The Popularity of Reality TV in Contemporary American Culture

While reality television shows have been around for quite some time, it has reached an unprecedented amount of popularity in the recent decades due to the information revolution. Because of our increasingly and more readily available access to all sorts of information regarding almost every facet of life we as Americans have adopted a sense of empowerment and have become self-proclaimed experts on all sorts of matters. I think that this sort of empowerment is the reason that reality television has become so popular because it reinforces our heightened sense of expertise and knowledge about everything and allows us to have to apply our thoughts, ideas, and opinions on real social situations presented in these shows.

As I noted in the real housewives entry, the beauty of reality television resides in our ability to actively inspect various aspects of the individuals of these shows and come up with our own opinions and conclusions on their actions. Americans are very much social human beings and are very much magnetized by popular social norms. I feel like the act of watching reality television is a more social event than watching a pre-scripted movie or television series because we are very much forced to derive meaning from real life social situations (often times based on our experiences with our own peers) that are depicted on camera. Elaborating even more on the social nature of reality television it become even more apparent on shows like “American Idol” in which viewers can take an active role in eliminating contestants from the show. Think of reality shows such as Americas Best Dance Crew, American Idol and America’s got talent in which relatively unknown people become reality television stars and reach celebrity-like popularity. Because as Americans we are empowered with all this knowledge provided by the information revolution it makes sense that these shows are consistent with conquering our self-absorbed fantasies.

"We eagerly take on the "empowered" roles of director, of judge, and of celebrity, but are rarely reminded, in the timeless words of Peter Parker in the movie Spiderman, that "with great power comes great responsibility." With all the focus on us, we paradoxically lose a sense of our own place in the larger world. We lose, in short, a sense of our own reality." (talentzoo.com)

I think this is a very powerful statement and wraps up perfectly how American culture currently relates to reality television. With all the do-it-yourself shows and find the best in the world type shows it is obvious that Americans are somewhat narcissistic individuals. We put so much emphasis on conquering, winning, reaching personal goals, that we often lose sight of the bigger picture. Perhaps we should shift the emphasis on ourselves (very much tied into the American dream) and reflect on our responsibilities of being a globally aware citizen.