Hello Cupid: Catfishing the Internet

This is the time of year that I can clean my apartment, redecorate, write, etc. Because my television viewing goes down dramatically. I'm someone that doesn't watch a lot of television to begin with, but when basketball/football/hockey season is over with, I really don't watch. However, thanks to Twitter, I have viewed the Catfish reality show on MTV based off the movie when a guy spends over a year communicating with a woman online, only to research, find out where she lived and he shows up only to find out she isn't who she claims.

I've been doing this whole "online social networking" thing for quite some time. I remember when it was just a bunch of us so-called "geeks" going to chat rooms regularly, etc. Now, EVERYBODY, including my mother is on the Internet. Between Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, the Internet is not what it used to be. There was a time, you could truly be anonymous online, until you decided maybe you wanted to show up to a meet-and-greet or some other get together with other "web folks". Those were the good old days. Now, you can find your face all over Facebook and not even be on the site yourself. Once modern day social networking sites became popular, along with the inception of smarter smart phones, it was a wrap. This leads me to this question. With all of this extra curricular Internet activity being voluntary, why are people still lying on the Internet? Why would anyone go out of their way to lie to someone they don't actually know about who they are, what they look like, how much money they make, and what they do for a living? This absolutely baffles me.

So, in my continued support of Black & Sexy TV programming on YouTube, I was pleasantly surprised when they broached this topic with their newest show: Hello Cupid! This show focuses on two women who are best friends and roommates. One of the girls, who is on the darker-skinned side, decided to place a profile on a dating site called Hello Cupid. Her profile strapped with what her roommate called "red flag information" such as the fact that she reads books, and loves the movie, Amelie, she had a modest picture of herself. Her roommate on the other hand, who is more provocative and outgoing, not to mention bi-racial suggested she get sexier pics of herself. As a social experiment they decide to place the bi-racial roommates more provocative picture on her profile. On average, she would get about 3-10 hits per day. By the next morning, her profile with the roomies picture had garnered over 130 hits!

I honestly didn't know where B&S was going to go with this series. I thought it would spark yet another "lightskin v darksin" debate, as if we need another one of those. But, as the season went on, the episodes got juicier and more interesting, as they take this experiment off the Internet and into real life. What I like about the series is that all of the actors are very good, and the characters are well-rounded. It also makes me realize, how easy it is to get "caught up" both on and offline.