This
recent football season the story of Notre Dame and particularly the story of
Manti Te'o became highlighted in the news. Everyone was inspired by his story
of the death of his grandmother and "girlfriend.” Soon after however
rumors came out to say that the existence of Te'o's girlfriend was a hoax. My
blog post today talks about that situation and how it was handled which I feel
could have been different. Now Te'o apparently had a relationship with a
girl that he met online and that relationship became serious. The part of that
entire thing that gets to me is the part in which Te'o wasn't even sure if his
girlfriend was real. Now this story reminds me of a new television show called “Catfish: The TV Series.” This is literally a parallel to the story of Te'o. Young men
and women go to a man to see if the person they met online is really who they
proclaim to be. Sometimes it works out and other times it doesn't This situation
just happened to be one that landed on the bad end of the relationship
spectrum. I've seen this happen before and I am shocked that anyone can fall
victim to this hoax per say. In the year 2013 I find it hard to believe that
anyone in a relationship does not have some kind of video communication. With
the power of the internet and things like Skype, Face time, and Google Plus it
is a regular practice to see someone through a screen. While it is not the most
romantic way to communicate it still is something. And with that being said I
feel Te'o could have been smarter about that entire relationship. I think it is
rather foolish of anyone not just Te'o to fall victim to this trick. Finally, I
want to say that this major headline could have been avoided by simply taking
the time to video chat the person he was in the relationship with. In other
words I hope Manti and a majority of the world learned a huge lesson by this
and I hope those who were behind this learned a lesson as well. Even though Te'o
could have possibly avoided this, the truth of the matter is he still has
suffered a lot with this whole scandal and the lost of his grandmother. So while
some of the blame goes to him of course he should not carry all of the weight
on his shoulders for this one.
It is true that anyone can fall to a hoax. It is especially easy to fall for one on the internet now a day. For instance, one of my relatives received an e-mail from someone claiming to be one of my brothers asking for money saying that they were stuck in some city without any money. Thankfully, my relative did not fall for it, but internet hoaxes are a problem. I am totally in agreement with you in saying that this whole incident could have been avoided by simply doing a little more investigating in who you are dating on-line. So Te’o does deserve some of the blame.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe Manti fell for such a hoax so easily. He may have been tricked at the beginning, but couldn't come out to the media about it because he knew the tragedy was driving the media to support his Heisman campaign and Notre Dame's push towards the National Championship. If Te'o was in fact the victim of an elaborate hoax, then he has no one to blame but himself. If this girl was truly "the love of his life" as he so often claimed, then why did he make no effort to meet her in person or even attend her funeral?
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