The damage of "Reality TV" OP/ED

[Catholic_Lady]

In my defense, lol, I think ppl are extremely interesting. I see reality shows as being like social experiments: take a group of strangers and put them in some kind of crazy situation and see how they react. That is especially true for survivor, which in my opinion is the best reality show ever made.

[paulpablo]

In my defense, lol, I think ppl are extremely interesting. I see reality shows as being like social experiments: take a group of strangers and put them in some kind of crazy situation and see how they react. That is especially true for survivor, which in my opinion is the best reality show ever made.

 I haven't seen survivor so I'm just talking about the reality show I've seen here but......
The problem is that you aren't necessarily seeing genuine reactions.  

You're seeing people act in a way to optimize drama, comedy and publicity to ensure they'll get further work on television a large portion of the time.

For example something I spoke about before is people saying stupid things on purpose for comedy effect.

Big brother in the UK started out as a genuine social experiment and it was interesting, there were builders, bankers and people you'd not be surprised to run into at a bus stop or in the work place.

After that the huge influx of the contenders was purely the people wanting to be famous.  Dancers, failed popstars, people purely wanting to get a foot in the reality tv show game.

And a lot of the time that's what the situation will be at best.

At worst it will be the producer just telling someone they need to cause trouble or set up a scenario for them to play along with.  Something like on pawn stars it will be "Oh no, Jim Bob's organized something and I need to find something before a certain time or Imma gonna really be in trouble!"

But saying that, I've never seen survivor so I can't comment on that show.

[Jackalope]

So shut the damn TV off and do something else.  TV producers make shit that people want to watch in order to sell advertising.  Fewer people watch, fewer shows like that will be made, problem solved.

Otherwise, it's just a pointless bitchfest that isn't going to amount to jack shit.

None of our conversations on a random website will amount to jack shit.

Sure. But we can do more than just bitch about it - such as in this case, turning the damn thing off.

[TheRealJoeFish]

Anyone who isn't skeptical about reality tv must be either young or unwise or something.

It's obvious that the shows are either completely fake, or that the situations are encouraged by producers to make it exciting to watch on a day to day basis.
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[Catholic_Lady]

In my defense, lol, I think ppl are extremely interesting. I see reality shows as being like social experiments: take a group of strangers and put them in some kind of crazy situation and see how they react. That is especially true for survivor, which in my opinion is the best reality show ever made.

 I haven't seen survivor so I'm just talking about the reality show I've seen here but......
The problem is that you aren't necessarily seeing genuine reactions.  

You're seeing people act in a way to optimize drama, comedy and publicity to ensure they'll get further work on television a large portion of the time.

For example something I spoke about before is people saying stupid things on purpose for comedy effect.

Big brother in the UK started out as a genuine social experiment and it was interesting, there were builders, bankers and people you'd not be surprised to run into at a bus stop or in the work place.

After that the huge influx of the contenders was purely the people wanting to be famous.  Dancers, failed popstars, people purely wanting to get a foot in the reality tv show game.

And a lot of the time that's what the situation will be at best.

At worst it will be the producer just telling someone they need to cause trouble or set up a scenario for them to play along with.  Something like on pawn stars it will be "Oh no, Jim Bob's organized something and I need to find something before a certain time or Imma gonna really be in trouble!"

But saying that, I've never seen survivor so I can't comment on that show.

I understand there's editing and some producer manipulation. in some shows much more than others. But I think for at least the shows I watch, it paints a fairly accurate general picture of what goes on, even with the dramatization of editing.

[Tonus]

I don't enjoy reality TV because the concept is meant to imply spontaneity but it's clear that there are storylines and contrived drama, and people are picked for their willingness to NOT act realistically. Maybe in the earliest days of it there was some randomness but like any medium, it is going to be refined as producers figure out what works and fill the shows with that. We're at a point where there are strict formulas that have to be followed, and they're followed so strictly that each episode is pretty much the same. Even reality 'fixer upper' shows, which I used to enjoy, got annoying after a while because you could see them following the script. The "surprises" were no longer surprising and the drama goes flat.

[brewer]

That is oversimplifying it. If you don't know that something is having an affect on you or why, it is very easy for it to have an affect on you. Just like teaching a kid a religion, selling it to them before they can formulate adult reasoning skills. To claim marketing is different in commercials than religion would be a mistake. Both employ appeals to emotion. 

You are right, it does not have to damage you, but if you are unaware of it, in the first place it can.

I didn't have the same reasoning skills as a kid that I do now. I did fall for marketing, from everything from Santa, to music, to even the type of cigarettes I started smoking at the age of 13. Back then I really thought, if I did this, or wore that, or had this or had that, my life would be better. 

Even with adults, you'd like to think everyone can think for themselves and marketing does not affect adults, but if that were true we would not have who we have about to take office. Marketing works like I said.

Oh my gosh, you're so right.

Thank you ever so much for saving me.

[Minimalist]

So shut the damn TV off and do something else.

That's my solution. 

Your solution may vary.

[mlmooney89]

I understand there's editing and some producer manipulation. in some shows much more than others. But I think for at least the shows I watch, it paints a fairly accurate general picture of what goes on, even with the dramatization of editing.

I think Survivor does pretty well with leaving the people alone but I don't think the Bachelor can say the same.

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I think I'm most upset and ranting over the History channel myself lol I just miss the old programs. I live in another city from where I work so I don't have anything to do on my hour lunch break so I usually watch TV in the break room. I would rather it be on for background noise than turn it off but I would pick to have good programming. It's either reality TV or ancient aliens these days... *sigh* Usually I settle for Snapped or some police show but I'm not happy about it lol

[Regina]

Anyone who isn't skeptical about reality tv must be either young or unwise or something.

It's obvious that the shows are either completely fake, or that the situations are encouraged by producers to make it exciting to watch on a day to day basis.

It's probably soul destroying to watch TV with me because I watch it a lot of the time with the mind of a producer or editor.

Exactly. A lot of these "reality" TV shows are at least semi-scripted. The "competition" shows like X-Factor, Big Brother and [country]'s Got Talent are well-known for scouting and recruiting contestants (guaranteed places on the show, before they even audition) they think will bring the show ratings.

I can kind of see what Brian's frustration is, in the sense that there's a lot of downright stupid fuckers who watch these biblically and take them so seriously. I don't know if I'd argue that the shows themselves do the damage though, these people were dumbed down long before.