Arin Thompson
Daily Egyptian
Why do people watch TV?
Well, in most cases, it's to escape from their normal, boring lives. Unless it's the news, but that's always sprinkled with cheerful anchors who tell the audience how 16 people were killed in a terrible accident, but they always have a sparkling smile etched into their face anyway, so it seems unreal as well.
Reality TV has entered a weird position in American society. It's at that awkward point where everybody's heard of it, everybody's seen it - everybody's sick of it. SOMEONE TELL THE NETWORKS!
It was a good idea in the beginning; I admit that. The Real World was pretty decent; we all wanted a cool place to live and interesting friends and a sweet job and really swank places to hang out. Guess what? That's not reality! That's a fantasy world, only capable in MTV universe.
So then the reality plague spread to the networks, and the mainstream was infested with little reality spawns. Fiction shows such as "E.R." and "Law & Order" heavily mimic reality shows. The biggest rash started with "Survivor." The people behind the television stations probably couldn't have been happier when they realized that the public would eat this kind of crap up like hot cakes.
The tribal music would be thumping, the torches would be lit and the "survivors" would all be pissed at each other, and the Nielsen Families couldn't get enough. Then along came "Big Brother," and I got pissed.
Maybe it's because I'm a huge book geek and read "1984" like it was some sort of modern-day Bible. Or maybe it's because the producers used the tag line "Big Brother" so haphazardly that it made me want to kick someone's ass. Stick a bunch of people in a house with cameras and no way out. The addition of the guy with no leg was a smart move. He was from Rockford, just a short drive along the Rock River from my hometown. The locals were ecstatic, and I was embarrassed - not because he didn't have a leg, but because that was the best we could do for a success story.
I honestly thought it'd be over after that, but then came "Survivor II" and "Big Brother II," which sucked double time. More and more people were becoming slaves to the reality TV industry. Oh, and now we are graced with shows such as "The Hamptons." Good God, what is wrong with the television audience? I watched the show while smoking too many cigarettes, and I just didn't understand it.
Watching "The Hamptons" was like popping tacks through my palm - intentionally. Who in their right mind could a) connect with that show, or b) want to connect with that show. Oh, sure, I have an inexhaustible bank fund and hang out with all my cokehead friends over Spring Break.
So why is it that in order to relax and escape, we indulge in watching other people's serious lives and dreaming about being someone normal instead of famous? We're getting boring as a population; we're staring to go soft.
The bottom line is that some guy behind a big oak desk is making some serious bank off of this reality programming. I just realized that perhaps my disdain could stem from the fact that I no longer have cable and my TV gets one channel that is scrambled. Maybe I went through withdrawal, and I'm just pissed now because I know I want it, but I can't have it. Probably not, but I want to investigate every possibility.
Anyway, my point is that maybe we should get our own lives; it's bad enough that a generation of housewives is living vicariously through soap operas, but now a generation of youngsters is living through someone else's reality, not their own. Get off the couch and go live your own exciting life.
Arin Thompson can be reached at athompson@dailyegyptian.com.
Published on 11/17/05; 12:24:44 PM
