Reality TV Rages on

“People don't understand the pressure on me to look perfect, and be perfect” says famous reality television star, Kim Kardashian.
Reality television shows are popular television shows that document the daily actions and events of people’s lives. The aim of reality television is to entertain the viewers, by supposedly giving exclusive insight into the lives of rich, high class individuals who thrive off drama, materialistic items and fame.
These types of shows are causing issues in the teenage demographic, particularly teenage girls. In a Girl scouts study of Teenage girls that were regular viewers of reality television shows such as; The Hills, Jersey Shore, and The Bachelor, 72% of girls surveyed said that they admit to spending “a lot” of time on their appearance, compared with 42% of girls who didn’t watch reality television shows. A further 38% of viewers admitted that they thought “girls are valued based on their appearance”, and 28% said that they would rather be recognised for their outer beauty than their inner beauty. “TV is a powerful influence on all of us, but particularly young girls who are looking for role models” says therapist Dr. Nancy Irwin. This may be one of the reasons that teenage girls commonly have body image issues. Shows that broadcast the rich and famous give the impression that the key to happiness in life is to spend extravagant amounts of money on materialistic items such as handbags and clothing. Kim Kardashian is one so called ‘star’ of her show ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’ who is a bad role model for teenage girls, admitting she didn’t like school and earning an estimated 12 million dollars from her second wedding – which ended in just 72 days.
Another thing reality tv shows promote are people with no particular useful skills or qualifications ‘just being themselves’ without working hard at anything or having any legitimate income sources. This contributes to the fact that teenagers in particular, get the impression that to be successful in life they don’t have to get good grades or go to university, or even get a regular job, just become famous simply by featuring on a reality television show and be themselves. It is this kind of thinking caused, by reality television shows, which helps contribute to the 17% of New Zealand youth who are currently unemployed.
What audiences often don’t understand about reality television is that the majority of the time these so called ‘reality’ shows are edited and doctored to make events seem more exciting and dramatic than they were when they actually happened. First is the fact that most situations that take place on reality television shows are set up, which already means that characters are in unreal and unlikely circumstances. Another fact to take into consideration is that these shows are edited and often selective editing is used – meaning that scenes are edited in a certain way to add to an effect that may need to be emphasised.
The obsession with Reality television has become so extreme that people would rather hear news about desperate women craving the attention of one male on The Bachelor, as opposed to someone in society achieving great success in actions that could help better the community.
Reality television is a waste of time that has detrimental effects on viewers, especially youth of New Zealand, teenage girls in particular, and gives across appalling messages to the teenage demographic of our country. So what do we do about it? The scary fact is- there is not much that can be done. With 57% of television shows being aired on New Zealand television at present being reality shows, there is not much we can do, because it will continue to be watched by many.