The Influence Of Reality Television On Society
When I was younger, my parents never warned me about watching reality television shows. However, eventually, I began to realise that reality television has a major involvement in the behaviours of our society. It is quite apparent that the reality television universe is emerging and not in the most positive way. So, the real question here is: Is reality TV harmful to society?
To begin with, reality television programs today promote selfishness. Every single cast member wants to be the star and will do almost anything and everything to achieve that goal. The producers of the show will continue to encourage this behaviour because it makes for ‘interesting’ TV. Now, viewers begin to believe that acting like their favourite reality star might get them what they want. Pouting, lying and sabotaging another person’s career or relationship will not make you popular.
Secondly, reality TV promotes irresponsible behaviour and teaches the wrong values. Studies by Dr. Gibson from Michigan University prove that excessive viewing of TV shows belonging to the reality category result in higher levels of aggression. This is because reality stars are encouraged to do erratic and irresponsible things to make the show more exciting. And as a result of this, some people, especially kids who watch them, think it is normal to behave in these ways and have unhealthy and dramatic relationships in their lives. However, in real life, it is not advised to get extremely drunk in public and start a fight with someone or use vulgar language and attitude when around friends and family. This type of behaviour occurs in numerous reality shows.
Next, reality television can change the standard of beauty and force viewers to believe they aren’t pretty or attractive enough. Young views watching, mainly girls, will change anything about themselves just so they can be like someone they idolise. For example, a number of girls look up to Kylie Jenner because of her appearance, most of which are actually fake features. Reality Television stars spend lots of time perfecting their appearance, getting expensive beauty treatments to ensure their skin and hair is flawless when they are in front of the camera. This can give viewers a false perception of what they should look like.
And finally, it is important to remember that Reality TV is not truly authentic. The cast members are paid to wear all the designer clothes, drink too much alcohol, yell at one another for no reason and behave irrationally. Not to mention, the writers create the situations, plot lines and speeches that the cast members say. They also take different clips from different places and put them together, creating a whole new incident that never actually occurred to entertain the audience.
After this, it is evident that reality TV has a huge impact on the way people view and deal with real-life situations. Don’t be fooled by the fact that this genre is referred to as ‘reality’ and start imitating the behaviour of your favourite reality stars.
