Reality Check?

Turn on the TV and flip through the channels, what do you see? Television today is dominated by the “reality TV” fad. There seems to be a show for everything: Jersey Shore, American Idol, Real Housewives, 19 Kids and Counting, The Real World, Survivor, Storage Wars, Duck Dynasty, Dancing With the Stars, Deadliest Catch, Face Off, Hell’s Kitchen, Judge Judy, Teen Mom, The Bachelorette, America’s Next Top Model, Tanked, The Apprentice, Moonshiners, The Biggest Loser, Extreme Makeover, Ghost Hunters, Fear Factor, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, and more. One would think that in this small list of the growing number of reality television programs, you could find at least one show that actually depicts something resembling real life. Go ahead, I challenge you to try! In their attempts to recreate day to day life, television producers have left out one crucial element: reality. Before getting swept up in the reality TV craze, ask yourself, whose reality is this? If you’re a rich Guido housewife with 19 kids (one of which is a pageant queen), a knack for sci-fi make-up and costume design, a passion for creating multi-million dollar fish tanks, and a ghost haunting your mansion, you’ll easily be able to find something appealing and relatable to watch. However, for the rest of us, finding a show that’s relatable isn’t so easy.

                I find myself entirely unable to relate to shows like Buckwild or The Hills, which claim to depict the life of average teenagers. However, many shows exist that successfully recreate both the mundane and the dramatic qualities of everyday life. Shows such as Degrassi, Awkward, and Freaks and Geeks mirror the reality of the everyday life of a teenager, without the claim of reality TV, far better than those intended to be realistic. Not every teen can say that they’ve experienced the lavish life of the Hollywood hills, or the risqué lifestyle of West Virginian teens. However, every teen can probably say that they’ve faced, or known someone to face the challenges presented in shows like Degrassi, such as peer pressure, suicide, drug use, violence, death, teen pregnancy, bullying, self-injury, body image problems, and psychological disorders. In their attempts to recreate reality, creators of these shows continuously overlook and ignore the qualities of real life that make it relatable, in search of something more entertaining and less realistic.

                Reality shows claim to be raw, unscripted life, and depict life in its natural environment. However, when TV crews are following you around during your day to day activities, situations are bound to be manipulated. I know that if my life was the focus of a reality show, broadcast for millions of people to see, I would always put on make-up, be more conscious of what I say and do, and probably leave my dorm room more. Already, I’ve admitted that my reality show would be a manipulated version of reality, and therefore not reality at all. It’s not always easy to be yourself under the pressure and judgments of all those surrounding your life, let alone millions of viewers. I know I would feel incredibly uncomfortable being boring Katie Spiegel if millions of people were watching me. I would hope that there were make-up artists, and joke writers on staff to make me funnier and better looking. Also, if my real life were on TV, I would be forced to question whether my friendships and interactions were real or just fabrications from fame mongers. Not to mention, if I were getting paid, I probably wouldn’t be nice or let things slide. I would take advantage of my situation and probably be ruthlessly mean and say whatever I think because I’m rich and I can, and that’s what Americans want to see, apparently. As you can see, just the thought of being the focus of a TV show has made me doubt who I am, change the way I act/speak, stage situations, and toss my morals out the window. If you think that reality TV stars don’t face the same dilemmas, you’re not being realistic.

                Maybe real life can’t be found on TV because real life does not belong on TV. Television exists to escape reality, not create it. No one’s life is as consistently funny as Family Guy or Workaholics, or as dramatic as Breaking Bad or Sons of Anarchy, or as interesting as Supernatural or Game of Thrones. TV shows are created to give examples of what could be, or what would be, allowing us to imagine what it would be like to be something we’re not. Occasionally, a show comes along that actually depicts something we’ve faced, and gives us an example of how others dealt with it, allowing us as viewers to judge their actions. More often than not, TV is exaggerated and unrealistic. Real life can’t be recreated by TV because real life is full of boring routines and work and TV is the escape from those realities. TV is meant to entertain, not to bore us to death with the same routine we face each day. When seeking out real life to recreate, reality TV creators tend to fabricate interesting situations because they aren’t as common in real life as they are on TV. Maybe it’s time to face the fact that there is no such thing as “reality TV” because reality doesn’t belong on TV.