The Effects Of Reality Shows

By; Preetika Chaudhary

A while back I use to watch a reality show called The Real World. In one of the episodes I had seen a girl who went to a club one day at night and drank so much that she passed out. In The Real World shows things like that always happen. That’s how I think it affects many teens now days.

Many young people see real life people like themselves on T.V acting crazy and inappropriate behavior in public so then many think its ok to do what they see on T.V.
Reality shows like The Hills, The Real World, Tila Tequila, Flavor Flav and etc., feature interesting topics that take place in real life. Due to their popularity, it would be easy to assume that reality shows have had a major impact on young people. But is this really true?

Junior Brenda Delgadillo doesn’t think so. “By high school, kids already know what is wrong and right.” She believes high school students should already know the difference. This is somewhat true. By high school, kids learn that not all the behavior they see on reality shows is right.
Senior David Yakin has a different opinion. The media is strong and has influence on high school kids.

“In my opinion, some kids want to escape their reality lives,” he said. So what do they do? They watch someone else’s reality lives.
Bart, the security guard, also seems to agree that reality shows have an impact on kids. “Monkey see, monkey do,” he said. He believes that kids will do what they see on T.V.

However, he feels different about Tennyson High students. He said, “Our kids don’t do that, but different schools might try.”

Sophomore Ruth Hernandez agrees with Bart’s monkey philosophy. “The way the T.V. actors influence the youth is by dressing sexual. They provoke kids. To make them want to dress like that,” Ruth explained. “Kids think its all cool and stuff.”

Reality shows have an impact on many of the youth now days. The media is so strong that they influence many people to dress or act a certain way however some kids are strong enough not to fall for it.