In Real Life
Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age
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- €6.99
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- €6.99
Publisher Description
From the host of MTV's #1 show Catfish comes the definitive guide for millenials about how to connect with people authentically in today's increasingly digital world.
IN REAL LIFE: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age
Nev Schulman is the host of the wildly popular TV series Catfish which investigates online relationships to determine whether they are based on truth or fiction (spoiler: it's almost always fiction).
Nev has become the Dr. Drew of online relationships for millenials. His clout in this area springs from his own experience with a deceptive online romance, about which he made a critically acclaimed 2010 documentary (also called Catfish). In that film Nev coined the term "catfish" to refer to someone who creates a false online persona to reel someone into a romantic relationship. The meme spread rapidly.
Now Nev takes his investigation to the page, providing readers with an essential roadmap to better connect their digital personas with their true selves. Woven throughout with Nev's personal stories, this book explores relationships in the era of social media. Specifically the book tackles:
-what motivates catfish
-why people fall for catfish
-how one can avoid being deceived
-online accountability
-Nev's rules for dating
-how to connect authentically with people over the internet
-how to turn an online relationship into a real life relationship, and much, much more.
Nev delves deeply into the complexities of dating in a digital age, and continues the cultural dialogue his show has begun about how we interact with each other through social media versus in person -- specifically in relation to millennials, who have never known a world without Facebook.
Here Nev explores the pressing issue of connectivity versus genuine connection which is plaguing our relationships with each other, and he provides the advice that his fans have been desperately seeking.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Schulman first entered the public eye as the main subject of his sleeper hit documentary Catfish (2010), in which he unwittingly gets involved romantically online with a lonely, midde-aged woman from rural Michigan. Currently the host of the MTV reality show of the same name and similar premise, the author zeroes in on his field of expertise the so-called "catfish" (a term coined by the author) which he defines as someone who pretends to be someone else on the internet, "particularly to pursue deceptive online romances." According to the author, such a person, often the object of scorn once outed, is motivated by a desire for social acceptance and is far more relatable than one might expect, a fact which is illustrated with a pack of profiles from his show. The book is at once a memoir, a meditation on a truly unique phenomenon of the internet age, and a motivational address for anyone seeking virtual companionship. Schulman cautions his readers against lying on their social media profiles, and argues instead for improving "offline" life. "Embrace who you really are, both online and off" is the message at the heart of his book.