Living the Real Life....Or are they?
It is no secret to those close in my life that I enjoy watching reality TV. Not all programs, but most of them. Why? Aside from it being hilarious watching what other people do and how some shows pass of as being real when they are contrived andsscripted, as a person who studies, teaches and talks about pop culture, I would be an idiot to eschew and poo-poo what has become so idiomatic about modern life, media, and talk-politics. Sometimes all I need is some good brainless fun that I can really sink my teeth into as if I were some raging testosterone freak watching a football game (really...what IS the difference). What astounds me though, aside from how many different kinds of reality TV shows come out every season, is the fact that some people really do consider them real.
Take, for example, "The Real World." You know, the MTV show where 7 strangers are put together in a house and the cameras capture everything. What happens daily over a 6-month period is edited down to 22 30-minute episodes, including commercial breaks. Anyone with half a brain can see that what we are watching is at the producers' discretion. They are creating the reality of that house and the events through their own machinations. Do the events really happen? Yes. Are we necessarily seeing them happen chronologically or in "real" time. I doubt it. An argument that could last for 3 hours can be extended to some 3-week grudge. I realize that these are all human constructs. I never believe for one second that it is all "real." But it is still damn fun to watch. Of course, it is sad that over the last 8 years the show has gone from real people to the perpetuation of the myth that only pretty people exist. I have yet to see anyone unattractive, overweight, or handicapped on that show. You want real TV, offer a cross-section of society.
What astounds me even more, and this moves beyond reality TV, is how some people equate whatever they see in the media - mostly TV and movies - as being any kind of real life. Movies and TV shows are built around stereotypes and myths. And while those two things at some point came out of some true situation, however miniscule, to accept that as law and expect your life to be the same is ludicrous. We excuse our behaviors or make our decisions because that is what they do on TV. And nothing happens to those people at all. They foul up, shed a few tears, and then end up at the local watering hole laughing it up. Our problems don't, unfortunately, get solved in 30 or 60 minutes with some indie band playing in the background of our life.
So we excuse our insecurities, banal words, assinine behaviors and disassociative lives by allowing TV and movies to be our template and false idol. We fuck up and act like assholes because obviously nothing will happen. We lie, we hurt, we act a fool and show our asses because what could possibly go wrong. It is these same deluded people that really offer nothing else to society other than a reason to point and laugh. But who is better off? Sometimes I feel that ignorance truly is bliss, even if it is voluntary. But hell, I would rather suffer the slings and arrows of real life and grow and try to be a real human being that delude myself and find myself alone, embittered and lost 20 years down the road. Give me the pain and hurt of real life because I have learned and can learn to work through it. Screw trying to hide myself or excusing my actions with vapidity.
And now....I shall go watch last night's episode of American Idol. God I hope they vote Scott Savol off.
It is no secret to those close in my life that I enjoy watching reality TV. Not all programs, but most of them. Why? Aside from it being hilarious watching what other people do and how some shows pass of as being real when they are contrived andsscripted, as a person who studies, teaches and talks about pop culture, I would be an idiot to eschew and poo-poo what has become so idiomatic about modern life, media, and talk-politics. Sometimes all I need is some good brainless fun that I can really sink my teeth into as if I were some raging testosterone freak watching a football game (really...what IS the difference). What astounds me though, aside from how many different kinds of reality TV shows come out every season, is the fact that some people really do consider them real.
Take, for example, "The Real World." You know, the MTV show where 7 strangers are put together in a house and the cameras capture everything. What happens daily over a 6-month period is edited down to 22 30-minute episodes, including commercial breaks. Anyone with half a brain can see that what we are watching is at the producers' discretion. They are creating the reality of that house and the events through their own machinations. Do the events really happen? Yes. Are we necessarily seeing them happen chronologically or in "real" time. I doubt it. An argument that could last for 3 hours can be extended to some 3-week grudge. I realize that these are all human constructs. I never believe for one second that it is all "real." But it is still damn fun to watch. Of course, it is sad that over the last 8 years the show has gone from real people to the perpetuation of the myth that only pretty people exist. I have yet to see anyone unattractive, overweight, or handicapped on that show. You want real TV, offer a cross-section of society.
What astounds me even more, and this moves beyond reality TV, is how some people equate whatever they see in the media - mostly TV and movies - as being any kind of real life. Movies and TV shows are built around stereotypes and myths. And while those two things at some point came out of some true situation, however miniscule, to accept that as law and expect your life to be the same is ludicrous. We excuse our behaviors or make our decisions because that is what they do on TV. And nothing happens to those people at all. They foul up, shed a few tears, and then end up at the local watering hole laughing it up. Our problems don't, unfortunately, get solved in 30 or 60 minutes with some indie band playing in the background of our life.
So we excuse our insecurities, banal words, assinine behaviors and disassociative lives by allowing TV and movies to be our template and false idol. We fuck up and act like assholes because obviously nothing will happen. We lie, we hurt, we act a fool and show our asses because what could possibly go wrong. It is these same deluded people that really offer nothing else to society other than a reason to point and laugh. But who is better off? Sometimes I feel that ignorance truly is bliss, even if it is voluntary. But hell, I would rather suffer the slings and arrows of real life and grow and try to be a real human being that delude myself and find myself alone, embittered and lost 20 years down the road. Give me the pain and hurt of real life because I have learned and can learn to work through it. Screw trying to hide myself or excusing my actions with vapidity.
And now....I shall go watch last night's episode of American Idol. God I hope they vote Scott Savol off.
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on Wednesday, May 04, 2005 at 1:27 PM.
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