I hate reality TV.

Someone tell me what is actually real about it. Someone explain how being set up in a mansion, on an island, having all of your bills paid or having a variety of the “perfect” mates at your disposal is reality in any way? Please, I want an answer, if people behave as badly as they can, hurt as many as they can, and show themselves to be selfish and mean, how they wind up being rewarded with their own television show? How did this happen?

I watch TV to escape reality not watch someone else’s created fake reality. What happened to a story or a plot? Even the “based on true story” movies are making me a bit crazy to see. What happened to brain storming and creativity? I am at a loss as to why so many people are focused on watching such insults to their intelligence. Does anyone actually believe that this is reality?

Here is an eye opener that I try to give my children when they are sucked into the Jersey Shores and Biggest Losers and Survivors. These are real people, but this is not real life. This is being paid to pretend to have a real life. I hope, I truly hope, the real world is not like this.

I think in the real world, the strongest survive—yet I believe the less strong are pulled then by the others. I would hope we do not “vote” someone off the Earth who is weaker and instead provide for them.

In the real world, if you spend your whole entire life partying, you wind up in rehab. Sometimes you wind up penniless. You destroy relationships and lose jobs and you lose chances and opportunities. You do not get your own spin off TV show when you show up to work drunk and cause damage. You do not get chance after chance to get yourself together before you lose yourself completely. In reality, you wind up dead or in jail or killing someone else. In the real world you wind up with regrets—not a fan club.

In real life living—you do not merely have potential suitors standing in a row vying for your attention. Instead, most people are lucky to find one, or two or so to actually be able to stand them and all the baggage they bring that they can actually stand too. And most people are not blessed with a millionaire matchmaker to find that perfect guy or gal. Most people don’t even expose their real person in the season it takes in reality television to find the perfect mate.

Even the weight loss shows—though they are inspiring—they are not even close in the least to the real struggle. Most of us do not have personal trainers or anyone at all even to motivate us. We don’t have professional cooks or a big house to stay in to keep us away from every bad food we may crave. Most of us have to do it on our own and find the strength within ourselves to not eat that last piece of cake or the whole bag of cookies. And I do not know a single soul personally who won a grand prize for the struggle they went through. Their prize is only the feeling of personal accomplishment (and yes, this is a prize) and then the continuing struggle for the rest of their lives to keep it off.

People like to say that good old television shows distort our perceptions of reality. They like to say if we watch romantic comedies and think that relationships really are so clear cut and easy. If we watch action films and we suddenly all believe we are superheroes and can save the world. If we play video games— we are desensitized and will suddenly go on killing sprees. If we listen to rock music or questionable lyrics it pollutes our brains and our IQ’s drop.

I say that our society’s new version of reality is distorting reality. We are smarter than this.



Monika M. Basile