Good TV

Every once and a while, I find myself changing the remote to a reality show. I usually hate myself for it after a while, but sometimes I just need a good dose of drama that isn’t my own.

My sister loves the “Real World” and my mother loves to watch “Big Brother,” and sometimes I sit there with them watching “real life” unfold in front of my eyes.

It’s shows like “Real World” that make college students or adults around that age, look like sex driven booze hounds, and it’s shows like “Big Brother” that just make us as Americans, look like a sad bunch of characters.

It’s hard to think that someone is making money off people watching controversy they could find in their own homes, or with their own friends. It’s even more amazing the people sign up to in a way humiliate themselves.

On reality shows nothing is private, every mistake, every heartbreak, it’s there on TV.

In the moment, we don’t think about how we act, we cry when we feel like crying and yelling when we’re angry, because when we’re fighting with our significant others, or having a bad day, we act upon our feelings.

But it’s different when we have a moment and someone tells a friend about it. It’s another when it’s video taped, when other people are watching it, when we have to watch it again ourselves.

In the midst of our feelings how are we to silence ourselves?

How are we to feel when we watch it on TV?

I watched an episode of the latest “Real World: Cancun.” The episode was about the housemates turning on one specific resident who had fought with just about everyone and after one specific fight had found herself resorting to self-mutilation.

It’s hard to think that someone could go through so much on TV, with their family and friends watching, having to relive all of that. Knowing in the moment, she wanted to talk about it, but maybe the next day, wanting to forget it.

Or the guy who’s in the next room over, hooking up with a girl he’s been chasing for a week, how would he feel if his girlfriend seen that?

The point is, people sign up to exploit themselves. It’s not that TV brings out there worst in us, but as humans, we are bound to make mistakes and be burdened by feelings we can’t control sometimes. It’s embarrassing enough to go through it in real life.

But isn’t that what makes good TV?

Ashley Wioskowski, the Western Herald editor in chief, is a junior majoring in journalism.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=7218

Posted by heraldstaff on Aug 22 2009. Filed under Blogs, Breaking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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