In Response to Casey's Blog: Reality TV: The New American Law and Life Machine

I completely agree with everything that is stated in Casey’s blog, and hold my own opinions even beyond hers. To say that reality television in America has taken hold of what people do in their daily lives is an understatement. One of the examples used was for the Jersey Shore. The Jersey Shore’s premiere season was only on the air for a couple short months, but it took the country by storm. Most people made fun of the show and mimicked the cast members, but nonetheless the reality TV show became a topic of everyday discussion. From personal experience I can say that my sisters and I would bring up the reality show as dinner conversation and even taught my father how to ‘fist pump like a champ’. Even as my family spoke of the show while out to eat at the Olive Garden restaurant, the waitress smiled as we brought up certain issues and laughed about different episodes. I’m pretty sure that every child, teenager, and adult has been educated on at least some aspect of the Jersey Shore mentality. In its short running the Jersey Shore reality show made quite an impact on popular culture. One could not even escape them on what seemed to be more respectable programming like the Jay Leno Show or Ellen DeGeneres.

As Casey discussed, there are a lot of controversial issues being brought up on reality television that are making the American public more familiar with those issues and almost to the point where they feel knowledgeable on the subject. Casey discussed the idea of the TV show Teen Mom and how it is almost glamorizing teen pregnancy. Some of the teenage girls clearly show the struggles a teen mom can go through, but those moms are being rewarded with publicity through a television show and often times there is some sort of resolution to their problem by the end of the episode. A lot of the struggle is cut out to fit it into a one episode viewing. Teen Mom does more harm than it does good at this point. MTV has decided that parading around a bunch of teenage girls and cute little babies would be something that would draw viewers in. For that purpose the executives were right. Many people tune in each week to watch the relationship problems between the couples as well as catch a glimpse of the adorable little babies. MTV has not brought real American issues to the forefront as much as it has made something like teen pregnancy seem like a good idea to an impressionable age group. I do like how Casey brought up that at least one of the teen stories has good aspects to it. The story where the teen mother put her daughter up or adoption, and got the help she needed to try and deal with such a difficult decision. That situation showed the maturity one teenager had in order to make a decision that would ultimately give the child a better life.

Many reality shows have come along in recent years that border on the line of ridiculous, but other shows do show some promise and have some purpose to them. I actually do appreciate shows like Celebrity Rehab, the Biggest Loser, and Hoarders on TLC. The reason I appreciate the concept behind this type of reality show is that it brings some of America’s biggest issues up and helps to give some understanding to what may have seemed ridiculous before. Celebrity Rehab has a good foundation for a show I think because it clearly displays how unglamorous drug and alcohol abuse is as well as the fact that celebrities do not always have it all. Most importantly though, the show demonstrates that getting help is the right thing to do. Getting help may be hard at first, but truly is rewarding in the end. I also appreciate the Biggest Loser because obesity is one of the biggest health issues in America today. By having a show that hits so close to home with many Americans, I think a lot of lives have been affected by it. I’m sure that many weight loss stories can be attributed to the inspiration behind the Biggest Loser. Lastly, I feel that Hoarders is an acceptable reality TV show because it gives a lot of information on a relatively unknown disorder. I’m sure a lot of people look at hoarders as freaks for insane things they save in their lives. This show hopefully allows hoarders in general to become more understood in society and helps to aid in the treatment of their disease.

I hope in the future that more reality shows that bring real issues to the forefront are created instead of some of the trash that is being forced on the youth of American today.