Reality TV shows. You either love them or hate them!

         I started watching reality TV shows about 4 years ago. I remember being bored a Sunday night, and searching through the channels and seeing this girl driving on the 1 highway in her convertible, with pink luggage in the back seat; it was Lauren Conrad from the “The Hills.” I don’t understand why I was so amused about it, I don’t understand why I enjoyed watching someone else’s drama. But that was my beginning, then I got into “The Real Housewives of Orange County, The Real Housewives of New Jersey” and the list goes on and on…. I also confess to watching “the Jersey Shores” once in a while.
          Reality TV shows are a guilty pleasure for me, I feel that, by watching them, I am invading the reality TV stars privacy. But it’s not like they are not aware of the cameras right? Though I still think it’s wrong especially when they embarrass themselves, I feel so bad for those girls and guys too.
          I do believe that reality TV is, in some degree, harmful to our society especially the teenage crowd. Young people have the pressure of trying to “fit in.” What reality TV does is portray a lifestyle that does not really exist, for example, going out every night and getting super drunk, being with different people without any consequences, the TRUE reality is that there are consequences, like the abuse of alcohol, or drugs, pregnancies, or S.T.D’s but unfortunately this is not shown on these type of shows, so what do you think crosses these somewhat innocent minds?
          I remember listening to a conversation between my cousin and her daughter, a 12 year old; she was asking her mother if she could take her to the mall on the weekend, because she wanted a fake tan. I was in shock when I heard this. I couldn’t believe that this 12 year old wanted a tan. My cousin asked her why she wanted a tan; she said that in school people would make fun of her, because of her light skin tone, and that she had seen on TV (Real Housewives of Orange County) that a woman was getting a sprayed tan, and looked nice, so she wanted a tan. Reality TV does affect society.

          But not everything is bad and ugly, there are some good reality TV shows out there we just have to look, for example, “Cupcake wars, or The Next Food Network Star” those, I believe, are harmless reality TV shows, that entertain the viewers. To me it’s exciting to watch these people create marvelous and delicious (that’s what it looks like anyway) dishes, and try to convince a panel why they deserve to win, or to see them create the most awesome cupcakes ever, to me that is good reality TV.

           We shouldn’t let the drama that, The Jersey Shore guys, or the Teenage mom’s, bring along. We live in a society full of drama and stress anyway, why should we allow them to invade our homes?