The Christianville Spirit
The Spirit that Sparkles
February 18, 2015-TCS # 438
So, My Readers, Do You Remember when I met Nev Schulman from Catfish and Catfish:The TV Show? (Reference Newsletter Number 416, Meeting Nev) Well, If You remember, I bought his book, “In Real Life” and A few Weeks ago, I finally Finished It! To Tell You The Truth, When I first Bought it, I just thought that I would have it signed and that was it. But, I decided Why Not Read It? So I did. It was a really good book. I realized however, that I have not written a Newsletter about Reading a Book in a while. Last Time I wrote about one was when I read about The Appalachian Trail via a Book called “AWOL on The Appalachian Trail.” Anyway, Nev’s Book In Real Life is based Mainly on His Catfish Story and All The Lessons that followed. To Put It Shortly, Nev’s Past wasn’t that great, in terms of School Life. He was the Rebel Kid who always got into Trouble. Well, He needed a way to channel his Rebelness into Something Productive, in His Case, Photography. I don’t want to Spoil The Story, so I will tell you to Read the Book if You want to know about How He fell for This Girl who wasn’t real (It was a Fake Profile) or Watch The Documentary, Catfish. I read a Shocking Fact about Fake Profiles, according to His Book, There is 83 Million Fake Profiles on Facebook. 83 Million! The Reasons range from Trying to help a Friend (from either Abuse or Getting Out of Their Funk), There are The Scammers (I had that issue, Very Short-Lived Luckily!), and Finally, There are People who Catfish people just for The Fun of It or Because Your Bored. It would be like two friends sitting around and Then, One Friend says, “Hey! Do Ya Wanna Catfish Someone?!” “Yeah, Let’s Do It!” Add the Bevis and Butthead voices, If You Please. The Reason, by the way, behind why Most People Catfish is because They want Recognition, To Be Wanted, and To Be Loved. Who couldn’t Blame Them if They spend All Day and Night on The Internet. The Person being Catfished, The “Hopeful”, as They call it on His Show is probably thinking, “Finally, Someone who thinks I’m Cute/Handsome/Awesome/What Have You!” and then, because The “Hopeful” wants to be Loved and Get Some Attention from SOMEONE on The Internet, They Fall for It. Very Rarely, do They end up being Who they say They are. Moral of This Segment, Do Your Research and For The Love of Goodness, Trust Your Gut. I, Of Course, considering that I am Single, I have Considered Dating Sites a few times. But, The Problem would be that I trust People too quickly and I see the Good in People, which is a Good Trait to have but, Can get you in a lot of Trouble if You are not Careful. Now, Don’t Get Me Wrong, The Internet is a Wonderful Place, with Google Street View and Connecting with PTLS Family Members (and, Friends!) on Facebook; But, according to Nev, The Internet and Other Technologies are just ways to Distract from Your Real Life. On Facebook, You may represent yourself as a Happy Family but, In Real Life, It is not always Pretty. You pretend to be Happy online and You may or may not in Real Life. Besides that, We always have a Reputation to hold online as well as in Real life. If Your Online Rep. is too High, Your Real Life Rep. may not be or Vice Versa. Believe Me, Technology is Very Addicting! I have trouble with Disconnecting from My IPad! Facebook could take Hours to do, Plus All the Shares, Likes, and Comments! Some People live for that stuff, Gotta Gotta GOTTA Get The Most Likes on My XYZ Post! If You Don’t get “Likes” then, You must think that No One Cares. That Brings Me to The Next Point; with all this “Connection” Online, What about Friendships or Relationships that MEAN Something?! Nev dares us to Post on Facebook that You are Sick and that You need someone to bring you Chicken Noodle Soap and Sprite (Sorry, That is My Bias! Those Two are The Best Sick Cures!). The Friends who offer to come to Your House and bring you Chicken Noodle Soap (or Whatever is Your Best Cure) is a True Friend, not just a Facebook Friend. I can tell you that When I had Kidney Stones, My Friend “H.J Angel” told me that She would have been standing next to Me, had she known about it in advance. So, When There is Lack of Connection (Except on Facebook), Friendships/Relationships don’t mean much, and The Isolation of Being Online all the time, How would that Make You Feel? Pretty Sad, I would think. and, That is True. Studies have shown that People that are Online All The Time and On Facebook (on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, the List goes on..) that They are Less Happy. So, The Moral of The Segment and The Rest of Story, is Get Off Online a little while. No Need to Facebook, Selfie, or Tweet for Right Now. The Final Lesson is to Always be Careful what You Post on Any Social Media Platform. Don’t say anything Mean and Definitely, Don’t Post Anything or Write Anything that You would not want reported to Your Mother. As All of Us who Grew Up in The 90’s and Before that, knew that, was The Worst Possible Thing! All in All, The Internet is What You make of it. For Me, It’s Cybertravelling and Connecting with My PTLS Family as well as Friends. For You, It might be Something Else, but Make The Best of It! And, It would help to Get Off of It for a while too!
Thanks for Reading The Christianville Spirit. Be Nice to Everyone, Spread Love, and Build Connections. Both Online and In Real Life.
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