EDITORIAL: The emotional involvement that inevitably develops and to find out it was fake
In this week's Nationalist
It’s amazing how rampant something can be without being spoken about publicly to much degree.
It might be consigned to the group WhatsApp or whispers on Instagram DMs - but it isn’t being openly discussed.
But two Tipp men, this week, have raised important issues and it’s no surprise that they again revolve around social media and people’s use of the platforms.
It’s amazing how many societal issues lurk beneath the surface for so long, with seemingly so many people knowing about it, but it takes one moment - or in this instance two podcasts - for the whole problem to become part of a national discourse.
How many people even knew what catfishing is?
See page fourteen of this week’s Nationalist for more on The 2 Johnnies podcasts and their revelations which have gripped the nation.
But the comedy duo are not laughing at the issues they have raised.
They even had Louize Carroll, Chartered Occupational Psychologist, on the podcast last week to try and explain why one person or people would do this to another individual.
When listening to the two podcasts that detail Johnny B’s interactions with a “catfish” - someone who makes a fake account of someone on social media to lure into a relationship with a false identity - it’s hard not to think about the time theft and how it might impact on someone more vulnerable.
As Johnny B says, he is “fine” after the ordeal.
But the messages late into the night, the emotional involvement that inevitably develops and to find out that all of it was fake and why?
Because Johnny B was most likely part of some game for one person to get the attention of a well-known and public figure.
Another person could take it very hard, and for some people who have been catfished it has been described by Louize above as a trauma.
It is astonishing what people will get up to on social media, the moral compass has truly gone out the window.
And these sick people, who inflict so much hurt, walk amongst us.