Reality Tv: Friend or Foe

Everyone starts watching television when they are young and the odds are that the shows were reality TV. Many grew up on it, but is reality TV beneficial or detrimental to the lives of young adults in the real world? Reality TV teaches self-reliance and inspires young adults to be bold and confident in the face of adversity. Reality TV teaches self-reliance to children at a young age. According to TV critic James Poniewozik, reality TV shows “make a performance more exciting, or they game-ify aspects of adult life, like cooking or traveling or making money.” When kids take a real aspect of adult life and turn it into a game, they become interested in the show and want to watch. When they are watching the shows they end up learning skills that they will use forever. Los Angeles Times Girls Scouts report states, “68% thought reality TV made young girls think they could achieve anything in life.” This is a `good example that shows self-reliance because they believe in themselves and think that they can do anything and go anywhere because of reality TV.

Reality TV inspires young adults to be bold in the face of adversity. The Los Angeles Times Girl Scouts report states, “Girls who watched reality TV on a regular basis were more self-assured than non-viewers, with most thinking of themselves as mature, a good influence, outgoing, funny, and smart.” These are all very good reasons why young children need to be watching reality TV, so that they can learn to have confidence in themselves but are also nice. Girl Scouts report also states, “More aspired to leadership… and were more apt to regard themselves as role models… [R]eality TV made them think they could achieve anything in life.” This is where the bold part comes in because they carry themselves with dignity and believe in themselves and their bold in the way they become leaders in society. Some might argue that reality TV is detrimental to kids and does not help them. However, there is much proof showing that reality TV helps kids instead of hurting them. Reality TV gives people new perspectives of different aspects of life including maturity, interactions with others, and is always teaching kids different ways of doing things. While the risk of reality TV is real, its benefits of self-reliance and teaching boldness and maturity in the face of adversity prove that reality TV helps young adults and children in many real-life situations. Reality TV is a necessity in today’s society to help teach kids beneficial morals and values.

Cite this page