I Hate Reality TV with a Passion

The show Jersey Shore is a moneymaking powerhouse by embezzling our nation's time and interest. This is a reality TV show that most people in the Western world are aware of. But what is it? I'll spare myself and the reader from suffering to define it as anything more than insipid. One could label any number of merits upon the show. I condemn it. It is a show where self-obsessed people can watch and get romantic notions of affinity with the show's 'role models.' Other people who think they are better than these self-obsessed people watch in so that afterwards, they can look on with shaking heads and smug intellects. The show's audience lacks diversity, only self-congratulations to some, and the prescripts for a meretricious, alcoholic lifestyle to others. I find myself unable to do either, so don’t watch. I don’t even like that I am writing about it, because I am contributing to this continued dialogue. I don’t want to be confronted with the Jersey Shore anymore. MIT may be conducting studies on its importance as an occurrence in American popular media, but no matter how much I read about Jersey shore, I still find myself bored to death. It is a formulaic show that MTV, Discovery, and Bravo have been making for years and will keep making for years. Which means that I will keep getting confronted with the endless conversation on reality TV for probably my whole life. What did I do to deserve this? Writers will be talking about how this show has ruined Jersey for years to come and I will be laughing because I know what jersey was like before this show. (That last sentence was a joke that I hope people from the garden state will laugh along with me to.)

The stereotypes that are propagated in Jersey shore will certainly harm some people, but then again maybe a kid will see this show, start taking steroids, and get more action/ happiness than he ever dreamed of before he saw Jersey Shore. Who knows, but if you want to study how Italian Americans are affected by stereotypes, there are years and years of history you could draw upon. Yes, Jersey Shore has many aspects that lend itself to the label of ethnographic, but any academic would laugh in the face of MTV producing something of an academic merit. Anthropology is a discipline with guidelines that may be challenged, but which are very well established. The code of ethics is something that is all too often forgotten.

I have been on an MTV reality show called Silent Library. It was completely staged, and I received direction like I was a paid actor- because essentially I was, but the presentation of the show was a complete lie or abstraction from reality. It was fun and paid to fix my car, but I hope nobody starts analyzing the show for truths about me. I just hope people stop caring about reality TV soon.