No to The Social Network, yes to Catfish

I’m not inclined to see The Social Network (d. David Fincher), despite how stupendous the reviews says the movie is. I’ve been watching trailers for this for the past month and I have not a modicum of interest. Maybe it’s because I can’t stand facebook. I’ll be honest. I have a facebook account. But I opened it because it seemed the only way to correspond with friends who insisted on communicating with me through it (good bye old-fashioned e-mail!). Then I discovered that through facebook's Groups section I could promote stories on my companion newspaper site http://www.windsorontarionews.com/ But even there my “friends” remain static and I’ve discovered Twitter a much more effective way to expand audience. And, yes, I’ll admit it, I really don’t get facebook. It looks hideously complicated. Perhaps someone (likely 30 years younger) will one day take me in hand and instruct me on the marvellous ways of connecting on this fantastic site and I’ll be hooked. For the time being it leaves me cold.....But I did go to see Catfish, the indie film about what can happen when someone deceives another on facebook. But this is a story (documentary) that could be about Internet deception anywhere, such as through a personals or dating site. And despite the movie’s critical acclaim it’s not a particularly a new story. But the film (by Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost) is put together well. It seemingly captures the reality of New York photographer and cohort (and Ariel’s brother) Nev Schulman  from start to finish as he gets sucked-in big time in romantic infatuation by a distant admirer from the boonies of northern Michigan. In an age where people seem to want to reveal everything about themselves on sites like facebook the fact Schulman let the camera capture his entire experience also seems to suggest that the embarrassment factor in any medium has been severely eroded.