Choosing Reality

There is no doubt that television holds a purpose in our society today, but is that purpose brain-numbing or actually beneficial to our brain development? The television, also known as: TV, the boob tube, the idiot box, as well as many other nicknames, has been around for almost a hundred years. Ever since cable TV became popular in the 1950’s, there has always been a worry that people watch too much TV. Most people believe that with exorbitant exposure to the popular media both dumbs us down as well as makes us more likely to tolerate acts of violence. Dana Stevens’ “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box” argues that television does not make you smarter, directly

The evolution of television content is currently steadily moving towards reality television shows. The shift from interest in fiction drama series to reality shows has turned the regular television viewers into addicted voyeurs. There have been diverse views on the effect of reality television shows ranging from support to criticism. George Will, in his article “Reality television: oxymoron” believes that reality television is making ordinary people degenerate morally and act stupid in the effort to please a disinterested audience. Reality TV shows are relying heavily on building extraordinary characters or events out of the norm and attract the attention of the audience. Kellner argues that the audience is enticed by “media constructs

In order to fit in to society, some people may modify their own actions based on the perceived reality of the TV show. It is easy to reality TV programs and the way they are perceived, could affect society as a whole.

Lastly, reality television programs are detrimental to society because they humiliate many of the characters. This is detrimental to the characters because of obvious reasons such as suicide. The effects of this on society are even greater. Many people watch shows such as American Idol because they find it humorous when some of the characters have awful singing abilities, and therefore humiliate themselves. In my opinion, this makes many viewers bullies inside. If an individual watches the misfortune of others to make them feel better about themself, they are a bully. Therefore, reality television indirectly causes people to be bullies. Studies show that if a person has negative thoughts as a result of watching people humiliated on television; they may begin to

In Katha Pollitt 's essay entitled "The Hunger Games ' Feral Feminism," Pollitt writes about what reality television might look like if taken to extremes. Reality television is a huge part of our culture today, and I not only agree with Pollitt 's views and ideas of what reality TV would look if taken to the extremes, but I believe that we have already gotten to that point. Today 's reality TV shows such as "Keeping up with the Kardashians", "The Bachelorette" or any of the "Real Housewives" are among many of today 's popular shows that focus on extreme aggression, bullying, physical beauty, and sex appeal. These TV shows teach us that it is not only ok to compromise morals and values, but that type of behavior accepted and rewarded. In today 's age, reality TV generally has to go negative and go to the extreme in order for it to be interesting despite the lasting impact that it may have on viewers. Reality TV has an impact on the values of their viewers and alters how they may perceive real-life situations. Therefore, it 's important to take a look at some of the standards portrayed by reality TV.

Not only is reality TV inappropriate, but it can also humiliate people. For example, in Jersey Shore when the cast goes out to Karma, a club in Jersey, the cast gets drunk and embarrasses themselves because they start getting careless with their actions, cause trouble with other people and start revealing things on TV like skirts going up, tops coming down, etc. For a recovering addict, it is a disgrace to watch themselves and their families on programs like Intervention because they can look back at how they used to struggle in those “sticky situations” and it will always be a part of television entertainment. 16 and Pregnant shows couples and families getting into fights with each other and the cameras are always catching every moment of these battles along with the ups and downs of their struggle. This is what catches the viewers’ attention, dramatic fights. Poniewozik expresses how “it’s often women degrading themselves” and he does not want his “nine year-old thinking that’s the way girls should behave” (236). Basically, Poniewozik expresses how these shows, give people an insulting idea of women, so he forbids his daughter to watch these television

Today while watching a movie or television show on cable, there were four to five minute breaks of commercials. Most of these commercials consisted of new reality shows. If they were not new, then it was the dates for when they old shows would make a comeback and start another season. Reality television has been in our lives since the 1940s. Although, the shows that were on years ago were much less vulgar than they seem to be now. It appears reality television continues to go down the wrong road. It is seen in many popular reality shows where the characters are almost getting praised for the bad behavior that they show on camera. This is important to know because it is has become a very popular thing for many people to watch, especially young teens. This gives the people in the shows the opportunity to be a role model for teens who might be looking elsewhere other than parents or peers for someone to look up to. It has also been shown that more teens would be interested in signing up to be on a reality show for the chance to gain fame by just about living their life. Reality television has done more harm than good to our society. For the most part, the shows today are showing more things that effects our teens in a more negative way. This left me with the question on does reality television really affect us? There are positives and negative effects on its viewers as well as the effect is has had on the culture of today’s society.

