We have all been a victim to it: the inevitable and ever so dependable Law and Order: SVU marathon is not on and you are left with a slim amount of quality television choices. This ill-fated situation leaves you lost in the pool that is TV Guide, only to find that reality television is all you can choose from. Our culture has become dominated by this phenomenon, sparking from the 90s cult classic The Real World; a series that followed unknown, young, red-blooded Americans as they tried to live with one another and navigate the path we call life.
It was intoxicating – immersing yourself into the lives of strangers who could very well be a friend or member of your own dysfunctional family. What kept this series so authentic was the fact that these young people were relatable; they all lived a life that was similar to the everyday young American. Whether it was the storyline of the housemate who was the first of their family to enter into college, or the gay housemate who hadn’t come out to his family, we got them.
However, the inevitable has happened: time has changed. With the changing of times came the changing of our culture: a culture that is obsessed with fame and notoriety rather than using the public as a platform for a message that can change the world. Television is the platform of choice to showcase the relationships, families and personal lives of fame hungry, careerless and personality-void socialites. Keeping Up With the Kardashians, a reality series birthed from the sex tape between “socialite” Kim Kardashian and her ex-boyfriend R&B singer Ray-J, is the series of choice for many Americans. My question to our society is: how is a show about the family of a deceased second string lawyer from the OJ murder case able to generate a $50 million dollar a season contract, a viewership of over one million and these people do virtually nothing for a living? They are able to do it because Americans are dumb.
It is a hard truth, but as a society, foresight has been the sacrifice we have made to indulge in shows about people that do nothing to benefit ourselves, this country, or the world we live in. The show sparks no real dialogue that needs to be had in the many households it is viewed in. There is no community service or giving back to the community segments in any episode. All the show does is highlight how easy it is to profit off of the ignorance and easily entertained Americans. We would rather validate the idea that it is possible to get a reality series, endorsement deals and multi-million dollar contracts off of doing nothing but feeding into the narcissism of one’s self. While the premise of the show is to reveal how the Kardashian family is like everyone else’s, that in itself is not a reality.
For starters, the average American family earns under six-figures a year and the top earners in the family have at least a Bachelor’s degree, and a salary job. Are most families dysfunctional? Of course, dysfunctional is a subjective description, but a fitting one nonetheless. But is the average American as overindulgent, narcissistic, baseless and willing to profit off of exposing their family? Absolutely not. The average American does not live their life and would probably prefer not to. Reality television has turned into an avenue for the insecure and attention-seeking individuals of the world to get their five minutes of fame Andy Warhol warned us about. It does nothing but raise a generation of youth that sees no real benefit in doing anything with their lives of any real substance when the images of success that they see are the Kardashian’s. Fad is nothing but the word fade minus the “e,” and much like Paris Hilton and many irrelevant socialites of America’s past, this too shall pass.