​Are people who they portray online?  It’s a big question and I want to say the answer is yes.  But most of the time the answer is no.

I am sure you’ve heard of the documentary and/or the tv series Catfish; the scenario where someone isn’t who they claim to be online pervades.  The background to the name as described in the documentary is due to the transportation of cod across North America and the cod lying flaccid and dull during this time, arriving at their destination inedible.  By adding some catfish to their tank they were shocked into action and meaty at their destination.  The idea that these catfish live among us, inspire us, to keep us on our toes, was almost added as a positive takeaway at the end of the documentary, but the moral of the story was that you need to be careful because nothing is as it seems online.

In today’s world is there anyone single after the year 2000 who hasn’t dated online at one point?

Is there anyone who has who doesn’t have a story to tell?

Here’s mine:

After my university boyfriend broke up with me I gave myself the period it took to watch all seasons of Dawson’s Creek to mourn the relationship, and resolved I would then get back out in the world and be happy, and possibly even date again.  I signed up to a dating site, and almost immediately connected with someone.  I now know I have none of the appropriate eptitude for online dating, my natural inclination to focus on one person at a time for instance, but I persisted.  This guy and I chatted online for nine months.  We watched movies together, we read books together, he taught me to lucid dream.  And then eventually we met up, for approximately six perfect hours; and I never saw or heard from him again.

I’ll never know whether he felt I wasn’t the person I’d portrayed online.  Or whether indeed he was someone else but acted the role in order to complete our story.  Either way I feel that this was an important chapter for me, and of course I think fondly of him when I wake myself from nightmares; after all, I still know how to lucid dream.