"The Real World:" The unreality of Reality TV -Jade

The catch phrase for the reality television show, ‘The Real World’ says: “find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real” The show then proceeds to film seven strangers who have auditioned to live together in some beautifully set up house for several months. Each season of the show is set in a different city (and sometimes different country) and none of the people have met each other prior to being on the show. The whole goal of the show is the present to viewers not a scripted telly slot, but instead the inside look of seven people’s lives and what they’re ‘really’ like. It is Realism for the 20th century, except the ‘realism’ obtained is so fake it would make Mark Twain and Stephen Crane vomit.

Have you ever tried to act ‘natural’ when you knew you were being filmed? How about those times when your parents cried ‘Just pretend we aren’t here!’ at your sixteenth birthday party as they ran around with the digital camera, and you spent the entire time blushing and hiding your stomach pudge? It is impossible for a human being to act natural in an unnatural environment, yet this is exactly what ‘The Real World’ claims to achieve. And might I add, the situation these people are in is far from natural! Firstly, they are completely aware they are being watched by every person who watches MTV. Secondly, how many times in a lifetime does a human just get up, move to a city at no cost, and move in with six other people whom they have never talked to, never seen, or never communicated with before? And thirdly, the house where these ‘real’ people live is always some huge, fantastic mansion with gorgeous interior design which none of these people could afford even if shared with roommates. Oh, and did I mention, they have to get ‘jobs’ in the show, but half the time they don’t have to be paying jobs, just as long as they are working like ‘real people’.

With constant criticism that soap operas and TV drama are too fake, reality TV has sprung up to be the answer to viewers’ prayers. The only problem is that the reality TV being presented is still phoney; it is just a new kind of phoney. The only true reality TV on the channels right now is the Discovery Channel, when they film the animals out in their habitats. Why, you might ask? Because the animals don’t KNOW they’re being filmed. Hence, you’re filming a reality.