Reality TV

Reality TV or shall we say Trash TV.

Hollywood has always done a great job selling lifestyles. Sitcoms from the 50’s made us think that all moms wore heals and pearls to cook dinner and that all kids needed to do when they got in a jam was confess and the punishment was to miss dinner and all would be forgiven in the morning.

Somewhere along the way TV got “gritty”. Wholesome went off the air and teen pregnancy and drugs became the new norm. Moms were mean, thin and yelled a lot; dads were overweight, dumb and submissive.

As if this was not bad enough MTV started a show called the Real World, the premise being stick a bunch of kids in their early 20’s in a house together and start the cameras rolling. The audience was led to believe that they “forgot” about the cameras and what was on film was how these people really live.

Now we have shows about housewives, musicians, pregnant teens, polygamist, tattoo artist, restaurant owners, pawn shop owners and the list continues.

Let’s suspend reality for a moment and pretend that the people on these shows really “forget” that they are on camera, are any of these people normal everyday people? I hope not.

If Reality TV is real reality, it is no wonder test scores in our schools are dropping, jobs are being shipped overseas and people are losing their homes.

The thing is, reality TV is not real. I don’t know anyone who behaves like one of the Real Housewives or a Kardashian. Buying into the reality of these shows excuses and glorifies bad behavior. Suddenly spending thousands of dollars for toddler cloths on a shopping trip seems normal. Jumping from man to man and bed to bed seems like no big deal.