When I was younger I we had the
most basic of cable, consisting of channels one through four. I was young and
didn’t care to watch anything other than sesame St. for the most part we would
just watch movies, or me and my uncle would play video games. TV programs were
never really a big thing in the family. We were always outside running around
skating, making dry ice bombs getting into trouble. However once we got a
couple years older and moved to a new house we got a better cable set up. So
for a while everyone was stuck inside amazed at all the channels we could
watch. Comedy channels, Movie channels, other weird programs I would have never
thought existed. I never really knew about many cartoons I only heard about
them from friends at school. So once we had the newer set up I understood what
was going on and what everyone had been talking about for so long. What I
didn’t understand was why it was such a big deal, after a while I grew tired of
the shows. At first it was new cool and exciting, but after a while the
excitement wore out I enjoyed being outside much more. Even when I was younger
I always wondered if people realized that they were just sitting. Hours go by
and some don’t realize it, their mesmerized by the shows and commercials not
paying attention to the time. My grandma or grandpa would forget about things
they had to do because they got stuck, simply stuck just watching the TV. My
grandparents were into sitcoms and following a series, whereas at school a lot
of people talked about reality shows. Some on MTV like the Real World or others like Survivor. I checked them out but didn’t like them. They
were nothing but drama people arguing, partying and arguing that’s all they
consisted of.
Personally I don’t like reality TV,
yet I have found myself hypnotized by them every now and again. My sisters always
want to watch all these reality shows but my mom gets mad and doesn’t allow
them. So every time she’s away they sneak to the TV put them back on. I asked
them why they liked them so much and they only replied “their just
entertaining” and when I try to go in depth they just get annoyed. I asked my
mom why she doesn’t allow them to watch the shows and she said “These shows are
nothing but filth. I’m trying to raise my daughters to be respectful to all
people of all races and to be polite, not to be rude and sloppy partying like
animals.” She feels these shows promote bad behavior and don’t show the many
consequences people often face following the bad behavior. In my opinion I
would say reality TV could be either harmful or beneficial depending on the
audience. Beneficial in that people would gain something positive out of the
show, such as how not to act or how to act in certain situations. Harmful in
the way that some may think it’s ok to act like the people on TV. Children may
try to mimic the shows thinking that if it’s shown on TV it may be accepted. In
the end I Think that over all people watch much more TV than they probably
should and read a lot less. Maybe people should read more.
