Reality T.V.

In todays society, we think its okay to act a certain based on what we see on the television screens. But why? The answer’s simple: Reality Television makes it okay. Reality TV has degenerated our culture. When teenagers watch ridiculous shows that are aired late at night, they believe incidents like they view really happen, when in “reality”, these scenes are played up for entertainment and excitement. More excitement and entertainment means more violence, more conflict, more negative incidents. All “reality” tv is is a bunch of scripts and edits just to gain public interest, but then are played off like they are unplanned.

Reality T.V. is grabbing teenagers attention, but all in the wrong ways possible. Teenagers are being exposed to intense partying, drinking, drug use, violence, excessive vulgar language, and not knowing the consequences of having unprotected sex. When teenagers see their “role models” behaving this way, they think that it’s okay to act like this.

T.V. shows on MTV, for example, attract teenagers due to the entertainment these “reality” shows promote. The entertainment represented in these shows offer negative actions, in which the consequences aren’t presented. As teens are exposed to these actions without consequences, they believe that they are superior to the negative outcomes, which influences them to follow what they view on screen.

Jersey Shore

The MTV show that received 4.4 million viewers in the summer of 2010 was Jersey Shore. This show is about sexual hookups, excessive drinking, nasty language, and short scenes of physical violence. This show is non educational, unlike other shows aired on MTV because Jersey Shore glorifies sex, drinking, tanning, and so forth without its consequences and the only reason it is popular is because of its offensive drama.

Embarrassingly, I am one of the 4.4 million viewers of this juvenile behavior. Each episode, the cast members would drink themselves to oblivion and usually start a fight, hook up, or pass out. None of the real life consequences ever aired on T.V. If teenagers aren’t exposed to the negative consequences to their actions, then they will believe that nothing bad comes from this behavior, and they will go out and reenact it themselves; and they will find out the real consequences the hard way.

They believe they are invincible to UV rays, as in spending majority of their time in a tanning bed. All members are obsessed with who looks the most orange and bicker over who has the better tan. During an episode, they gave out a superlative to a member who is “Most likely to get skin cancer”. All the members of the house found this as a hilarious joke, and so did the rest of America. This shows that exposing your skin to harmful UV rays is okay. In fact, tanning beds triple your chances of exposing yourself to skin cancer. These actions shouldn’t be promoted positively, negative consequences should be shown.

Mostly, each episode has various escapades of sexual hookups. Whether it’s between the roommates themselves or a random girl/guy they pick up from the club, hooking up is a common thing on the show. The castmates refer to hooking up as receiving the “Golden Ticket”, which shows that they encourage this hooking up and it’s the greatest thing to do. Hooking up can range from kissing, oral sex, to sexual intercourse. During these episodes, it’s not the same girl every time; it’s a different girl, each episode. The crew actually finds the amount of people they hooked up with funny, as if it’s a joke and it’s nothing to be worried about. But during these scenes, not once was a method of prevention of STD’s was displayed. It’s almost as if having unprotected intercourse doesn’t come with any consequences. Teenages perceive this behavior as a normal thing to do if it’s shown each episode each season. MTV producers don’t even show concern of sexual health, giving no warning to use protection or the consequences of without using it. If the consequences aren’t stressed, teenagers perceive this behavior as okay and will do it themselves.

People have began to realize that this show and these “role models” have negatively impacted society, that large companies began to stop showing their commercials during the hour the show is aired or disassociated themselves completely. Abercrombie, for example, Abercrombie and Fitch offered a substantial payment to “The Situation” so he could stop wearing their clothes, which won’t damage their image. Dominos Pizza removed their commercials from MTV during the first season of the show, again because they don’t want to ruin their image (and I guess people would lose their appetite watching what goes down in the shore). These provocative shows and cast members not only negatively impact teenagers, but also society as a whole.

Teenage Pregnancy

Does MTV’s intended message about teen pregnancy really get out to their audience? They try to get across that teen pregnancy “will cause heartache and will make it hard to receive an education.” Yeah shows like “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” showed us some difficulties they faced being a teen mom, such as not being able to afford proper care for the infant and struggling to get schoolwork done.

As popularity of the shows grew, so did public interest of the stars. The teen moms began to find financial stability as their paychecks from MTV were distributed. The mothers began to spend the money on buying houses or for physical necessities, not caring for their infants.

Since the girls were no longer broke and didn’t struggle to buy diapers, the plot line was twisted. Instead of watching the girls struggle to make a life of themselves while caring for a child, the main focus was on relationship problems; whether it be with a mate or a close family relative. It’s as if the infant was just a prop in the background, and the real problem was the relationships, not the fact that being a teen mom is hard.

Since the show has helped the teen moms financially, teenagers don’t see as much of a struggle of being a teen mother. Teenagers see the hardships at first, but they believe that if the teen moms can overcome them, so can they.

Buckwild

This “comedic” series is about a group of teenagers from West Virginia that ignore grown-up responsibilities and live by the carefree motto “Whatever happens, happens”. Often referred as “Redneck Jersey Shore”, the show follows the same plot when it comes to drinking and intercourse with a twist of daredevil behavior. Whether it’s having a pool party in the back of a truck, mud racing, rope swinging, these choices are carefree and reckless. The teens perform violent, outrageous, daredevil stunts throughout each episode without taking their safety concerns into play. They do these wild stunts to find their own entertainment. If teenagers see that this dangerous stunts can be done for fun without being exposed to safety dangers, then they are more likely to perform the same stunts.

The Senator of West Virginia John Manchin pleaded for the show not to appear on MTV before it premiered, explaining that it wrongly depicts the lives of those in West Virginia. The show creates ugly stereotypes of people living in the state, and the show encourages teenagers to act recklessly.

The show was cancelled after the first season when they lost one of their cast members to an automobile accident. Ironically, you would assume the accident was caused by reckless behavior, but it wasn’t. Although the cause of the accident of the cause wasn’t identified (although there are rumors saying they were driving under the influence) death was caused by exposure to carbon monoxide.

Todays traditional values and expectations have lowered due to “reality t.v.”. The actions that teenagers see on the screen perform the same ones in everyday life because they think it’s acceptable to. Even though teenagers aren’t exposed to consequences, they still act without thinking because they have only been exposed to what the script wants them to see.

All in all, “reality t.v.”. is ruining the way teenagers behave, and they need to learn that what they see as “reality” on the screen isn’t really Reality.