Reality

The reality is that I would invite a lot of people I see on TV into my home if I could.  I would say probably 75-85% of the people I see on TV I would end up enjoying letting them in for a cup of joe and a nice conversation in the living room (with the TV off).  The other reality is there is a certain proportion of people on TV who I wouldn’t want in my neighborhood much less my home. There are just some I wouldn’t feel comfortable with.  Who would you invite and not invite to your home? For me, many who you might think I wouldn’t invite in are the ones I would.

Reality TV

There is a concept in physics that says the very act of observing particles changes what the particles do. You can never see them and not affect them.  I think the same is true of humans. I don’t think it is possible for a camera to be present and the human it is recording to not have some change in their behavior.  It might be subtle, it might be barely perceptible, but it is there nonetheless.

Reality TV Reality

I don’t think it is wise for us to pretend we are really seeing who these people are.  Perhaps we are seeing more of them than if they were acting a role in a scripted series, but that doesn’t mean we are seeing them accurately.  The first, most obvious reason is the editing that goes on.  The producers need to create conflict and villains and heroes and drama.  The can’t do that by showing boring people coping well with life and getting along. They find characteristics and they exploit and manipulate the people, situations, environments, to make those characteristics clash.  That doesn’t mean certain people on reality TV aren’t really jerks, I am sure many of them are, but they aren’t ONLY jerks and the jerkiness they exhibited might have been greatly exaggerated in that made up situation.

Reality

As long as the person watching is smart enough to recognize that is what is happening then I think it’s all good.  Unfortunately I do think many don’t realize that and they go away under the illusion that they know that person.  They don’t.  Those people who come across as jerks? Those are some of the ones I would want to invite in, if for no other reason than to balance out what I saw on TV with a more accurate dose of who they are in reality.

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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman, whose wife thinks would do really well on Survivor if he could get past the first day or two when people might think he was an arrogant jerk.  Who me?

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Trivia question of the day

What was the first reality TV show?  Hint, it aired before most of you were born (including me).  Answer tomorrow.

Quote by David Frost

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