Blog Post #1: Online Identity and Manti Te'o

The world was shocked earlier this month when news broke that Manti Te'o, linebacker for The University of Notre Dame, had faked the story that endeared him to America: that his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, had passed away within 24 hours of his beloved grandmother, and that he still found the strength to play football that day. Unfortunately for Te'o, there is no Lennay Kekua. The pictures Kekua used online were of a random girl, and the personality belonged to a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. 

Te'o on the field for Notre Dame

In a story released on January 18th, two people stepped forward and claimed that Tuiasosopo had committed a similar scam involving their male cousin. In that instance he had also created a false online profile, under a different female name, and pursued a romantic relationship with the man in question. 

The revelation of at least one other "catfishing" incident on Tuiasosopo's record works in Te'o's favor, supporting his claim that he truly believed that Lennay Kekua existed, truly believed that she was his girlfriend, and truly believed that she had passed away. If this was indeed the case, Te'o was not the liar some had assumed he was when news of the deception first broke.

The woman whose image was used to be Kekua's

Tuiasosopo

But what does it all say about Tuiasosopo? This may be his most high-profile online identity-swap (that we know of), but reportedly it is not his first. This is not solely an issue of wanting to interact with a famous college athlete. Tuiasosopo's repeated behavior, including with at least one ordinary man, indicates that he was not satisfied with his real identity. Instead, he created false identities to stand behind. It is impossible to know exactly what motivated Tuiasosopo, but it is easy, with the facts at hand, to speculate. 

Perhaps he did not agree with his ascribed identity. The world saw Tuiasosopo one way, and he saw himself differently. Perhaps he wanted to be free to express his reflexive identity without judgment. It is probably not coincidental that Tuiasosopo is a man and yet both of his false online identities were those of women who created romantic relationships with men. It is possible that Tuiasosopo was trying to work out issues with his gender and/or sexuality.

Maybe this is reading too far into the facts at hand, giving Tuiasosopo too much credit. Maybe he just liked the attention, attention that he may have been lacking offline. Maybe he was bored. Maybe he liked the feeling of tricking people. 

Until the tell-all book and Lifetime movie come out, Tuiasosopo will remain a mystery to us, leaving us guessing and drawing our own conclusions. (That is, as long as this story stays in the news cycle.)