LIFESTYLE NEWS - With social media, the dating world has become both easier and more complicated – it has also led to web entanglements due to people hiding their true identities behind the screen.
Dating and social media apps have made meeting people very simple without needing to meet them in person.
Some people consider themselves to be in romantic relationships with people they have never met before, but have only communicated with online, in some cases for several years.
Despite this being strange for some, it has become more common in the last few years. This is why it’s important to be aware of catfishing, a term that refers to someone who creates fake profiles on social media using someone else’s pictures and false biographical information.
These “catfish” usually try trick an unsuspecting person or persons into falling in love with them.
MTV Catfish UK
MTV has made a successful reality TV series using the term ‘catfish’ to hunt down catfishers. The second season of MTV Catfish UK will be coming to South African screens soon. The reality show's new host Nella Rose has made massive strides in video content creation, so it made sense why she was the right fit.
The London-based media personality spoke to The Citizen and said she couldn’t believe she was asked to be the new presenter.
“I was literally screaming with excitement because Catfish has been my favourite TV show since I was 14,” she said.
Rose and her co-presenter Oobah Butler will help people find out who they have been talking to online and whether or not they are who they say they are.
Rose says viewers can expect much drama and “explosive reactions”. She elaborates: “The stories we have on this season have been absolutely crazy, we try our best to help the participants in any way we can.”
The media personality who has a massive following on YouTube (712,000 subscribers) and Instagram (577,000 followers) says catfishers are smarter at finding ways to hide their red flags.
Finding love isn’t so easy these days, and in some cases people easily fall into these dating traps.
Rose says one common catfish method is refusing video calls and says people should communicate outside the app they meet them on.
“Meet the person face to face,” she advises, “because you can get very comfortable in just texting someone every single day and not actually meeting up with them. Try to get out of your comfort zone.”
The influencer is grateful she has never been catfished and enjoyed visiting many parts of the UK to film the show.
She shared the best dating advice she received from a friend.
“Watch how they are with their mother. If they are respectful to their mother, they will be respectful to you, if they are disrespectful to their mother, they will be disrespectful to you too.”
