By Kelsey Bischot
Sentry Staff Reporter
Want to learn how to raise a baby as a teenager? Watch Teen Mom. Want to stalk every moment of star’s life? Watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Want to learn about weird obsessions such as eating soap? Watch My Strange Addiction. As millions of Americans recently sat down and watched the Oscars, it got me thinking about American reality TV shows and movies. There is almost no educational or informational value in watching these programs and they rather coax bad influences and behavior.
Since the introduction of reality TV around the 1950s, it has simply gotten worse and worse every year with the debut of new useless programs that somehow grab the attention of millions of Americans every time and continue to feed them pointless stories and information season after season. The ratings sky rocket when the stars cheat on their partners, get into fights, get plastic surgery or go on glamorous vacations. The TV programs thrive with America’s lust for high drama. The stars are not only prospering from these overdramatic and silly acts (that are usually staged or planted for maximum drama), but they are actually encouraging bad morals and poor behavior of the audience.
For example, take a look at Jersey Shore. Even though the show has recently ended, almost everyone has probably seen or at least heard of the show. Debatably one of the most renowned stars of Jersey Shore, JWOWW (Jenni Farley), appears as one of the most fake and ridiculous characters who boasts bad morals and influences. When she is not hungover or sleeping around, she is getting into fights and simply acting rude and self-centered. This ridiculous TV show was being shown all over the nation and world with, astoundingly, millions of viewers. Why would anyone watch such a show? The over dramatic and simply crazy characters on the show draw audiences in it is the drama people are missing in their day-to-day lives and are able to watch and laugh at on TV.
Many TV channels such as the CW boast beautiful models on America’s Next Top Model, encouraging perfect body image. These girls are stick-skinny and only concern themselves about their beauty, looks, and competition. This does not teach girls about self esteem, rather it degrades girls’ own body image. Watching these ‘perfect’ girls strut their ‘perfect’ looks, audiences compare themselves to the models. Reality TV shows like these are telling us that we all need to look a certain way in order to please someone. These shows are not teaching teens and audiences across the world good morals and are most definitely not portraying idols audiences can look up to.
Ironically, TLC stands for The Learning Channel but honestly does not have any educational value. Some of their current shows are Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Extreme Couponing, Toddlers and Tiaras and My Strange Addiction. The only thing you could be learning is how to become a bratty pageant girl or learning about weird addictions to eating soap or being an adult baby. If you have not heard of any of these shows, your are lucky and it is probably for your own good. These are simply ridiculous shows with no purpose. TLC describes the shows Here Comes Honey Boo Boo as a show that gives “an inside look into Alana’s world where the six-year-old pageant sensation proves that she is more than just a Go-Go Juice-Drinking beauty queen.” First of all what is a Go-Go Juice-Drinking beauty queen? Why would anyone watch a show about a seven year old’s life as a bratty and dramatic pageant queen? For example, in one episode, Alana(main character nicknamed ‘Honey Boo Boo’) visits the Redneck Olympics in which her mom, June describes the people as being “not beautimous.” They participated in bobbing, no not for apple, but for pigs and mud pit belly flops. First of all, the grammar and language on the show is terrible and not in any way teaching viewers any educational value, despite the channels name. Second, how is bobbing for pigs feet and doing muddy belly flops teaching the young kids watching the shows anything besides ridiculous and nonsensical acts? Therefore, there is not much value to watching shows like these besides wasting your time. I am not going to tell you what to do instead by saying that you should read a book instead or go to a museum (which you will actually learn something from besides how to be a spoiled and bratty girl), but shows like these are simply a pure waste of your time.
So why then do we watch these shows of so little value? Could it possible that by immersing ourselves in someone else’s dramatic and tragic life, we feel better and more secure about our own lives?
