Technology has showered humanity with all sorts of gifts and for the most part, we have used them pretty well to enhance our lives and do things that are casual to us but would appear like magic to a caveman.

There are however, several cases where we have gotten carried away with our use of these technologies so much that it has resulted in something that would even give the inventors of said technologies nightmares!

Take the television for example. It must have been such a revolutionary new technology of its time where you could see and hear people from across the globe inside a box! No wonder it quickly became a very popular medium of spreading information.

As we almost always do, we quickly turned the TV into a source of entertainment which was well and good….. until reality shows started showing up! I am not saying they are all bad, but boy are there a lot of bad ones and it seems like now, most people simply hate them. I think, rather hope, that you do too. If you don’t, stay tuned and you just might!

1. It’s All Fake

It’s ironical that reality shows are fake! Although these shows are all about the real lives of real people, let me tell you, that these are still shows and these still have to ‘sell’.

Therefore, they are mostly scripted and acted and extremely exploitative to serve the greater need of making the show successful. I mean, there are now story editors in reality shows. Why would you want a ‘story’ editor where you’d expect ‘reality’?

That’s because they show what they want to show. They have hours upon hours of tape for a single episode and they can change the narrative as per their wishes.

We all know that nowadays, its all about the show ratings. They will do absolutely whatever it is that will get the ratings to go higher even as far as creating scandals. The whole thing just wreaks of fakeness. Of course not every single one is like that but enough of them are for people to generalise.

2. Oh, The Drama!

This must be the number one thing that is common across most reality shows. Be it singing and dancing shows where there is always that one arrogant and pompous judge creating drama for everybody or other shows where the participants live together. There is always so much drama.

But it might not be the fault of the show producers. Us humans consider such chaos entertainment these days and so, that’s what they’ll try to create for us! In fact most dramas are manufactured just to satisfy the viewers at home, which is ok to a point until they start getting abusive.

Then there is something called ‘schadenfreude’ which permeates a lot of the reality TV. It means pleasure derived from someone else’s misfortunes. Yes, right now, you might be thinking, “who would want to see such a thing?”

But think again. Shows like Fear Factor, Wipeout, Big Brother all show people getting humiliated and embarrassed and for some reason, people like watching it!

3. Bad Social Consequences

The youth is pretty impressionable and if they watch the kind of garbage that they show these days, it will heavily impact their behaviour. No wonder many of them act out because they think it is ok to do so, just because some douche on a tv show did it!

They make people want the glamour life and to be popular so that everyone will like them. And in today’s world, where everyone is seeking validation and affection, reality shows simply augment that and it creates an entire generation of spotlight hungry people.

I am not saying that it is bad but trying to become famous just for the sake of being famous is just not done. And we all know the kind of lives these celebrities live where they appear happy from the outside but are often unfulfilled on the inside.

Needless to say reality shows that portray nudity, violence, drug and alcohol use have bad social consequences. If you think you can monitor what your children are watching, I will just say that this is the age of internet!

4. Talent Is No More A Requirement

Yes, many shows still respect true talent and they judge people based solely on that. Therefore, thanks to many of these show, some really talented people get the spotlight they deserve and many people manage to make careers out of it.

Things have taken a turn for the worst these days though. How many times have you seen people with no talent or mediocre talent become superstars while the really talented people do not even get noticed.

Just recently there was this 14 year old girl named Danielle Bregoli who appeared on the Dr. Phil show and today she is set to be a millionaire. You know why? Just because she said this statement, “Cash me ousside, how ‘bout dah?” and it became an internet meme!! Can you believe it?

Also, can someone please explain to me why the Kardashians are popular again? I mean we all know why, but really….. why???