Did Reality TV Create the St. Lucie Madness?
Reality television is fascinating to the American public. We glom onto young adults as they sign to become the next American Idol, only to be ridiculed on national T.V. by three judges who have only just met them. We watch on the edges of our seats while contestants compete to become the sole Survivor or America’s Next Top Model but have we ever really stopped to think about what we are teaching our children about competition and about how to treat people?
On American Idol we watch (and interact) as judges ridicule and take sarcastic jabs at real people attempting to make it into the top 12, the best of the best. They even compared one person to a sheep and told another to return her voice to god.
On Survivor cast mates vie for the last spot on the island by manipulating each other, lyng to one another, and ultimately voting each other off the island. Children could easily learn that deceptive behavior is acceptable because it is acceptable on the game, just like name calling and poking fun is acceptable on American Idol.
Even better is America’s Next Top Model wherein women vie for the position of the prettiest, most talented woman but in reality it is all about who can conform the most to meet the standards of Cover Girl and Seventeen Magazine…who can look the most like what Cover Girl wants to portray? There was not one “plus size” model in the top five in nine cycles so Cycle 10 had to set that straight and have a “Plus Size” winner, Whitney, a size 10.
It’s no wonder children in Alex Barton’s class were able to succumb to Wendy Portillo’s request so easily…they were accustomed to watching situations just like that on T.V. and they wanted to be like the cool people on the shows they watch.
May 29th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
[...] have noted the “Survivor” reality TV show “voting out” of Alex—-Discussing Autism asks if reality TV created the St. Lucie madness, and Left Brain/Right Brain suggests that [...]
May 30th, 2008 at 12:18 am
[...] by a “voting out” process that has had more than a few echoes of the “Survivor” reality TV [...]