By Ines Schinazi
Like little peeping toms, peering through television screens, mesmerized by the dancing photography burning from somewhere within the screen. The reality show hits the human mind, like a burglar with a baseball bat, knocking us unconscious. Leaving us ignited with an almost-foreign animalistic desire. We cry out for more and more… Feeding the voyeur within us, teasing the one looking upon us.
Of course, the name “reality show” presents an abundant paradox. Few things are more distant from reality than Paris Hilton choosing a BFF on national television, Lauren Conrad’s life on “The Hills,” the birthday parties on “My Super Sweet 16,” and most recently the show “NYC Prep” (an attempt at creating a real-life “Gossip Girl.)
Shows like “The Apprentice” and “America’s Next Top Model” bring the sometimes more realistic aspect of competition, insisting on the component of unknowns desperately fighting for their dreams. Yet the audience is still watching a TV show, which often packages entire days into a heavily edited hour.
Yet, the demand for these reality shows obviously continues to grow as they flood televisions all over the globe, replacing many traditional sitcoms with a taste of “real life.” Even MTV doesn’t play music anymore. Rather, they play reality shows, and the music sometimes gets sandwiched in.
Why does modern society crave and enjoy reality shows so much? The reality show has existed since the 1940s. Allen Funt’s “Candid Camera” was possibly the first. However, reality shows only began experiencing global success in the year 2000. Since then, they’ve been multiplying exponentially, clearly marking an inflection point, as society looks to the television less for escapism and distraction, and more as a sort of distorted mirror.
The reality show’s explosive success also coincided with the boom in digital and online communication. Interestingly, online social networking sites also experienced a boom the 2000s. Myspace was founded in 2003, Facebook in 2004, and Twitter in 2006.
Reality shows and online social networks share the same voyeuristic aspect. Both allow individuals to observe others in passive anonymity. Both types of media suggest “real life,” but end up serving up an idealized version of it. An edited scene of a reality show seems comparable to a carefully constructed online profile. In both cases, what you see is often not what you get. The illusion of reality reigns.
Does the reality show increase our attraction to online social networking? Or does online social networking draw us to the reality show? Or do both types of media feed off each other, reflecting the type of society we’ve become?
The 2009 Facebook statistics reveal that, “More than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once each day, More than 5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide), and more than 30 million users update their statuses at least once each day.”
As social networking becomes more and more “social,” inevitably replacing some face-to-face interaction, does the appeal of the reality show increase? Is the reality show, an attempt at watching “real life” if you can’t get enough of a real one yourself?
