Fantasy and lies the reality of a modern day romance

I RECENTLY read that there are over 30 million fake profiles on the internet and many of these on internet dating and social media sites.

Catfish is the term used by the MTV show of the same name to describe people who entice others into a relationship by adopting fictional profiles.

They pretend to be someone and something they are not. They achieve this with (stolen) images of visually stunning, jaw-dropping gorgeous men and women, who are described as models, bodybuilders, music producers etc.

The Catfish has a plethora of excuses never to meet or show their real faces to their victims; phone not working, cannot Skype of Snapchat, cancer or car accident being the most popular on the show.

Not surprisingly, the victim is often shocked, distressed and angry when, on meeting, their dream lover is not congruent with the reality faced.

The Catfish will then narrate a story of being bullied, revenge on a past lover, lonely, bored, body/ gender issues, or just because it was fun (for them).

They expect empathy and understanding from their victim without showing any towards the person they have lied to (sometimes for up to 10 years). There are hardly ever happy endings in this scenario.

So is this romance in the 21st century? Are we are so yearning to be loved, told we are beautiful and desired and seek passion, that we don’t question the validity of the profile that we are attracted to?

Do victims prefer to live in their fantasy world where this dazzling specimen of humanity is madly in love with them rather than face reality?

Overarching the phenomenon of Catfish is our obsession with beauty and image. Tens of millions of people do not believe that some aspect of themselves is good enough, hence the deceptions.

Why pretend to be a prince or princess and weave a web of lies fit for a fairy tale when we all just want to live happily ever after?