Do reality television shows cause dangerous stereotypes? It is mostly agreed that reality tv promotes dangerous stereotypes. The producers goals are not things like education, but entertainment purposes. The new generation of reality television celebrity stars don’t thrive on talent, but use sensationalism to always be in the news, and some mothers are concerned that teenages may be lead the same way as what they see people doing and how they are handling certain situations on tv.
The first point as to why reality television causes dangerous stereotypes is that producers goals are not to educate, but to entertain. . All the producers care about is providing entertainment, and yes, at some points that is okay. The thing is, reality tv impacts the younger generation with an idea on how to act and what is right and wrong. In my opinion, however, those shows are usually all about drama and none of the people casted in the show at that point actually act respectfully or smartly. An article written on Oregon State’s website has a chart of what age groups most to least enjoy reality tv. Sixty-eight percent of people from the age eighteen to twenty-nine say they like or love watching reality tv, and thirty-two percent of people over the age of sixty-five say that they either like or love reality television. The statistics show that as the ages of the people who were polled went up, the percentage of people who liked or loved reality tv went down. On top of the fact that producers could care less about education, it also seems that they could also care less about how others see the south.”Here Comes Honey Boo Boo”, a show based in McIntyre, Georgia, shows people of the south as people who are disrespectul to their mommas and get everything they want. That is not at all how it works, and some people in the south saw it as rude and criticizing. However, there are also good points to reality television.
The producers of reality tv shows that show mental illnesses have actually found people who have learned more about their own mental illness or even found out about their illness through seeing what a certain person on the show goes through. While it is grand that the person can get help and have help knowing that they aren’t the only person in the world that is going through these issues, reality television is still not necessarily a good thing. It causes stereotypes that southerners are disrespectful and dumb, that girls should look a certain way, and that it is okay to not be yourself.
Next, the new generation of reality tv celebrity stars does not thrive on talent but on sensationalism and desire to always be in the news. “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” proves this point by being all about the family and their drama. “A peek inside the exploits and privileged private lives of the blended Kardashian-Jenner family, including sisters Kim, Kourtney, Khloé, Kendall and Kylie.” is what the famous site IMDb says that the show is about. Basically, about bragging that they are rich and famous, and at that causing more drama to make them even more rich and famous, especially with people tuning in just to watch them be ridiculous and argue with each other on topics that should definitely only be kept inside the family and the house. Not on camera. Though these people also address several social issues, such as poverty and lack of education, and do provide certain amounts of money to charity, it’s very rare that you do see people on a stage standing up for what they believe in.
Lastly, some people are concerned that teenagers may be lead to be or act the same way that the people they see on reality tv. “Dr. Phil”, a talk show where Phil McGraw talks through people’s problems and tries to help them in front of a live audience, had a girl by the name of Danielle Bregoli who had said the phrase “Catch me outside, howbow dah?” and that caught attention of not only teens, but parents and celebrities.
On Trade Moms On Main website, there is an article about the top ten best and worst celebrity role models. People like Miley Cyrus, The Kardashians, Justin Bieber, and reality tv stars are all featured on the “top ten worst role models” list in parents books. Their reason why reality tv stars are number eight? “They promote an unrealistic example of ‘real life’. We now think that living life is reason enough to be famous, and that anyone could be famous. It devalues living a simple, good life. Most are very money hungry. Very few reality stars are portrayed doing anything good for others. Children need to be inspired and encouraged to make a difference.” People like Katy Perry, who encourages girls to be themselves, Taylor Swift, who shows morals Justin Timberlake, who works hard for what he gets, and Lebron James, who has good work ethic, are all people that parents would happily approve of their kids looking up to and trying to be like them. Though we are very much aware that it does interest people to see how other people take certain situations. As people, we may want to know what the best way to react to situations that we are put in is, and so we look for other people who have similar situations, and that may be in a reality television show. Yes, it is entertaining to see how a brand new mom may handle her baby’s dirty diaper when she has never changed a diaper before, but do we ever look and see how much pressure these people are under? Maybe that’s why people are always ranting and raving about things that the audience really should never know. The next time you go to a reality tv show to see how to handle a situation, maybe you should think about how you would feel with all that pressure of knowing that you might be doing something totally embarrassing or wrong in front of the reality television loving world.
In a word, reality television does cause dangerous stereotypes by the producers caring only for the entertainment purposes of the world, the generation of stars that are on tv are only striving for sensationalism and being on the news, and people are actually concerned about how their children will turn out growing up with these types of people as so called “ idols.” Even though the fact that the mental illness shows can help people discover their illness or help people with not feeling alone, the celebrities address numerous social issues, and it interests people to see how others would react in certain situations, I still stand strong on my theory that reality television shows are dangerous and cause dangerous stereotypes.
