I have never understood modern popular culture's obsession with so-called reality television. Then again, I have never really cared much about celebrities lives' or who Jude Law happens to be screwing this particular week. But reality television in particular is something, no matter how much I try, that I just can't seem to get my head around.
But let's take it back a step. Television was designed from the outset as an outlet for two things: news (reality) and the fictional crap. You know, the stuff that turns your brain into a strawberry neuron milkshake. People flocked to these fictional programs for one reason: to escape the realities of their Soviet-nuclear-holocaust-fearing lives, and float into the world of Ed Sullivan, Jack Benny, and the Three Stooges. Why would anyone want to watch reality, when they have reality all around them? Beats me.
The second point is how can this stuff even be considered reality? If a team of camera operators and make up artists were following you and your family around 24 hours a day, how can it possibly not alter how you behave? The answer is quite simple: It does alter your behaviour. It's not reality at all. Not one f**king bit. I don't begrudge those who think it's real; I pity them.
There are so many things going on in the world today that society should be taking an interest in other than Jon and Kate's crumbling marriage: Iran's nuclear ambitions, North Korea, and American health care reform, among other things. Our obsession with celebrity culture has made us a bunch of ignorant, knowledge-less, zombies.
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