Kelefa Sanneh’s “The Reality Principle” discusses the rise and evolution of the reality television genre. He draws from a few major publications that have attempted to dissect reality TV and make us “take it more seriously.” These statements, and his excerpts from Jennifer Pozner’s “Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV,” made me think about how we consider reality TV’s place in society, and what it means to us.

Reality TV advertising and product placement accounts for over 58% of all product placement on TV, even though its viewership lags far behind more popular dramas. It’s easy to film, low cost, and easy to advertise, which makes the genre lucrative for networks that are looking for a quick buck. Its prominence on TV has obviously skyrocketed, as Sanneh notes, but for me, its growing presence does not necessarily warrant a more “serious” analysis of what I think is the most basic definition of trash television. 

Granted, the social stereotypes and situations that we observe in reality TV can be, at times, indicative of our culture. But I think that discussing why everyone on “The Real World” is an awful person is a futile endeavor.  Cast selections are purposeful, and even if you put eight nice people in a house together for four months they’d probably end up losing their minds. 

Overanalyzing the day-to-day interactions of the women on “The Bachelor” or the characterization of competitors on “Survivor” distracts from real, underlying societal issues that aren’t going to be solved through discussion of why The Bachelor chose That One Pretty Girl over the other one. We watch reality TV it’s not reality – it’s an escape from it. Trying to derive social meaning from eight wasted 25-year-olds is pointless.