Reality Television

Reality Television

When I was in high school, there wasn’t a week that passed, as far as I can remember, that I didn’t watch some type of reality television show.  My friends and I always had our televisions on either MTV or VH1.  We would spend weekend mornings watching all the reruns just to catch-up on what we missed out on during the week.  As I started to get older, I didn’t watch MTV anymore since they stopped showing music videos.  I then stuck with just VH1 reality shows.  I knew all episodes of Surreal Life and Celebrity Rehab. 

Now in days, I don’t watch as much reality television as I did when I was younger, but I am guilty of watching Keeping up with the Kardashians and the spins off, just not faithfully.  I don’t think reality television is something I totally try to avoid  it’s more like if it’s on while I’m channel surfing then I’ll leave it there to watch, if there is nothing else better on.  Since I am not home much and when I am I am usually working on homework, I usually have the television on for the background noise not really to sit and watch. 

I don’t think reality shows are harming our society, but I do think that teens tend to look up to the people on the shows, which is not always good.  I understand that in order to attract an audience of people of all ages, from teens to adults, they need to add drama to the shows.  But, is there a way that they can add the drama without it being all bad drama?  I think since teens look up to these people, they should be more aware of what kind of examples they are setting.  For instance, I never watched Jersey Shore, but with them going out and partying a lot wasn’t good for teens to see.   That isn’t real life.  But until the teens watching these types of shows grow up, they will realize life is a lot harder than what they show on reality shows.

One thing I like about reality shows is that it shows that even if you’re a celebrity you have all the same issues as a normal person.   I know that they don’t show everything that was taped and edit to show what they think the audience wants to see.  But, I like when they deal with everyday issues that normal people go through.  It can help us to find other ways to deal with everyday issues.  What I dislike about reality shows is that they sometimes have people that set bad examples for the young teens, who probably shouldn’t be watching these shows to begin with.   I know that it’s not the shows fault since they run off of ratings, so whatever people are willing to watch they will show.  But, I think parents should be more aware of what their teens are watching, so they can explain to them the consequences of their actions.  The shows don’t always show the consequences, unless they feel that they will draw in ratings. Ultimately, we all have the choice to watch or not to watch reality shows.  And, we the audience have the power to keep a reality show running or have it canceled due to low ratings.