KITTENFISHING ON DATING SITES: WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
The latest term in the online dating dictionary, kittenfishing is an attempt to alter one’s image into a more attractive one
The world of online dating gets murkier by the day. If you are looking for love online, then chances are that, at some point, you would have been ghosted, catfished, or even benched. Kittenfishing is the latest dating trend to join the list — and is designed to mislead.
Coined by dating app Hinge — kittenfishing can be defined as the act of presenting oneself in a falsely positive way by altering your personality, behaviour or pictures, on dating sites. An example would be the use of editing softwares and filters to modify one’s picture — the end result may totally differ from the way you look in real life. However, the question is why do people do it?
“Everyone wants to portray the best version of themselves on social media. The day starts with clicking hundred pictures, which further gets filtered, and finally, the best picture is posted, which is nowhere close to what the person actually looks like in real life,” explains Priyanka Verma, psychologist, adding, “Their desperation for attention stops them from recognising the repercussions of creating a false impression on dating sites. The consequences usually lead to people falling in love with the wrong person.”
Experts state that individuals with low selfesteem are prone to indulge in this as they have issues accepting themselves the way they are.
“People who kittenfish end up wanting to be someone they are not. There are two realities that exist in their world – virtual and real. By lying in their dating profiles, they are trying to protect who they are,” says Harsheen K Arora, psychologist.
WAYS TO SPOT A KITTENFISHER
Kittenfishers have many photos, and all of them look different.
Be wary of a person using various accessories such as a hat, cap, or a scarf to conceal some parts of their face. Kittenfishers tend to do this to avoid showing their whole face.
A person who kittenfishes tends to have only headshots and not fulllength photos. A kittenfisher is quite clever in the way they take pictures. Most of their pictures are taken from such angles that one can’t make out if they are fat or slim, short or tall. Excessive boasting, an ostentatious vocabulary with misused words and grammatical mistakes — these are all the hallmarks of a kittenfisher’s profile, and should put you on your guard.