Shove 'reality' up your ass

Color me strange but I’ve never liked watching contests. The idea of strangers trying to outdo each other in singing or dancing or prancing about and looking beautiful simply does not hold any appeal for me. Take beauty contests. I never understood how people can be so obsessed with them. Cut down to their barest, beauty contests are simply a showcase of women cavorting in gowns and bikinis with a little question and answer segment thrown in to show that, surprise, they can talk. All this to-do about what’s her name saying “major, major” is ridiculous. As if people actually expected beauty pageant contestants to say something truly meaningful and life-altering (or do they?). I’m not saying they're stupid, but come on people, let’s not even try to pretend it’s a UN debate.

But worse than beauty contests are these reality shows. They’re like those ancient gladiatorial fights but instead of the audience feasting on blood and gore, they feast on the emotions of people in ‘real’ situational dramas. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why they would appeal to people. Any one of these shows is bound to fall under a story archetype or two. But I’d rather have my dramas served up to me with beautiful lighting, a tight storyline and coherent, if not, moving dialogue. Not something like: “Like, ever since I was a kid, I’ve always, like, wanted to be a dezign-ER. And that bitch is, like, totally trying to sabotage my dream. And so, like, I totally hate hUr.”

And it’s not that I’m some sort of misanthrope incapable of empathizing with the joys and pains of other people. I recognize joy and sorrow only too well. But reality shows are a bit of a stretch for me. Sure the people are real and their reactions are real but they’re people placed in artificial situations. How can that be ‘reality’? Give me an NGO worker knee deep in plague-ridden bodies any day.

But what worries me about this mass obsession with reality TV is how it’s making our reactions to real situations unreal. It’s like we’re so used to having everything presented to us in HD complete with running commentary that we don’t recognize real tragedy when it’s right in front of us. The sad fact of ‘reality’ media (and that includes tabloid-style news reporting and the endless carousel of ‘posts’ in social network sites) is that the only way we can be galvanized into action now is if we see it on TV or read it in some email or Facebook post. I don’t think there are still many people who will stop to look at a poor stranger in real life and actually help, in however small way they can.

I’m worried that we’re losing the ability to read the subtleties of the human condition. I mean, do we even know what quiet desperation looks like anymore? Or can we only recognize desperation when it’s brandishing a gun over the heads of innocent tourists? And even that we treat as a spectacle, a slice of reality TV.

But I’m hopeful. I’m sure that one day this predilection for reality media will pass and our voyeuristic taste for emotional blood and gore will be sated. If not, then we will certainly deserve the stultifying emotional deaths we’re inevitably heading towards.