Influence Of Reality Television On Moral Standards

Reality television shows impose fake moral standards that are detrimental to human beings. Most people tend to watch television at night before they go to bed. More than likely, they are watching a reality TV show because nine out of ten shows that are produced are in the category of reality. Even though most people have switched over to watching Netflix or some online version of television, it is still mostly reality TV shows or movies. Out of all o==f the shows produced on television 70% of them are in the reality genre (“Reality”). When watching reality television, the main points that people focus on are self-esteem, their looks, their children, and most importantly their life.

When watching a show, you start to compare your life with the way that the actors are portraying their lives to be. We all know that the way things are on TV is not what they are in real life. In sociology, there is a concept of ideal culture and real culture. Ideal culture follows your morals and “sticks to the script” while real culture is the way things actually are and sometimes break morals. Reality TV shows follow these concepts to a T, they portray ideal culture when in real life it would be real culture.

The most popular reality television show in 2019 is The Game of Thrones. The main age group that watches this show is 18-29 years old and the age group 30-44 years old is almost as high (“Audience Demographics”. When you think about those age groups, the person has more than likely started a family and has small children running around. When kids are young you try to teach them right from wrong, but Game of Thrones can teach the young ones much differently. This reality show is known for its violence and sexuality. When young ones see these types of acts, it will teach them ways that are against their parent’s morals and they will start to grow up not knowing any better.

Reality television does not only have an effect on young ones but society as a whole. According to Brad Gorham of Syracuse University, “Reality television has an effect on the behaviors of people in society.” He claims that people are easily influenced by reality television because they eventually copy the behaviors portrayed on television and use them in real life. There has been an observational study done by the University of Wisconsin on the effects of reality TV shows. According to the students of the University of Wisconsin who did the study stated that “This study concluded that reality television viewers believe that the argumentative and conniving behaviors portrayed on television shows is considered normal in today’s society.” With that being said, nowadays, more and more people are started to follow the real culture and just throw away the norms.

When thinking about norms and morals the first thing that comes to my mind is my manners and how I personally treat someone. The main four moral values are respect, family, never hurt anyone and honesty. As I mentioned before that The Game of Thrones is the most popular reality television show. When you think about the show and its contents, it breaks many of the moral values that I just stated. If you were raised correctly as a young child then you should know and follow your morals, but if you are constantly watching something over and over against that goes against your morals, then you will start to break them yourself.

According to Pepperdine University students who did a study on how reality TV shows lower moral standards said, “Over the past two decades the accepted moral standards upheld by the sitcom have deteriorated as they made way for the new so-called “reality.”” The called the reality we are in now, the “new” reality. By saying this, it means to me that nowadays people do not care about the social standards and the morals that they should have. I do not agree with this society that is called the “new society”. I believe that people should stick their moral values and do what is right.

When learning why and how reality TV shows are detrimental to human begins, I learned that 95% of people who watch this genre of television shows all have children. The generation that is in elementary school now is learning many things that break moral standards like violence, drugs, and bad language just by watching television with their parents. The parents are probably oblivious to what their child is learning because they do not pay attention to their kids when they are watching television, and the kids are more than likely to be right there with them and watching the show and the moral standards be broken and thinking that it is okay. By thinking it is okay to do, they will continue to do it and will never learn right from wrong.

I am against reality television shows. While I think they are very comical and very easy to get addicted to watching, I think the genre should be cut down by at least 35%. I always want to live by the moral standards and have respect for others and I wish more people would do the same. If more people watched fewer reality TV shows, I believe that the crime percentage would go down and that respect for others would grow. If there is less reality television shows in the world, the society would become much more respectful and safer for everyone.