The Danger of the Bachelor

This week, the season finale of The Bachelor aired. Millions of viewers worldwide tuned in to see Jo Jo’s heart breaking while Lauren had the best day of her life. I, personally, viewed several snap chat stories of people cheering or screaming in agony by Ben’s decision. I am not an avid viewer of this show, however, for the finale, I decided to tune in. While the show was entertaining and eventful, I couldn’t help but think of the practicality of the situation.

Here we have a man, a charming intellectual man whom by some weird turn of events is unable to find a significant other. Therefore, he is presented with 25 (equally beautiful, talented and mysteriously single) women to “date” and day-by-day eliminate a potential spouse.

Each 90-minute episode consist of the selected bachelor going on two hour dates full of helicopter rides, bungee jumping and private islands, all planned and paid by the courtesy of the ABC network. With such elaborately executed dates, how can you not fall in love instantly?

Not to mention, the underlying fact that while this one man is having these intimate connections with you both emotionally and physically, he is also having those same connections with eight other women. If that is not the way to start a long and healthy marriage, I don’t know what is.

While this show is entertaining to watch, is it really sending out the right marriage to society? Most viewers see the impracticality of this situation; yet continue to view for pure entertainment. However, what about the viewers who compare their self-image and potential relationships to those on the screen?

This kind of influence can be supported by the limited-effects theory, that the away media effects the viewer’s perception of reality is dependent on individual factors. For a viewer who identifies as an independent person who does not find the appeal of dating let alone reality TV show dating, they may not be affected by the underlying tones of dependency and extravagant frame of the dating life. However, for other viewers who are comfortable and maybe dependent with a significant other, they may become more influenced by the messages behind this impractical show.

These kind of influenced viewers may be watching these shows with a selective exposure. They do not see a TV program as an extreme form of dating but rather an admirable love story. Viewers ignore the impracticality of it because they want to see only the stuff they want to see.

Majority of the people I know who watch this show is purely for the entertainment. They fall into a uses and gratifications relationship with ABC network, where they are able to engage in social conversation of who is the right fit for Ben and guess who the new Bachelorette is going to be. They use these Monday evenings as a way to escape from the stress of a new week. For those people, do you.

I am concerned for the younger generation, who are consuming this kind of media with limited critical thinking, and therefore can easily have a manipulated sense of reality. That we all need a significant other and to have romantic dates of sunsets on a yacht in order to be truly happy.