Entertainment News:“Back to Life, Back to Reality”

The Cosby Show, Living Single, Full House, 7^th Heaven. Where have all these shows gone? Is it just me, or does it seem that our society has been inundated with too much “reality”. What ever happened to the shows that was just a good old sit down with the family sitcom or TV drama. We now have The Jersey Shore, Teen Mom, Biggest Loser, and all the “housewives”. In my opinion these “reality” shows are anything but real. I think that when the term reality show first came out in the early 2000s the premise was to allow people to see other people living their lives “uncut”, unscripted. However, since the launch of this genre, it has become less real and more scripted with too much drama. What we have now is people signing up to gain their 15 minutes of fame and make it stretch as long as they can. Turn on the television on any given Monday night and what I’m sure you’ll see his hair pulling, drinks flying and enough bleeps in one sentence that’ll make you question whether or not what’s left is a full sentence. I can tell you now that I learned more about life from watching Family Matters than watching Family Hustle.

Now I’m not bashing reality shows at all, because lets face it, it’s entertaining. However, what I am saying is that it’s important that we do not let these shows taint our reality. Too many times do I hear someone asking another “Did you hear about the new season of..”, and too little do I hear anyone say “Did you hear about the new healthcare reform”. With that being said, I challenge us to find the balance between entertainment, and the real world, no pun intended.

Written by: Jessica Charles