Sometimes it just happens. Without thinking, you send a sarcastic or rude message, forgetting about how it might affect the person receiving it. Although technology is convenient and useful, it also makes it easier to make poor communication choices, such as using harsh language, lying, and even harassing.

In the movie Catfish, New York photographer Nev Schulman meets Megan Faccio through Facebook. He quickly falls for her, attracted by her photos and apparent musical talent. Over eight months, they develop an online romance through messages, e-mails, and phone calls. An aspiring singer, Megan impresses Nev with files she sends of her music. But Nev’s infatuation with Megan soon cools when he finds that her cover of the country standard “Tennessee Stud” was lifted from another artist on YouTube. When Nev finally decides to visit Megan at her home in rural Ishpeming, Michigan, what he discovers is a web of lies and fantasy. There is no Megan. She is the creation of another woman named Angela who pieced together a fictional Megan from the pictures, interests, and music of other people’s online profiles.

Nev fell for a common pitfall of mediated communication: people misrepresenting who they are for personal gain or satisfaction. In fact, online deception is so common that since 2012, Nev has been the host of Catfish on MTV, a television show in which he helps people find out if their online relationships are based on reality or lies. More often than not, the relationships are based on some form of deception. (Additionally, some people believe Nev himself to be deceptive—claiming he made up the scenario for the movie and none of it was real.)

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The harsh truth is that some people use mediated communication to lie, deceive, harass, and bully. Of course, these challenges aren’t limited to mediated messages, but certain characteristics of such communications make them especially likely to be used in this way.