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Catfished people to make friends... very disgusted

The title.. I'm a 14 year old girl and it all began when I randomly joined WhatsApp groups. The people in these groups ranged from the ages 16-20's. At the time, I was 12, I thought it would be fun to just occasionally speak there but I made up this fake persona. I told them I was 16 and faked everything. My name, my age, my school life. It's disgusting just to say this aloud. I then left all the groups because someone found out my 'picture' wasn't me. Looking back, that was such a relief. Until a year later, I'm 13 and I get added back. My immature self thought it would be fine to go back to that life and fake it all over again, which I did. Eventually, I left the groups once again. I felt disgusted, I created a whole persona and even faked an Instagram account, etc. Once I left all the groups, one girl still talked to me. We were so close and I loved her company. We would talk frequently and she quickly became my online best friend. But, I still felt horrible with myself. Every day I was lying to her. She would ask me about things that didn't exist! I just wished that I was my true self. So today, I built up the courage to confess. And yeah, I lost a friend but I couldn't do this anymore.

You may question why I catfished. Well, I was 12 and massively insecure. I found that online was a form of escapism. I could be anyone I wanted to and no one would question it. I thought that after leaving all the groups, no one would stick with me. I catfished because I wanted friends online, I didn't attempt to target anyone or make anyone fall in love with me (which thank god didn't happen). I'm just feeling very relieved as I don't have to fake a life anymore. And yeah... I want to improve myself as a person in 2021 and that starts from cutting off all the lies and my deceitful ways.

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Reply 1

Anonymous #1

I made this post because I saw another post about catfishing. And I just felt like I need to come clean about this and speak to people about it too because I can’t speak to any of my real life friends about it so I’m here anonymously :smile:

Reply 2

KhaleesiStorm

It's when you take on a fake identity. Such as if I pretended to be Miley Cyrus when I was speaking with someone over the internet. There's an MTV show called Catfish all about exposing people who do it. Or those Nigerian Prince scams, some of those could be seen as catfishing or some of the people who end up on 90-Day Fiancee

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

Just faking the identity. In my case I faked my age, name, face just to make friends which was disgusting and what I explained in the post :smile:

Reply 4

KhaleesiStorm

Various reasons. As the OP said, she was young and wanted to seem older and cooler. That seems to be the reason most younger people do it. Others its because they believe their looks or something is not attractive or that people won't like the real them. A lot of time, boredom. Its interesting and fun to be someone you're not. Other times it is to scam people, you get a number of people on the internet, especially the older generation who aren't as tech-savvy or aware, that will fall for these scams.

Reply 5

Anonymous #2

It can be easier to pretend to be a completely different person, most people don't pretend to be celebrities, instead normal people. It can be easier to make up whole new socials and pretend to be this fun and social person, when in reality you could be a loner. :tongue:

Reply 6

Anonymous #1

In my case, I did it to make friends. I of course didn’t pretend to be a celebrity or anything. I faked certain things because I was young and immature and the people on the groups were quite older than me. I wanted to be friends with them (stupidly) and faked everything because no 16 year old wants to be friends with a 12 year old (at the time). They asked me things that I didn’t want to reveal about my true self so I lied about it. I’ve matured somewhat now and put it to a stop. Which is what the post outlines. And I didn’t get exposed, no. And yes it was somewhat difficult at first.

Reply 7

KhaleesiStorm

I don't think you were disgusting. You were young and stupid, we've all been there. Heck, I even tried to pretend I had a more interesting life when I was younger and on various forums/games. As long as you aren't doing it now for malicious intent, you can learn and move on. I seriously wouldn't worry unless anything you did was illegal.

Reply 8

Anonymous #1

Please read my post and you’ll get an idea, but it was because I was young and immature. The people I wanted to be friends with we’re older than me so I faked things so I would seem to be the same as them. I changed things about me but kept my personality the same..

Reply 9

Anonymous #2

Personally I don't think you even really did anything wrong, idk. It must've hurt to lose a friend though

Reply 10

Anonymous #1

Oh yeah definitely! I felt so horrible about faking everything and took a step back and truly asked myself why I was doing it and there was no true answer why. I’m never going to do this again and my self confidence has improved so much in comparison to how low it was when I started off with all of this.

Reply 11

Anonymous #1

Original post by KhaleesiStorm

Thank you for that. I guess so. We all make mistakes but I guess I feel horrible for hurting someone and lying to them for such a long time. I truly appreciate that, it put my mind to rest 💓

Reply 12

Anonymous #1

Original post by Anonymous

Personally I don't think you even really did anything wrong, idk. It must've hurt to lose a friend though

It did

but it had to be done. She took it okay but it’s very awkward because why wouldn’t it be? . So I deleted the account and have no wish to go back.

Reply 13

KhaleesiStorm

Original post by Anonymous

Thank you for that. I guess so. We all make mistakes but I guess I feel horrible for hurting someone and lying to them for such a long time. I truly appreciate that, it put my mind to rest 💓

We do things as kids and young teens (even adults still do) that we come to regret over time. Don't dwell on the past cause you can't change it now.

Reply 14

Anonymous #1

Original post by KhaleesiStorm

We do things as kids and young teens (even adults still do) that we come to regret over time. Don't dwell on the past cause you can't change it now.

That’s true. We all make mistakes, I can’t change it so I won’t dwell on it and I’ll move on. Thank you for that :smile:

Reply 15

Anonymous #3

Oh no. Don’t feel disgusted with yourself. These things happen, I’ve done something similar as a teenager and I’m so glad you’ve learnt from the mistake. Don’t be so hard on yourself x