Why Is Reality Tv A Waste Of Time.

Giving Television a Second Thought

When the picture of a lazy kid pops up in most people’s heads, there is the accompanying visual of a child stuffing their mouth with cheese puffs and wasting their time on “useless” and “brain numbing” television. But if we take a closer look at television programs, we will see that many of them do offer value and depth. Whether it be a trivia game show or a reality show about surviving in the wild for three months, there is actually something to learn from it. In his famous work, Steve Johnson offers a critique of the notion that television is dumbing us down. Johnson tackled the subject in his article, Watching TV Makes You Smarter. Johnson himself writes,

The reason is most likely due to its lack of direction and association with the teens living in a house and over-indulging in alcohol, and the rise of pageant girl reality shows that lead to Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. But that aside, there is so much more to reality television. For instance, in Grant Mccracken’s Wired articles, he gives a few good points as to why reality television could be more beneficial that it is a waste of time. He brings up a learning opportunity for him and his wife by stating, “Case in point: My wife and I watch Project Runway. She’s a graphic designer, so she has a clue about how decisions are being made by students and critics. Meanwhile, I get to test my grasp of this new world by predicting the picks and the pans. But right or wrong, I learn something.” My own view is that the author and his wife are learning about something somewhat foreign to them both by being immersed in the world of fashion design, seeing the judges make decisions and using technical terms for the viewer to pick up on and understand. Mccracken made a great point in showing how the viewer can be introduced to this whole new world and actually learn much from it, simply by sitting down and turning to a television show. Writer Emily Bennington disagrees with Mccracken in her article, Does Reality TV Make Us Stupid?. Bennington’s point is that reality

Keeping Up With The Kardashians is one example of this. The Kardashian-Jenner family lets us in on their lives, but only to a certain extent. We see what they want us to see, and what they don’t want us to see gets edited out of the program. In Mccracken’s view, “So while the Kardashian sisters may wish to create an impression – and the producers edit to reinforce that impression – over many episodes and seasons, the truth will out. Whether they like it or not, eventually we will see into Kardashian souls.” Though I do agree that you can only edit out so much footage, and that the constant camera being in your face will cause your real life to be plastered on television, I still consist that shows such as these only show a small portion of reality, and if you ask me, that’s not true reality at