Reality TV: The Tearing Down of Society Essay

Do you know the guiltiest pleasure of the American public? Two simple words reveal all—reality TV. This new segment of the TV industry began with pioneering shows like MTV’s The Real World and CBS’s Survivor. Switch on primetime television nowadays, and you will become bombarded by and addicted to numerous shows all based on “real” life. There are the heartwarming tales of childbirth on TLC, melodramas of second-rate celebrities on Celebrity Mole, and a look into a completely dysfunctional family on The Osbornes. Yet, out of all these entertaining reality shows arises the newest low for popular culture, a program based on the idea of a rich man or woman in search of

argues that reality television has a bad influence on society. Reality television today gives people another excuse to be lazy and not better themselves. He uses sarcasm through the article. Also, he spoke about how reality television only praises the bad and the devious.

"Reality TV is set up to make people entertaining. A good person with values and principles is not good television" a quote by Ronda Rousey a mixed martial arts artist. Many people believe or want to believe that reality tv is true, but many other people avoid it for the fact that it is obviously fake. I personally don't watch reality tv but for the sake of this essay, I watched a few episodes of many television series to see and determine what I think about them. The point of this essay is to prove how fake reality tv is and I have succeeded in accomplishing that. Most of the reality shows have the camera crew all up in people's business or "secret" cameras placed in which people don’t know about them yet keep

In the essay, “Getting down to what is really real,” John Sullivan tells us about his thoughts on reality TV and explains why people are attracted to those shows. Some people might not like to admit they watch reality TV but it’s almost impossible to avoid hearing about it if you’re present on social media. We like watching it because it makes our lives look less stressful and drama is fun when you aren’t involved in it. It is easy to get attached to the characters and their unique personalities and most of all, people love the opportunity for easy fame.

As of today, television has become one of the most popular sources for entertainment over the world. In our generation, reality tv have one of the highest rates on television; But have you ever wonder what type of impact this has on our generation? In fact, reality tv promote a dangerous stereotype in many different ways. For an example, the tv show “Jersey shore” give the Latin-American a bad image. In addition, others will have a bad perspective on how New Jersey is viewed to the world. Therefore, reality tv promotes a dangerous stereotype on cultures, genders and norms over the world.

The most grotesque thing about this new version of television is that it deprives it’s people of their sense of reality. As Junhow puts it, “Reality TV is giving young adults horrendous visions and images of life that is just not like the world we currently live in” (Junhow 58). The main problem here is that while it may only seem like small fun entertainment value, these terrible ethics in shows are slowly changing how our world views itself, generation by generation. These negative images and thought process have a direct correlation to have people behave in the society. This can be compared to current society in that many children will take ethics and morals seen on TV and directly apply it in their own lives.

Reality TV is one of the most dominate TV genres of the twenty-first century. Audiences become enveloped in the intertwining and interesting stories of life, but is reality TV really depicting real life situations? In the case of “Big Brother” and “The Real Housewives of NJ” these reality TV shows do not truly depict reality.

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.”

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).

The days of traditional television shows, movies and plays are slowly coming to an end. Many people have replaced scripted shows with favorite actors with reality television. Reality television has introduced viewers to a cast of regular people they can relate to, and some of whom they are fond of or mimic in their day-to-day life basis. Reality television has however been on the receiving end of endless criticism. Critics maintain that it has “overwhelmingly turned young girls into divas and young men into bodybuilders ”. Despite this rapid transition in media that has led many to an inclination toprefer reality television rather than the traditional television shows, movies and plays, which was the case many years back, critics feel that the social, moral fabric is eroding at an extremely high rate . Certainly, this criticism aid in shaping reality television as we shall see in this study .

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

Reality television is an addicting phenomenon that graces millions of televisions daily. From shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Life of Kylie, and Love and Hip Hop to series like My Strange Addiction, Hoarders, and My 600-lb Life, reality TV has left its mark and impacted today’s society in more ways than one. It has slithered into mass media to dominate lives and focus on “real” events or situations that have long term effects on its viewers. This brand of television serves as a reflection of society and often exploits its participants if not glamorizes a certain lifestyle that may seem unattainable to its viewers. For example, the Kardashians represent success and the achievement of the American dream that, to many, is elusive. Through the dramatization of mental illness, Hoarders exploits its viewers and reinforces the perception of these people as outsiders which lead to further marginalization and hiding of hoarding behavior.

To begin, reality television shows are detrimental to society because they influence bad behavior among teenagers.

Another study is created to examine the realness of reality television shows. It is implemented because people are becoming concern that “reality” shows are often scripted and they do not necessary indicate reality. Although the source does not explicitly explain why people’s perception of the realness of reality show is important, it reveals if a reality television has an impact on viewers’ behavior, then these shows will be considered as real. Based on these studies, researchers conclude the category of each reality show will determine whether there is a positive or negative

Reality television shows tackle a wide variety of issues and can be about any topic that falls under a diversity of categories such as entertainment, talk shows, games, documentaries, real world events, police or emergency worker drama, etc.; this in itself is a factor that accounts for the large number of viewers this genre retains. In other words, when flipping through the television channels one can come across shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, The Biggest Loser, The Real Housewives of Orange County, Big Brother, The