Reality TV: The Tearing Down of Society

674 Words2 Pages

In today’s time, television has a broad array of shows. These programs range from children’s cartoons all the way to real-life dramas. Reality television portrays families in their everyday lives and how the typically handle dramatic situations. Although there is some truth in the family’s lifestyles and relationships, reality television creates a false interpretation of the way everyday families should live; moreover, the producers construct staged scenes, unrealistic images, and promote immorality.
Almost every day a new show is being advertised to come onto television. A majority of these new shows happen to be a fairly new genre called reality shows. These shows are based on real people’s lives and relationships. The truth of these shows is revolved around their jobs and basic everyday events. There is definitely truth that is shown through these shows. They intrigue people and draw them in because they can relate to their situations in some sort of way. The truth of these shows is that they show their family drama and what they go through every day.
Although there is truth in this type of TV show, most of it is staged. Reality TV was supposed to be based off of real families and their real-life situations, “But as franchises worth millions were built on the backs of these shows, the subjects became more professional, the situations more contrived and the material more provocative” (Deggans). The evidence that is shown here is that although these shows were founded on real families, Hollywood and producers believed that they needed to raise ratings by adding unrealistic family situations. These situations are clearly scripted to viewers, but the drama draws the viewers in. Staging drama is not anything new to Hollywood thoug...

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...this family as role models. What this indicates is that: “In the end, reality TV is us; a reflection of our best and worst urges in one toxic blend of arguments, ominous sound effects and montages” (Deggans). This proves that our society is straying from its’ moral compass. People are losing sight of what is right and automatically choose to do what they desire. Reality TV has influenced how society views sin, and they have created it to be even more appealing.
Reality TV is influencing the way individuals live their lives. It encompasses staged drama, false images of families, and it tries to make immorality seem appealing. Clearly, what people believe to be somewhat realistic is just another Hollywood show. The only truth in the shows are found by skimming the surface of the family’s lives. Hence, reality TV is not anything except a glorified, unrealistic life.

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