Perception/Deception: Fictional Selves and the Peculiarly Digital Phenomenon of Catfishing

Abstract

Catfishing is a peculiar digital phenomenon that involves a relationship using a fictional online persona. What distinguishes catfishing from other forms of digital production that deploy ‘misleading’ information or impersonation is that although this phenomenon might include such strategies, it is often employed for romantic scams. This paper looks at the alternative forms of intimacy afforded by digital platforms with their particular set of tools, especially in the context of digital cultures in India. By using catfishing as a lens to read intimacy in the digital, this study looks at unexpected possibilities of the digital as a mediatized space that in turn generates new types of relationalities.