In "The Dangers of Reality TV," Sexton shows us how reality TV has influenced people's mind with some dangerous messages. The example of the “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire" show tells you life is only a competition. "American Idol" shows you that your image is more looked upon than your abilities. And the most dangerous message is to let you to think that making more money is more important than education. All of those reality TV shows make you believe what they say and change yourself to be what they want you to be. I agree with the author when he views that “reality TV reinforces several unsound messages that are molding the minds of its young fans.”
Today, reality TV is on all day long with news, shows, movies and ads. People like to watch TV every day because media knows how to get people, especially young fans attention with their incredible “message” shows. According to Sexton, one of the ideas is that “life is nothing but a competition that we continually engage in with each other.” This statement reminds me that I have watched many children’s competitive shows from Sino TV. Those shows are like “Who Is Smarter?” “I’m the Champion,” “You Will Not Know if You Don’t Attend the Test,” and “Can you Graduate?” In these shows, judges will score them and reward them. Of course there are some winners, but many of them lose. When I saw that some kids’ eyes were full of tears because they didn’t win the champion, I can see their feelings were hurt. I know those shows that people create have their commercial purposes; however, if these shows engage children to become competitive, their minds will have wrong messages while they are young. Therefore, media somehow has influenced young fans mind in our society.
Moreover, if reality TV tries to send us messages that “educations completely unnecessary to fulfill the American dream,” it will be the dangerous single to our society. Only those who “eat bugs, and walk away with a bucket of money,” I believe there is no shortcut to succeed without effort in people’s lives. We all know that education is very important to all of us, especially to younger generations. The reason is not only to make more money in the future; it is also because we can gain knowledge from what we learn in school. I remember in my communication course, my professor let us to talk about news and think about “is news always true?” In our society, news comes out every day. News reporters and analysts always talk about news with their viewpoints and opinions. We have used to listen and most of us believe what they say. We might not think if it’s true or not. There might be some control behind the scene. I believe that the author is right when he states, “in fact, they aren’t replicating society as it is, but rather as those in power want people to believe it is.” Therefore, without education you wouldn’t have knowledge to analyze the world, to discover the truth while you go into the reality world.
Reality TV has used its power to confuse young fans’ mind by sending some dangerous messages. We should fully recognize the true value of ourselves instead of following what they try to “mold” for us.
No comments:
Post a Comment