Private Life Has Gone Out The Window

Does anyone value privacy anymore? Privacy is losing its meaning as we advance into the 21st century. With the success of shows like Bachelor and Married by America, issues of love and relationships have lost their true meaning and intent. Reality TV did not just come on over night; it has been with us since the 1950s. However, the sudden explosion of reality shows has changed the way we view television and how we interact with others. The public wants to know what’s going on with their neighbors’ personal life, celebrities’ personal life, and even the president’s personal life; and “reality” shows such as BlindDate and Big Brother are the driving force. “Smart, educated people conceal their good taste in favor of gutter glitter” (Conlin) even when these “reality” shows “depict sexist and immoral behaviors, as in Are You Hot: The Search of America’s Sexiest People, and nauseating eating manners, as in Fear Factor” (Poniewozik). How far can you take “reality” TV, before you just lose all reason and good taste on TV shows?

“De Mol created a show called Big Brother, in which 24 TV cameras are trained on a group of young, good-looking men and women cooped up in a house for 100 days. This was aired in Holland in September 1999; it arrived just when world was ready for a new kind of boob-tube content: ‘reality’ TV, which made John de Mol a very rich guy” (Levine). NBC, ABC, FOX, and CBS are making millions off the personal lives of others. The once private and intimate moments of dating, finding love or proposing to the one you love has become a spectacle and the cash fuel that networks were looking for. “Networks are flooding their schedules with sequels to hits like Survivors” (Conlin). “With few exceptions, ‘reality’ shows are profitable from day one for the studios that make them” (Levine). They cost less than the traditional sitcoms and dramas. “An hour of Big Brother cost $286,000 during the first season compare to an average of $1.3 million for a half hour of sitcom” (Levine). “[Reality TV] has put [networks] back on the pop cultural map after losing the buzz war to cable for years… ‘Reality has proven that network television is still relevant,’ says Mike Flesiss, creator of the Bachelor franchise” (qtd in Poniewozik). However, the personal lives of other should not be a profit-making scheme that networks use. The network doesn’t care about how they use or tell the story of people’s lives; they care more about the ratings.

A social criticism of “reality” TV is that millions of people are being take in by “reality” TV’s deceptions (Poniewozik). To the shock of some people, real dates do not involve more than two people participating in the date and the date concluding with a rejection of a person. ElimiDate is an example of ‘unrealistic’ reality TV. ElimiDate voyeuristically “follows a man or woman with four date possibilities and the rejects three of them in the course of the half-hour” (Dempsey). Or you can have your pick of BlindDate. BlindDate pairs up usually young men and women on dates. BlindDate fulfills people’s voyeuristic needs while cameras follow the couple throughout the course of their date. Highlights of their dates are then shown, and funny commentary is expressed on the screen.

Americans are so consumed with other peoples’ lives that they don’t even care how degrading these shows are toward others. As viewers, we need to understand the damage that “reality” TV is doing to our lives. “Are You Hot: The Search of America’s Sexiest People is where contestants parade more than half naked before judges to be given scores for their physical appeal” (“Get Real”). “There’s a first-rate on the lowest common denominator of human relationships. It’s often women degrading themselves. I don’t want my 9 year of thinking that’s the way girls should behave,” says James Steyer, author of the Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media’s Effect of Our Children (qut in Poniewozik). Once again we’ve proven that controversy and sex sells, and networks are willing to do anything and show anything even if it violates other people’s privacy. “Many reality shows now are mired in litigation. Some have been sued for defamation of character, invasion of privacy, emotional and physical abuse, or even rigging of results” (“Get Real”).

There is enough “reality” going on every day that involves each one of us to deter us from watching the “unreality” on TV. Personal life and privacy should be left at home and off television. To many people’s dismay these “reality” shows aren’t really “reality.” “Even their slim claim to reality becomes increasingly flimsy. The more popular the shows the more they come fauxality in their casting and scripting. To keep audiences titillated, programmers will have to keep upping the dosage, making the stunts more dangerous, the rejections more brutal” (Conlin). Once we leave this era in our entertainment, what would be left for us to watch? If reality TV shows continue on the path that they are traveling now, there will be no more privacy in one’s life on and off TV.

Natasha M. Smith
College Writing
Elon University                                              BACK