I like stupid reality TV shows. I'm okay with admitting it. I like to watch the Kardashians do crazy shit on tv sometimes. I like to watch cranky brides fight with their friends over wedding dresses. I don't know... it's just... funny. And I don't have to be smart to understand it.
But TV changes the way I approach and understand other people and the world. Not because I don't know the difference between Reality on TV and Reality in real life, because I do, but because.... the stuff on TV that isn't "reality"... it's based on something right? Love stories, violence, mysteries... that stuff came from somewhere, it was inspired by something.... so, does that mean that somewhere in the world someone knew people who behaved the way people do on TV?
Is this any different than reading a book...?
I just feel like TV complicates the way I think about other humans and situations that humans are involved in like love, friendship, and other relationships.
I mean, have you ever watched Lifetime?!
And I don't just mean the bad qualities about people that TV tends to emphasize... I mean all of the qualities about people that TV emphasizes. Is it REALLY that likely that a bunch of friends would live so close together, spend every waking second doing group activities and never have a single issue that separated them for longer than 30 minutes? No. But there are tons of TV shows that are fixed on that idea aren't there?
And then there are the shows that account for things that have actually happened, some of my favorites actually... like the crime scene investigator type shows... some of that stuff is scary... and that scares me!
And it is different than watching the news because the news tends to just be small bits of a story over a long period of time, not the whole story with all the gory details from start to finish in one sitting. I think that is why the news doesn't have the same affect on me as some of these shows. Also the news isn't narrated by a man with an intentionally eerie voice.
TV is great for distraction, it's great for when you're sick and home from school. It's great for having on in the background. But it messes with my head sometimes! Having had it around my whole life - I wonder what I would think of things now if I hadn't had the influence of TV all along.
I think about this a lot.
