Reality TV is ruining America.
Take a look at your T.V. guide, for it’s almost given that there will be any number of love connection, I want to look like this celebrity, who wants to win a million dollars?, or I used to be famous, now I am not shows. That’s right, today’s society is littered with reality television, and just about everyone is tuning in to watch it. There are many different varieties of these shows, however there are even more spin offs and knock offs of the other, original shows. It is easy to see that people find a certain joy from reality TV that they cannot obtain from other scripted shows; that they find happiness in watching people live their “real” lives. Our culture has come to accept reality TV with open arms. Never once questioning, why Flavor Flav hasn’t found his true love, or perhaps he should give up and stay home with his 8 children. We enjoy watching celebrities that have failed, gained weight, or even better have done both and are now in celebrity rehab.
Instead of turning on the news to find out about current events, we find out that Paris Hilton is out of jail, or that Brittany Spears may get to visit her children. We as a society have allowed reality tv to clog up our minds.
One of the worst parts of reality tv is not only are adults (who are looking for an escape) tuning in, but children of all ages are. This act is worse than all the other multitude of media that children are subjected to daily, because “Tila Tequila” is real. Children and teens love tuning in to watch shows like, My Super Sweet Sixteen: “Adolescents featured on the program are often portrayed as spoiled, demanding, temperamental, and ungrateful, due to the superficial lifestyle their parents afford them, and are constantly boastful of the things they have been given.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Super_Sweet_16) I don’t know if the parents are to blame for raising children like this or if the kids should just be shot. I feel that anyone who is turning sixteen years old and cries when their dad threatens them with buying a brand new practical car as opposed to a sports car, deserves a swift kick to the ass.
Of course, by watching these types of shows children are becoming more and more demanding, because it’s acceptable on TV. The realty shows in which a formerly popular celebrity is now looking for love (again), are also popular amongst a younger crowd. By watching these ones, such as Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, and Shot at Love, they are exposed to (former) strippers, sexually explicit situations, bad behavior, and overall a crude lifestyle that no person would request their child actually experience. Of course it can be argued that it is the parents’ responsibility to teach children from right and wrong, and that the things they see on TV are pretend. However this is when it no longer becomes black and white, the so-called pretend TV previous generations grew up on cease to exist. Now the things they see are much more tempting and glamorous, because what they are watching is “real”.
The problem is that no one is taking the time to tell that just because its called reality TV, it doesn’t mean that it is real. We know that you don’t really find your true love for the 2nd time in a pre-selected group of twenty some women with a cup size no smaller than DD. We know that when we begin to develop an intimate relationship someone, we don’t give them an oversized clock/necklace or a backstage pass with their picture on it. We know that (for the most part) we will not be rewarded by making it to sixteen without a job or a sense of reality with a $45,000 car. We know that not everyone goes to see Dr. 90210 when we have some problem with our bodies that could be solved with three weeks of exercise. We also know that for every bisexual girl, there probably are not ten guys and girl competing for her affection. We also know our day will not begin with “This is the true story... of seven strangers... picked to live in a house...work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens when people stop being polite... and start getting real...The Real World.”
Instead of turning on the news to find out about current events, we find out that Paris Hilton is out of jail, or that Brittany Spears may get to visit her children. We as a society have allowed reality tv to clog up our minds.
One of the worst parts of reality tv is not only are adults (who are looking for an escape) tuning in, but children of all ages are. This act is worse than all the other multitude of media that children are subjected to daily, because “Tila Tequila” is real. Children and teens love tuning in to watch shows like, My Super Sweet Sixteen: “Adolescents featured on the program are often portrayed as spoiled, demanding, temperamental, and ungrateful, due to the superficial lifestyle their parents afford them, and are constantly boastful of the things they have been given.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Super_Sweet_16) I don’t know if the parents are to blame for raising children like this or if the kids should just be shot. I feel that anyone who is turning sixteen years old and cries when their dad threatens them with buying a brand new practical car as opposed to a sports car, deserves a swift kick to the ass.
Of course, by watching these types of shows children are becoming more and more demanding, because it’s acceptable on TV. The realty shows in which a formerly popular celebrity is now looking for love (again), are also popular amongst a younger crowd. By watching these ones, such as Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, and Shot at Love, they are exposed to (former) strippers, sexually explicit situations, bad behavior, and overall a crude lifestyle that no person would request their child actually experience. Of course it can be argued that it is the parents’ responsibility to teach children from right and wrong, and that the things they see on TV are pretend. However this is when it no longer becomes black and white, the so-called pretend TV previous generations grew up on cease to exist. Now the things they see are much more tempting and glamorous, because what they are watching is “real”.
The problem is that no one is taking the time to tell that just because its called reality TV, it doesn’t mean that it is real. We know that you don’t really find your true love for the 2nd time in a pre-selected group of twenty some women with a cup size no smaller than DD. We know that when we begin to develop an intimate relationship someone, we don’t give them an oversized clock/necklace or a backstage pass with their picture on it. We know that (for the most part) we will not be rewarded by making it to sixteen without a job or a sense of reality with a $45,000 car. We know that not everyone goes to see Dr. 90210 when we have some problem with our bodies that could be solved with three weeks of exercise. We also know that for every bisexual girl, there probably are not ten guys and girl competing for her affection. We also know our day will not begin with “This is the true story... of seven strangers... picked to live in a house...work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens when people stop being polite... and start getting real...The Real World.”