about how catfish were put into tanks transporting cod to keep>> them active instead of passive (being passive apparently made their flesh>> flabby and unappetizing). The point or morale being, people pretending>> to be someone that they are not on the internet are like the catfish in the>> tank with the cod, they keep them active and save them from becoming>> flabby and tasteless (though Te'o may disagree on this point).>> More info about the film can be obtain from its Wikipedia entry:>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_%28film%29>> >> The movie "Catfish" was put into limited release and has been put>> on MTV along with the TV series it inspired "Catfish: The TV Series".>> HuffPost has one perspective on the TV series; see:>> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/15/catfish-the-tv-show-wants-to-be-woman-video_n_2476640.html>> NOTE: So much for the "Turing Test".>> >> It should be noted that Charles Marriott wrote in 1913 a novel>> titled "The Catfish" which can be seen as one source of inspiration>> for the movie though the internet has made hoaxing others with>> a false persona into high art. A review of Marriott's book is>> available in "The Bookman" on books.google.com; see:>> http://books.google.com/books?id=_A04AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA541&lpg=PA541&dq=%22the+catfish%22+%22charles+marriott%22+review&source=bl&ots=3R1DPdyFIA&sig=MajgwK9yYPk21cbbaYEjxH4e3wU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=saH6UJTTGJO60QGFx4CgAQ&ved=0CHwQ6AEwDQ#v=onepage&q=%22the%20catfish%22%20%22charles%20marriott%22%20review&f=false>> >> Books.google.com also has a free ebook of "The Catfish" and I>> would like to direct the reader's attention to page 401 which provides>> the explanation of how a catfish in a tank of cod keeps them active>> and tasty. See:>> http://books.google.com/books?id=gtYMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=catfish+%22cahles+marriott%22+cod&hl=en&sa=X&ei=X7P6UIXzH8-00AHz-YGAAg&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=cod&f=false>> >> So, what lessons might be learned from all this:>> >> (1) Some scams have been with all along but unthinking use of technology>> might facilitate some of them.>> >> (2) Remember the old New Yorker cartoon:>> "On the internet, no one knows you're a dog.">> >> -Mike Palij>> New York University>> m...@nyu.edu>> >> >> >> >> --->> You are currently subscribed to tips as: devoldercar...@gmail.com.>> To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=177920.a45340211ac7929163a0216244443341&n=T&l=tips&o=23160>> or send a blank email to leave-23160-177920.a45340211ac7929163a0216244443...@fsulist.frostburg.edu>>--->You are currently subscribed to tips as: drb...@rcn.com.>To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13185.d5346723901d967ccc167929e2ee94ad&n=T&l=tips&o=23161>or send a blank email to leave-23161-13185.d5346723901d967ccc167929e2ee9...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
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