By Cheryl Mattox Berry
Name-calling. Throwing food and drinks. Pulling fake hair. Fighting. These are normal activities in the daily lives of many reality TV performers. Note, I didn’t say stars because these wannabe actors don’t deserve that label. They have no talent and are famous for being famous.
I started watching reality TV – My Super Sweet 16 – with my daughter. I heard her talking about the series, so I decided to check it out. Some of the kids on the show were spoiled brats, and we got a big laugh out of seeing them cut up on camera. When she started watching Teen Mom, I stopped laughing. I felt sorry for the young girls on the show because they were being exploited for ratings. True, the show does give viewers a glimpse of what it’s like to be a teen mother, but what viewers might not know is that producers set up situations in the show.
That’s because the drudgery of single motherhood is not compelling enough to entice viewers. In real life, fans of Teen Mom probably see young single mothers struggling to make ends meet every day. I doubt they find the lives of these real girls interesting or entertaining. Knowing this, producers skip over the mundane stuff in the lives of teen moms and go straight for the drama.
Reality TV characters soon realize that the more outrageous they act, the more popular they become. Bad behavior gets more airtime, magazine covers, TV interviews and a bigger paycheck. Ta-da. A star is born. I don’t think so. It’s easy for performers on reality shows to get caught up in the bright lights of Hollywood, but don’t be fooled. They are getting paid for letting the producers manipulate their private lives under the guise of reality TV. If things get boring, leave it to the producers to spice up the action with conflict. On an episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, the show was scene after scene of fake arguments and name-calling (one sibling called another sibling a garden tool.) Just like that (a finger snap,) they made up. None of it was believable.
If you watch these shows, do so for entertainment purposes only. It’s not real life. Not yours, not theirs. Don’t adopt the bad behavior of these characters, thinking that you will get the same results. Seeing Snooki drunk on Jersey Shore may be funny, but in real life would you want to hang out with someone like that? Do you think she would act that way if the cameras weren’t rolling?
I often hear girls talking about the designer clothes worn by the Kardashians and ladies on Basketball Wives. Sure, many reality actors sport drop-dead outfits, but most of the time these expensive clothes are given to them by designers or they are on loan. On some reality shows, the characters are actually peddling clothes and accessories they wear on their website. The idea is for you to desire the things reality characters have and purchase them so that you, too, can feel like a TV star. The reality is, they are just trying to make money off you.
If you want to admire someone, choose a young woman of style and substance. There are many women in your community who should be idolized for their good deeds, not their drunken antics; for their character, not their clothes; and for their values and morals, not their foul mouth. It’s easy to get hooked on reality shows because there’s not much good programming on TV these days. The shows are cheap to produce and don’t require much creativity. Keep in mind that these shows are make-believe. They don’t resemble the real lives of real people. Don’t be manipulated into thinking, acting or dressing like the performers in these shows, which are the figment of a producer’s imagination.