Almost ten years ago, Music Television (MTV) aired one of the first reality television shows ever, known as “The Real World”. And since than, reality television has become Americas guiltiest pleasure. But what makes reality television so appealing to its viewers? In our materialistic society it is not a surprise that the first catalyst for reality television being popular today is money. Today’s shows offer huge sums of money to people who do not necessarily possess th

The concept of reality television has several distinct flaws, both in its conception and popularity and in what it entails for our attitudes in society as a whole. Or maybe it is just the United States lack of quality television and society’s lack of desire to expand their minds enough to want to watch some type of quality television, if any at all. A simple solution to the over abundance of reality television, and the weak image it gives us as a society, would simply be to end it. Society has seen its fair share of pointless reality shows already and is in no need for more. But, this is not a logical solution since it will probably never happen. If the programs were less focused on making the viewers happy and focused more on making the show more “real” it might not receive the high ratings, but it defiantly would make a more realistic broadcast. Do away with all the stereotypes that these shows follow. If people are living their own reality, what is the point of watching it on the television?

The privacy issue is always brought up when dealing with reality television. When does it go too far and invade people’s privacy and exploit the person. For example, a series entitled Big Brother. In this show, the ten house mates are put together in a house and filmed through mirrors which are actually people with cameras, and this is unknown by the cast. This is a breach of some peoples Human Rights, however popular it might be. Many former cast members to this show and others have spoken out about feeling violated and feeling as if the network were sexually exploiting them to the world just to receive higher ratings.

The second reason reality television has become popular today is that of instant fame. Reality television takes ordinary people, sets them up in extraordinary situations on a world stage with other similar indivi

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