I have a huge problem with “reality” shows, and here’s why.
Most of them don’t depict reality at all. Sure, many may give the appearance that the lives being portrayed on television are the way the cast of the shows live every day. But the truth is, many of these shows are scripted or the participants are encouraged to spice things up for the camera.
“Here Comes Honey Boo Boo,” a reality show on TLC, not only had more viewers than the Republican Convention, but also tied networks in viewership during the Democratic Convention.
It seems more people were interested in watching the antics of a little girl and her family than they were in watching the antics at both conventions I suppose.
Honestly, I can’t say that I blame them because it was probably difficult to distinguish between the two.
Anyway, I began to wonder what would happen if reality shows really did depict reality.
Would anyone watch a show titled, “The Real Weekly Murders of Chicago,” or “My Child Graduated from High School and Still Can’t Read?” Or what about, “Foreclose That House,” or “Extreme Food Stamping.”
Oh, and let’s not forget, “Deployment Diaries: Soldiers STILL Headed to Afghanistan,” or my all-time favorite, “The Jobless Shore.”
As a nation, we may love watching Honey Boo Boo. But that’s because we don’t realize how deeply we are covered in, for lack of better words that won’t be censored, honey boo boo.
We can try to cover up the “boo boo” we are in, but even though politicians and the like may try to cover up their “boo boo” (and boo boos for that matter) with honey-laced words and promises, it’s still boo boo.
(Sidebar: I really wish I didn’t have to write the word boo boo. First, because it’s not what I really want to say, and next because every time I write it, I feel like I should go change a diaper.)
If cameras followed around the homeless, the jobless, those who are struggling to put food on their tables or gas in their tanks or have lost loved ones to the mind-boggling amount of murders in Chicago, I doubt very seriously that their ratings would be very high.
Let’s try talking to soldiers before they head off to Afghanistan, (because yes, they are still being deployed there despite what you might not be hearing), or filming people as they are being handing eviction notices, and let’s see which one of these shows would be a monster hit.
Probably none of them. Yet these are the images that need to be seen because this is reality, and trust me, it’s not a show.
Author Alvin Toffler once said, “One of the definitions of sanity, itself, is the ability to tell real from unreal. Shall we need a new definition?”
Probably. But at the rate we are going, we’ll not only need a new definition; we’ll also need a shovel.
Geveryl Robinson, formerly of Savannah, lives and writes in Atlanta. geveryl@gmail.com