Prompt 3

"A catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they're not using Facebook or other social media to create a false identity, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances." This is the Urban Dictionary definition of a catfish. Have you ever known someone through Instagram, Facebook, or Tinder without actually meeting him or her face to face? Then, when you meet them, they look so much different in person. Sometimes, it might just be because they edit their pictures to the extreme. In other circumstances, yes, people actually use other people's photos, which they think are more attractive then themselves, and use them as their own to get more attention and/or affection. In my English W131 class, Professor Layden introduced us to the book, Alone Together, by Sherry Turkle. In the book, it talks a lot about robots and how people actually treat them as real humans. When advertised, it makes it seem as if these fake, robot dogs, actually have real feelings. People actually buy these fake dogs and robots and brainwash you into thinking that they can actually hear what you are saying and have real emotions and responses to it. I personally think this is absolutely crazy.  In the first image attached, it shows a robot dog. In the photo, you can see that the words “your REAL best friend,” note that the word real is capitalized. In my opinion, this doesn’t look like a real dog and I could not see myself treating it as if it was. Yes, it can walk, fetch, and react to your affection. My point is, if you break it in half, it is not actually going to feel any "real" pain. This goes to show that it has a false identity of being real. These dogs could be as fake as the person you are messaging on Facebook.