Although some believe reality television can teach children viewers valuable lessons, I believe reality television negatively impacts the lives of the youth because of the aggressive behaviors and messages they convey to viewers. Reality television has had ample amounts of controversy surrounding it because of the growing popularity. With some reality television shows airing violence in ways not previously explored in scripted shows, viewers are hesitant about whether to allow children to watch such shows.
The aggressive behavior in children is shown to be a result of violence demonstrated on reality television shows. This is due to a copy-cat behavior that psychologist Brian Wilcox has studied. Copy-cat behavior refers to the inclination of viewers to perform actions based on watching these behaviors in others. Reality television is a huge culprit of displaying fights and aggressive behavior.
One example is the MTV reality television show, Jackass. In 2001, after watching the show, three teenage boys attempted to recreate one of the stunts from the show. The stunt involved one of the three boys “bouncing off the hood” of the car after the vehicle slammed into him. After being clinically harmed, the boys later admitted that they were attempting to recreate what they saw on the show.
Another disturbing incident of violence is when a husband sent his wife a bomb inspired by the reality television game show, The Weakest Link. He attached the bomb with a note that read “You are the weakest link, Goodbye” The bomb exploded and his wife, Kilgrow-Bishop experience burns from the incident. The game show nurtures this disturbing aggressive behavior because of the intensity of the game show host who, when a contestant gets a question wrong, votes them off the show in a cruel tone.
Another demonstration of aggressive behavior in youth due to reality television shows is the competitive behaviors shown in Real World, a reality television show on MTV. Mark Flynn, a reporter for The Psych Report, studied the show, saying that most women “were mostly slender with 69 percent having low body fat, and close to half had medium to large bust sizes.” He also found that nine out of ten women’s bodies were at least minimally exposed, and almost one third of the women caster were fully or partially undressed. Young adults being the largest demographic for this show, were exposed to the competitive body image ideals that this show nurtures. Not only were young adult viewers more insecure about their body image, they were also inclined to compete with other young adults around them. This competitive and aggressive behavior was stimulated due to watching this television show. By exposing these young adults to the unrealistic versions of beauty, their self-esteem is compromised and they are inclined to become aggressive and competitive due to their insecurities.
This leads further to the promotion of catty girl fighting that reality television is infamous for. Shelba Waldron, a training manager for the St. Petersburg Juvenile Welfare Board, says “Shows such as Jersey Shore, The Kardashians, Real Housewives of…, TeenMom, and others are packed with violent verbal and physical exchanges.” She goes even further, saying “Some reality TV shows are blatant about violence, such as Bad Girls Club.” This demonstrates that young girls who view reality television shows are more likely to exhibit the negative behavior that these reality shows promote. They display an increase of competitive, aggressive behavior displayed in these shows.
Today’s reality television shows are causing the youth to be more aggressive in nature and are therefore causing a negative impact on children. By exposing the youth to aggressive and competitive behavior from these shows, the youth is only mimicking these behaviors. This is an important problem that needs to be address quickly because how the youth is affected, will affect the future of society.
Reality Television in 2017 