Challenge to Reality TV Show Viewers

By Gerald Martin Davenport on January 22, 2017, Updated November 24, 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes

I Challenge you to demand more from people, companies, and yourself.

I challenge you to use your mind and educate yourself on anything; do not assume you know something actually learn it and then become an expert.

I challenge you to become a better person and show you care about your family, friends, neighbours, community, and country by telling them, helping them out without being asked, giving of yourself without any expectations of what you get out of it other than feeling honoured you did what you did.

I challenge you to leave behind the phone, gaming device, tv and get outside and do more activities with your mind, hands, and body or play some old-fashioned board games.

I challenge you to watch a better class of tv shows and movies that have redeeming, moral, educational values. I know sometimes there are times you just want to relax after a hard day — I have called TV veggie-vision before our children were born in 1990, maybe make you laugh, or have a shock value that you can cringe and say, “Oh man that’s got to hurt.” But there is more to life than that. Yes, there is, and I challenge you to find it.

THERE IS NO “REALITY” IN REALITY TV!

Please tell me you knew this. There might be few reality shows that have better production, characters, and premise but that does not take away that they are basically lying to you. Yes. they are lying to you. Think about this.

People act differently than they normally would when they are being watched.

It is a documented fact that the observed changes its behaviour. So how can anyone think that Reality TV has any reality to it? Unless you like watching over the top, fake, shock-value, banter. Now am saddened because you know it is fake, but you still watch it anyway. Not Judging, yes I am (transparency), but that is a human characteristic, everyone judges. Mostly I am wondering what your life is like that you need to have that kind of diversion — I reserve the right not to call it entertainment — in your life.

“Scripted shows have no reality to them either.” Okay, you have a point. I know a scripted show has a scripted designed to have a story that you can follow, some better than others; whereas, a reality show is expecting me to believe that these people are like this all the time and their antics, however asinine, are a daily occurrence — which is all they have because they have no talent to script an actual compelling story. Granted tv shows at the end of 2016 going into 2017 are not great.

Besides, reality tv show producers and developers are the sharks of the entertainment world. They deliver cheap diversions cheaply without doing any real work to put them together. It is about quantity for them, not quality.

Now they want us to believe that teams of people are going to be hiding from investigators hunting them in a “real-life” manhunt. (CBS | 2017 | HUNTED) WHAT? REALLY? Do they actually believe we are that stupid? Or they think we are that hard up for crap to watch? I am truly dismayed and bewildered that this type of material is still being made today.

Another copied program from the British. And Why Channel 4’s The Hunted is the biggest TV joke of the year.

I challenge you to watch better.

We deserve better than what we are given. From Corporations or small Businesses, it does not matter who provides it or what it is, we need to demand more.

Why do we purchase things we do not want, just because they do not have want we want? This includes TV shows and Movies.

I am hoping and praying that people have not asked for Reality shows, but I know it is futile as new ones pop up every month, and the old ones are still around and get a facelift.

I find it hard to believe, or maybe I just do not want to believe, that people, all over the world, are lazy. Probably not a new problem we have been dealing with for each generation that comes-of-age, but I see it more and more with television programs, movies, and overall videos on the internet.

This is not age or gender specific, though I see it more with the younger generation — but who do we blame?

And I do not point fingers at them for having it. I do have an issue with them for not doing something about it. Most probably got it from their parents or lack of involvement from their parents. As I always tell people, “It is not your fault your an idiot, it is your parents.”

ONE POSSIBLE BLAME?

I grew up watching Bugs Bunny, Sesame Street, Electric Company, Gilligan’s Island and those programs in the ’70s. But most of the time I wrote books, music, played the drums, rode my bike, and played outside! There were no computers, the internet, video game consoles, cell phones, or the plethora of channels we have now on tv, so we entertained ourselves, and most of it was outdoors — I played with Hot Wheels in the dirt with my friend Timothy Fosbender in Mattoon, Illinois back in the mid to late ’70s.

When my wife and I raised our children we challenged them to be creative, self-sufficient, and use critical thinking.  We did not have a TV connected to the outside world for 17 years, except for movies on VHS and DVD, or Nintendo Video Game Consoles that we regulated — I also played. The computer we had was used for programming, writing, creating, music, and information. We did things as a family. Read books, ate at the dinner table, talked about our day, life, future; did homework, played outside, helped in the yard. We had solid family time.

I see families today, not all, where they have TV, video programs, in their car. Really? Do you have no idea how to entertain your children, because you are lazy, making your children lazy, while you drive? OH MY GOSH!

Then, they give them digital devices to keep them busy, like video games, their own tv in their room, their own computer at home just so they do not have to do any REAL parenting. And the pattern then continues with the grandchildren.

Has the digital age created a lazy, weak, soft, self-serving, no work ethic, no respect, mind-numbed generation? Again, this is not an age or gender-specific problem.

I love my digital devices, but I know how to use them in moderation. I am not a huge Facebook fan, use it for family stuff, but I only visit it once a week. I have a google plus profile for my film productions. The phone is used for texting and calls, but I am not on it every single second — it is turned off when I get home.

WILL YOU AT LEAST TRY?

I get it. You feel you need to be apart of a group that understands you, but still being unique, different, and non-conforming. If you think about that, I know it is hard work but think about it, being different and unique means being like no one else. You cannot be like no one else, and be in a group of people that are like you. Besides, there is nothing that any generation does that a generation has not already done before them.

REMEMBER: They are lying to us. Do not be fooled. Remember they lie to us by telling us, “It is the fasted growing show on tv.” Or “Everyone is raving about it.” And this one, “The hottest selling item today. Or the number one selling item.”

These are hype words and phrases to get you into feeling that you are missing out on something, so you watch it, or buy it, and guess what, their prediction comes true, but the show or product was not all that it was hyped.

Do not get me started on the car (Chevy) commercial that displays a line that reads, “Real people. not actors.” So Fake. I laugh. There are laws and rules when it comes to entertainment and being on camera.  No one can use your likeness without your permission when used for monetary or motivational purposes. Which means you sign something before you go on camera; then they tell you what is going to happen and what they want you to do, or say.

In large venues, there is a sign you have to read before you enter that basically reads “Video Recording in Progress, by entering you give the production company permission to use your likeness for their production, if you choose not to be on camera, do not enter.”

And even if, they actually capture some real reactions to people that are not actors, not to mention if there is more than one take, there is the process called EDITING. And being an editor, I have altered reality.

So if it is on TV, movies, or video online, it is FAKE. Not all news programs are real either. Do not be fooled. American Idol, America’s Got Talent, all of those types of shows, however, they say reality are scripted.

I Challenge you to demand more from people, companies, and yourself.

AVOID THESE NETWORKS WITH A VENGENCE

• Oxygen Network (really? they have a tag that reads “very real.”) All of their shows are made on the cheap, and you can see it.
• Bravo Network (everything is fake)
• Every network has a fake show if not more. Even NFL, MLB, Cooking, and Food network, and ones you would not think would, DIY, History, and Discovery. So sad.

Remember: Lights on for safety. even during the day