Some of these shows are fairly harmless like Hillbilly Handfishin' on Animal Planet or MTV's Made. If you haven't seen Hillbilly Handfishin' it is about two fishermen who take fairly well-to-do clients out in their boat to a swamp in order to noodle (fishing without hooks or lures and using arms, legs, and fingers instead) for catfish. Personally, shows like this and MTV's Made are just ways for people to have new experiences that they have set as a goal and their reactions and successes are televised.
Other shows are based on a dating premise such as the Bachelorette, Love in the Wild, and Disaster Date. Shows like these keep interest through televised sex, heartbreak, and drama. Why are people so drawn to this type of TV? Do humans really have that much of a need to watch other's get hurt? Why do we even care?
As much as I despise shows like Jersey Shore, The Real Housewives, and Bad Girl's Club the one I despise the most is Virgin Diaries. A reality television show making fun of people who chose to remain abstinent until they got married has no place on TV. Those people made a decision and were courageous enough to stick with it despite what our culture and society thinks is important and they deserve to be respected and not made fun of.
I think that reality television is a cycle of destruction in our community. TV producers found sects of people extreme things and chose to televise it, as viewership rose people began to view that as normal and acceptable behavior. As people began to realize that they didn't have to be famous to get on TV, they began to do more and more outrageous acts in an attempt to get onto TV which has only perpetuated the cycle.
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