Society today has created an alternate reality that manipulates its viewers into believing that inappropriate behavior is alright when it’s not. So while parents sit there watching “Housewives in Orange County” with their kids and a cat fight breaks out between Vicki Gunvalson and Heather Dubrow. Are they the example parents want their kids to follow in view of the fact of these women are out of highschool and college yet they act as if they were still immature young adults. The alternate reality world that has captured and manipulated so many of young adult population into acting irrationally, impulsive, and disastrous actions is reality tv.

Reality TV shows will continue to thrive as they fill up TV screens in homes all across the nation. The people that watch reality television will go through their daily routine waiting anxiously for their favorite part of the day when they can take a seat on the couch, kick their feet back, and catch up on the latest gossip

In her 2014 The Atlantic column “ The Collective Conscience of Reality Television,” Serena Elavia argues, viewer ratings significant influence of what appears on reality TV shows leads to irrational behavior by reality stars as well as exploits and violates the privacy of these stars. Elavia begins my mentioning viewer likes and dislikes. She notes that viewers “avidly consume” the physical and verbal fights that are shown on TV, thus indicating producers and the network will continue to air unpleasant and rowdy scenes. Also commenting that if viewer ratings go up due to these violent clips and if the network does not face any lawsuits then episodes displaying violence will continue to be aired. Later, Elavia points out the backlash the network

Reality TV is known as exciting entertainment because the audience never knew what will happen next as it is with no strings attached and even have the freedom of speech. Despite the entertainment it can bring, the content of reality shows are actually degrading the society. Our pop culture and civilization have been affected by the reality programs in a bad way. Indeed, reality TV is promoting bad social value to the

Can T.V. shows be the reflection of our society or influence the behavior of the members of our community? Since 1936 when television broadcasting begin, it priority was to inform and to entertain our society; subsequently, a massive amount of rules and regulations were created to control the material presented in TV, which principal goal was to safeguard the moral and ethical standards of it time. Nevertheless, from its beginning to the present home entertainment television standards contents have change; likewise, the moral an ethics values of our society have change and continuing changing from generation to generation. TV shows from the 50’s, 80’s, and the present exposed many changes in the way human role are exposed, the language

For close to a decade, the ethics behind the existence of reality TV have been questioned. While there are ardent viewers of reality TV, researchers and other scholars disapprove them, and claim that the world would have been in a better place. Reality TV shows, especially in America, are extremely profitable to media owners, and this has increased their popularity in the recent years. The main target audience for these shows are teenagers and women, who spend a lot of time discussing about them, even hours after the shows. Most of the reality shows in America and other parts of the world have common ideas. The most fundamental aspect of most reality TV shows is that they display people who go through embarrassing, painful and humiliating ordeals. This is what the reality shows expect their audiences to be entertained, and presumably laugh at the situations the people go through. For this reason and many more, it has been found that they are more detrimental than entertaining to the society, and therefore, the world would be in a better place without them (Pozner 89-91).

To quote Matt Philbin, managing editor of the MRC Culture & Media Institute, “the problem with much of reality TV is that it isn’t about real people or reality at all. These are highly scripted, performed shows, ‘written’ like a piece of fiction and as such they need the classic conflict-driven characters and soap opera melodrama.”

Over the last forty to fifty years, television has been a major topic of discussion. Specifically, many debate societal benefits to television watching. One widely accepted opinion is that watching TV makes people dumber. People have referred to it with terms like the “idiot box” and do not feel that watching TV has any benefit at all. They feel that it is a waste of time and people need to spend their hours more wisely. Others are of the opinion that TV is actually has societal benefits. From this perspective, they claim that the development of the structure of the programs now requires one to intellectually participate in watching television. Essentially, the argument is whether TV is a beneficial societal force or is it simply a