What's on TV tonight?

I don’t think I am the only person in the world who would say that media is almost a natural part of our world. We drive in our cars, and we have to listen to something; whether it is talk radio, or the latest over-played tunes that constantly irritate us because they are played every 25 minutes. If were lucky, we have an Ipod connector, or some sort of device that allows us to escape the world of radio. At school we see movies in at least half of our classes; we watch youtube videos, and movies online. We do these things because we enjoy the freedom to do so. Unfortunately, when we go home to browse through our 631 channels of streaming television, we seem to not get what we want; if it’s not some schmooze from an unknown company telling us how to invest our money, its Rachel Ray telling us that making Mac & cheese can be exciting. If you think that’s bad, how about reality television? What is this American obsession with Bullshit media? I will admit I did like Howie Mandel, only when he was playing a cartoon kid with a giant head though. I liked Jeff Foxworthy, when he seemed two grades smarter than a fifth grader, or how about the so-called “Real World” on MTV. I still cant figure this one out; get a group of horny and very depressed 20 year old kids, lock them in a house with each other and give them as much booze and anger as they can handle. I would agree that booze is key, I don’t however see the importance of watching a group of very neglected people cry and punch each other because someone said something about their mother, or how they don’t like their tone of voice. Are you kidding me? Media today is a crock, its an illusion of reality that we want to believe is true.

Media may be entertaining, but it is largely fictional, and hardly real. Take a look at the show “The Bachelor”. What is the whole point of the show? Get a dude who pretends to be rich, set him up with a bi-polar half Canadian half Russian chick, and send them on their way? What? Or how about everyone’s favorite shows: “Flavor of Love”, “I love New York” and “Rock of Love”. Lets look at these shows for a minute and examine how they are beneficial by: Promoting sexual activities with almost 50 people without any knowledge of what’s crawling around in there pants, Making a complete fool of yourself, getting high ratings but being labeled as that “duesh bag” who is on VH1. The funny thing is that we feed of off these types of shows. We love them, because we laugh at them, and say “wow what a loser he/she turned out to be.” Media has one goal; make us believe that we are better. It’s true, do you watch “The Hills” and say, “damn, I wish I could be as screwed up as Heidi.” I would hope not. Do you wake up every day and think “Hmm if only I could tell someone to open their case, and actually enjoy it.” Or even, “Holy Shit! I could become a really famous rock star and throw it all down the drain later in life, Hell yea!” God no! We don’t like these people, we pity them, but why continue to watch these shows that have nothing to do with real life, and have nothing to do with our lives?

Media today would like us to believe that we can live the lavish life of a broke-ass movie star, and live a second life hosting game shows because we failed at our first careers. But the fact is media doesn’t want us to think like this, hell no, because if they did then reality TV would be called “Who Wants to be on Welfare”, “America’s Next Top Crack head” “Dancing with the insane”, “Deal or No way I’m getting an STD.” If reality was based of off actual reality these are the shows we would have. Unfortunately, we feed off of a false image of what reality really is. Media is powerful because I know sometime this week I will watch Howie take us to a commercial brake, I will watch Drew Carey explain how plinko works, or even watch Jeff try to act smart on FOX. The media feeds off of our stupidity. Does that say something about the future of America, and the ignorance of our willingness to accept fact from fiction? Pretty soon reality TV will become a reality.