I work in it. I love it. But do I watch it? Not as much as you'd think. I think humans possess a great deal of creativity and ingenuity and have developed countless ways of expressing themselves, but the current trend of expressing our true selves through reality is not something that interests me so much. Is it wrong that I don't reeeeeealy care who gets voted off Big Brother or who broke up with their "significant other" (quotes addressed momentarily) on Jersey Shore. Don't think for one second that I feel I'm better than the masses who flock to reality TV like a fat kid to the ice cream truck, 'cause that is absolutely not the case. I just simply have not developed that portion of my media viewing habits. My loyalties still fall with the scripted television format.
The quotations around significant other: they are there for a reason and are meant to be representative of the "reality" genre as a whole. Again with the quotation marks. Maybe I haven't been hooked on the genre because I refuse to believe that we are watching true people and events and I am not willing to accept the made up reality as a form of entertainment when just a few channels over, there is a show like Weeds or Mad Men. Sure, these shows have their outrageous and preposterous and even depraved plot lines, but they were conceived in the minds of people who have created an idea, mapped out story arcs, and created fictional people who you care for and root for and tune in every week to see how they are doing.
So though I am clearly in the minority, I will continue to support the dying scripted end of television while testing my palate every so often by ingesting a half our or so of the latest hit reality program - Desperate Housewives of Atlanta, perhaps? Oy gevalt.
Eating bugs and marrying strangers for money - humans are weird.
