Is reality TV making us terrible people?
It’s all fun and games until someone dies… Literally. 40 reality TV show stars dead later; we still have not learned our lesson.
In the modern world, sensory overload is increasingly becoming common. Many of us routinely feel trapped in the endless cycle of bad news after bad news — countries are losing their freedom, Economies are on the verge of collapse, and unemployment is the highest it has ever been. When reality isn’t so great anymore, where do we go? For a lot of people, another version of it.
What is Reality TV?
Reality TV is a type of entertainment that puts ordinary people in situations created by the producers intended to show how they would behave. Supposedly, the production is unscripted and starring relatively ordinary people instead of professional actors.
In the early 2000s, we saw the rise of reality TV as we know it. Often within the bounds of occasionally intersecting seven core categories — documentary, competitions, makeover/renovation, hidden camera, supernatural, and travel.
Despite being branded as “reality”, reality shows still carry some degree of planning and typecasting. Like any good story, every show must have compelling characters that create tension. Show creators try their best to cast the kind of people that make good drama.
While appearing to be seemingly harmless, an unexpected problem arose— viewers couldn’t separate the real people from the characters they played on TV.
The Price of Fifteen Minutes
While branded as a Netflix original, Instant Hotel initially aired on Australia’s Seven Network in 2017. This little fact explains why it does not seem to follow the same feel-good formula that Netflix original reality shows like Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, Queer Eye, and Nailed It!
The premise of the show was simple — a group of homeowners competes to be the best Instant Hotel by staying overnight in other people’s rentals and rating their experiences. It was a great way to learn about the different tourist destinations in Australia. A fun, somewhat competitive but still fair ride into some beautiful rental homes.
Until the second half of the first season, the next half of the cast seemed more interested in becoming infamous than actually sharing about their homes. While arguably, the petty drama that ensued was a lot of people’s cup of tea, it was not the white noise watch that many people were expecting.
Between “socialites” Mikey & Shay and entrepreneur friends Serena and Sturt, they were calling their competitor’s homes “a nice tin shed”, spying on their guests with security cameras and scoring an undeserved 2/10 for a beautiful property just to put others down.
Granted that no amount of editing would have made them say the numerous mean things that left their mouths, it was still a toxic, petty mess that designed to make you hate them.
And hate them, the world did. When the series first premiered on Australia, Serena de Comarmond (and her children) were victims of bullying that she had to leave Australia. While she has managed to rise above this and has used her newfound fame to promote her business ventures, one contestant was not so lucky.
Increased suicide rates in Reality TV personalities
In June 2020, 33-year old Shay Razaei passed away in a suspected suicide allegedly due to cyberbullying. Right before filming Instant Hotel, she had lost her fiancee to a drowning accident in California. Not long after, her stepsister passed away, and her best friend also committed suicide. She was in real, emotional pain. But all we could see on the show was that she was a brat.
Unfortunately, Shay Razaei’s death is one of many reality entertainment-related suicides to happen in recent times.
In 2019, a study by The Sun UK revealed that there has 38 documented suicide linked to reality TV since 1986. Going through the list, you will see reality shows like Survivor, American Idol, X-Factor, America’s Next Top Model, Masterchef, and more. We are only beginning to scratch the surface on the metal toll overnight fame can do to people.
After a tense incident with a cast mate on the show, 22-year old Terrace House star Hana Kimura’s was filled with hate messages on social media platforms.
The Netflix star sent repeated cries for help came in the form of photos of self-harm, fans tried to contact her and which prompted the police to visit her. In May 2020, the pro-wrestler Hana Kimura was found lifeless in her home.
Reality TV’s design somehow makes it acceptable to hate publicly. It is as if them being characters in a show where they play themselves gives viewers the right to treat them less as actual people.
Is reality TV making us terrible people?
The spectacle of another person’s drama has long been a way to entertain us. Hearing pseudo-celebrity problems has always been a willful distraction from real issues of our own.
But the promise of instant fame and the desire to impress producers cloud people’s vulnerable judgments. Reality stars seldom understand what they are giving up to be public figures. When you add the layer of anonymity of the internet, it becomes complex. People take this as permission to be the worst version of themselves.
When we voice out our opinions in real life, we carry the consequences of our actions. We know that if we misbehave, there will be actual people that we will hurt and retaliate. Reality TV is a glimpse into what people can be like when they think no one is watching. It is how people would behave when there do not seem to be any real consequences.
As the lines between what is real or does not begin to blur, the writing is on the walls. Reality TV does not make us terrible people. Reality TV is just revealing how terrible people can actually be.
