There’s no doubt that many have given in to the allure of watching reality TV shows. With a rise in these types of shows coming out, our view of what constitutes reality has been grossly distorted. Have you ever just sat down on the couch and watched “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” when it comes on? Odds are if you said yes, you very well know they have no talent. To be honest, I have sat down and watched reality TV, but it has become a major distraction to students like myself. Lower grades and less awareness of one’s surroundings are just a few of the major problems reality TV brings to the table.

Reality TV heightens the standards of living we expect. Most of us won’t end up like Kim K, a multimillionaire married to Kanye West, or even like those toddlers featured on Toddlers in Tiaras who make money off people watching the show. Reality TV can even be detrimental for the TV stars because it puts pressure on them to act a certain way for the cameras. It brings on a sort of fallacy of how we should be living versus how we actually can live. For most of us, it’s just not possible to be walking around decked out in Gucci with our minimal college budget. Lower grades and a decreased awareness of surroundings are just a couple of the major problems it brings to the table, as well as an inability to save and put money aside for the future. Most reality TV shows are scripted or staged and don’t represent society as a whole, especially when considering billionaires make up less than 1% of our population. A trip of a lifetime for the “famous” (reality tv stars) is unattainable for the majority of us, but it is portrayed as a normal part of life. 

Looking back on your college years, it would be sad to remember nothing other than binging reality shows, instead of living it up and hanging out with lifelong college friends. It has become such a huge part of society that we are becoming addicted and turning away from our hobbies, the things we love the most. This addiction actually makes it even more difficult to accomplish what we see on television and decreases our productivity. 

Instead, we should be focusing on our lives, living in the moment and experiencing what the world has to offer. We shouldn’t be living through the lives we see on television. We have much more important things to do than sit around and watch these stars prance around. Sadly, it will continue to be a part of most of our lives. Hopefully in the future we can try to regulate it, not feed into the fake perception it gives us and continue on to bigger and better things that aren’t so mindless.