Reality Fatigue

Reality TV has become a significant part of popular culture and entertainment and currently enjoys international acclaim. The rapacity and insatiable self-indulgence of the cretinous producers entrench themselves within the fabric of society, as they pull the strings of a naive and manipulated audience.

Do the sadistic, cruel and degrading ideals of reality TV programs endorse and rationalize the anti-social backstabbing behavior and ideals rampant in our society today? Do they not choke high values and morality as they disparage and belittle uplifting ethics and principles of our culture so that perverted minds can get a base voyeuristic thrill?

The paradox of how people can be maliciously entertained by other’s suffering and humiliation is known as schadenfreude. Reality television promotes an environment of the negative raw emotions humiliation, deceit, rejection and desperation, while safely surveyed from a removed perspective. Aristotle named this purification and release of repressed emotion through this channel as catharsis. This god-like perspective allows a one-way inspection and discrimination of others, with a de-humanistic detachment from emotional commitment or responsibility. Therefore, reality TV encourages the titillating fantasy of having access to all that is concealed.

Assuredly, the chicken or the egg question is the very fabric of reality TV. Is reality TV degrading society? Or is reality TV merely a result of the degradation of society?

At a time when we are encouraged to be perceptive and preventative of bullying, we seem to be developing an insatiable appetite for manipulative, cruel programming. Far from simply being entertainment, reality TV influences and revolutionizes values, beliefs, and society. Why else would television programs be shielded with ratings? Or why would cigarette advertisements be torn from most types of media? Advertising relies purely on the fact that TV programs and interpersonal interactions seduce people, so is it not creditable that such reality TV shows have also manipulated our viewpoints of reality? What was once thought of as pornography now flaunts itself in programs deemed acceptable for family entertainment, and as we desensitize and become increasingly belligerent, our society becomes ever more debauched. So why are we shocked when we see more violence, drunkenness, sexual immorality, desperation and indifference to suffering in our society than ever before?

Yet, what is reality? As a nation, we have created multiple billion-dollar worlds around us through advertising. But while producers may feel warm and fuzzy, the inescapable process of globalization links us to a world of white, beaming families eating KFC at the dinner table, and young sex-oriented girls yearning for every man and his Ute. From tropical forests to glorified cages to the psychological confines of the weighing scales, the distorted reflection in the shattered mirror reflects only an explicit pseudo-experience.

Certain techniques are used, mainly as sale tools. Reality television often displays shaky camera footage or grainy film quality to create false authenticity as audiences often regard poor quality films as realistic. Subtitles are also incorporated in the global understanding that because ‘real’ TV is subject to the elements, authentic TV requires narration. On the contrary however, producers are saving millions. By involving the audience with audience interaction through SMS messaging, audiences both physically admire and become gizmonically hooked. Often there is an intense abhorrence towards flab and fat, thereby creating a freak show, which capitalizes on the dark fear and loathing of viewer’s own bodies. This escalates skinniness, and therefore anorexia, as a path to happiness. The basic misleading of reality TV creates a society in which sexy, thin and talented people will win. Other shows portray that only those who cheat with malicious intent, behavior or strategy, will come out on top. What kind of world, morals and behavior are we encouraging?

While reality TV remains commercially viable it will continue to thrive. Why would a producer pay Kelsey Grammar .8 million dollars per episode for Frasier, a script written gem, when superior ratings can be achieved cheaply by a narcissistic and conceited “Nobody”? Yet, how far will it go? In ten years, will the equivalent of today’s tourists who whisper in horror at the dire sacrificial Christian slaughters in Rome, likewise gape at the staged imprisonment of our own contestants, who are forced to drown and eat rats and bugs?

Reality TV will continue to haunt our tainted minds. How long will it continue to entertain before it gets out of control? How long will we allow its influence to contaminate our minds and culture? How long until YOU succumb to its urging?

Will you survive next week’s program?