REALITY TVS CONTENT IS NEGATIVLY INFLUENCEING OUR YOUTH THEREFORE IT SHOULD BE CENCORED
In the 21st century, reality television has dominated our screens ambiguously. It’s has become an essential part of our lives and entertainment. Reality television is degenerating our culture. It negatively impacts the viewers of the new generation when limited “reality” is present that occasionally is scripted and edited for entertainment purposes. When reality shows are interpreted as “reality”, the viewers’ viewpoints and their actions are affected. Our youth tends to think, reenact, and endure the characters they perceive, enabling them to lose their sense of vital thinking and true emotions towards actual situations. The actions of these shows are infiltrating negative portrays of body image, graphic violence, and diminishing one’s actual viewpoint of reality. With these following aspects I conclude that realty television is negatively impacting our society therefore it should be censored.
Reality television programs show what is perceived as reality when in essence it realty isn’t. These contrived scenes of certain situations and reactions are unscripted and unplanned. The characters aren’t placed in these situations to get a natural reaction; - they’re behaviors become planned and adjusted for riveting footage heavily which is edited to create the “best entertainment” value for viewers. “ The more viewers are exposed to these reality distortions of a similar to the world, the scenes portrayed on television change their perception of the real world. “ More often than not, the representations of social reality on televisions are not true to objective reality” (O’Guinn 1997). The characters in these shows connect and empathize displays of overstated and distorted scenes, which mirror the way viewers interact and deal with situations. The portrayal of these stars and their lifestyles throughout these shows affect the views, motives, and desire’s of the audience. Each reality show portrays and fulfills certain desires including force of potency, sense of inspiration, comely views implying satisfaction, and revenge resulting to aggression. This undermines the viewer’s welfare and self-worth diminishing ones true morality pessimistically.
In reality television, media violence has been an issue. Violence on television affects on children often negatively. When developing values systems and moral behavior, television is a powerful influence. A child’s behavior is evident from the impact of viewing violence that affects them later in life. It can be responsible for violence initiation. “Children television programs contain about twenty to twenty five violent acts each hour”(Chuck 472). There’s a connection between TV violence and violent behavior in children; it affects children’s judgment on whether a situation they see is realistic. Seeing violence desensitized their mind in thinking it is acceptable and normal. It distorts their view of what’s fantasy or reality, which takes long to contradict. These images appeal to real life making tempting to believe. After watching violence in the shows, their behavior changes because they feel less sensitive to adversity and pain of others and themselves thus creating a sense of fear and insecurities. It demonstrates how to express aggression through violence by imitating what they see or have seen others do. Studies show that the more youth watch the violence, the more likely to envision a mean and dangerous world. For instance the hit reality show “Jersey Shore” shows a lot of drama and issue along Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Controversy sprung up when cast member Snooki was harshly punched by a man in the face at a bar leading to fighting and members going to jail It is unacceptable for these scene to be displayed along television screen when our youth is viewing them weekly. It is setting a bad example and making it seem like it is acceptable. Morally a man should never hit woman, but the fact that the scene was not cut for rating purposes is beyond belief. “Media contains violence for the purposes of adult entertainment and realism. But the problem is that parents and society do not properly control access to such media, therefore children are exposed to violent behavior long before they have matured into an adult, and therefore they may try to copy such behavior”. (Dr. Christopher Davidson)
Confidence and body image are eroded by these reality shows. They foist impratcial beauty standards making the youth question their bodies and instructing them to change their appearance. These shows are scripted? and encourage an unrealistic plastic appearance of perfection. They make you feel like it’s a necessity to adjust ones appearance with images of attenuated women particularly that erases the perception of a healthy real body. This makes youth want to look a certain way to appeal to society like males for instance. These images of thin young bodies link to signs of unhealthy eating habits, depression and low self-esteem- including fasting, skipping meals, excessive exercise, laxative abuse, and self-induced vomiting. The youth is having this pressure to be thin and so called beautiful. Studies indicate fifty percent of our youth wish to be thinner thus taking part in a diet. These examples are perceived in Americans Next Top Model which looks for models that are super thin and display a certain image to impress the industry thus receiving a contact if you win. A contestant on the show was prohibited from joining 12 other hopefuls on the catwalk because she didn’t fit into the tiny clothing and a size six model was removed from catwalk for being so called “big”. The contestant said she was “embarrassed and shamed into eating salad after being excluded in the show” (Flynn). The youth looks up to these models and assume that’s there image is the right and perfect image to display which negatively changes their perception and causes them damage to their physical and emotional well-being
Reality Television has a huge impact on the youth watching viewing them. The cast members of these shows impact a certain behavior, appearance, and physiology. It has a negative impact because it makes them want to think, act, and feel like the characters on the screen which takes away critical thinking and true emotion towards situations. The exposure to violence initiates how to express ones anger and fearful attitudes towards the real world while other diminish body perception by images of thinness that lead to problems perusing to be an image that’s unhealthy. The audience doesn’t realize how these reality shows are affecting society and how it is compromising there well being and self worth. The following examples lead to a conclusion that these shows should be censored to the youth.