Reality Television and the Youth Essay

Reality television has evolved over the past sixty years. They have gone from clean practical jokes to a portrayal of an American family to how to party, lie and deceive. The more the focus is on partying, drugs, sex, vulgarerness, the more our young people will portray these traits. There needs to be more focus on good wholesome clean fun, which keeps the youth safe and healthy. The way to change the way our society is headed is to stop the programing that is hurting all of us. Reality shows of today teaches the youth that it’s alright to disobey their parents, its alright to party, do drugs, have sex with multiple people, get pregnant, and that the guys that don’t have to stay around or take care of the situation they helped put the girl in. The cause and effects of today’s reality shows far outweigh the advantages they have. It’s hard to believe that reality shows have been around for almost sixty years. The very first reality show was produced and aired in 1954, the show is Candid Camera. It was innocent practical jokes on unsuspecting strangers on the streets. The reactions were funny and the jokes were tasteful and clean. The next show is where our reality shows stem from. Its was produced and aired in 1973. An American Family, only had twelve episodes and during this time there were two reasons it became infamous. The two reasons were the demanded divorce from wife Pat and that their son Lance came out and openly announced he was gay, he was the first openly gay person. This is where our reality television stems from. An American Family show really opened up the airways for the nastiness that is called reality television. ttp://usatoday30. usatoday. com/life/columnist/popcandy/2003-01-08-candy. htm Reality television is on just about every channel now days, there is no way to get away from some type of reality show. The main type of reality show is one that is based on nakedness, deceitfulness, and selfishness. These shows teach our young girls that they need to look a certain way, act mean, and do whatever they can to get as many guys as possible. There are so many diets out to keep all women thinking they all need to be skinny like the models or actresses. There are many different types of women, and there is no way we can all be a size 2. Women and girls do not need to be mean to one another; we can all get along and be friends. There is nothing wrong with being with one man. It’s actually healthier to have less sexual partners that to sleep with every man possible. Reality shows teach guys that it’s alright to have sex with as many women as possible to show how masculine they are. They teach guys/men that it’s alright to treat women like a fast food meal, once they are done with them, they can just throw them away. Reality shows do not show how a man should treat a woman with respect, and kindness. Gentlemen are hard to find these days, because the men of the house is either not there or don’t care what his son is doing. It’s nice to see a young man hold the door open for women of all ages. http://healthland. time. com/2011/10/18/what-reality-tv-teaches-teen-girls/ Children are like little dry sponges, the cleaner, good, interesting fun water you put in them that’s the type of person they will be. But if you pump them full of nasty and filthy water that’s the kind of person they will be. I want to have a society of clean, mature, and independent teens with morals and standards. As parents we take care of our children when they are toddlers, but as soon as they are in their adolescents parents start to drift away from the kids, most of the time kids are pushed away and they end up watching whatever they can find. Reality television shows are a biggest part of the way young people act the way they do, but quite a few of the cartoons that are on the airways are just as bad as the reality shows. Here’s want needs to happen, is parents need to change before the children can change. There needs to be more reality shows with morals, standards, and how to have respect for those around us. We need to get away from all this junk that is on the air now. If we had some better shows on the air and show how families should be, our country would be able to turn around. I think there should be a class that teaches respect and morals, instead of sex education, teach the girls to respect themselves and the guys to respect the girls as well as themselves. There would be less and less unwanted teen pregnancies. It would also make for a better home life and easier relationships between parents and kids. These classes should be mandatory for the kids and if parents have any problems with that, than they to need to be able to sit in on a class or two. As mentioned before, this is the type of programing that most of the young people that are still impressionable watch, not to mention the parents. If you are a parent and you have young kids in your home the last thing you should want to do is let them watch these type shows. We have to change something and it needs to start at home. Family’s need to change the way they watch TV, because we need to make the right choices for our kids and give them a good, clean, moral start. If they chose to watch these type shows later in life it was their choice. We need to talk to our kids about true reality and what will happen if they make certain choices. If they chose to have sex then there is a high possibility that they will get pregnant or get someone pregnant. Tell them that there is nothing 100% other than not doing it. Plus it shows that they respect themselves, and if the other person respects them than everything will be as it should be. Our kids have known from the time they were little and they started asking questions we told them the truth that they could understand at that age. Now that they are teens we answer as we would an adult. They have to right to know the truth and the whole truth. We don’t believe you are helping them if you hold stuff back that will help them make the right decisions. If it’s alright to disobey your parents, or to lie, cheat, steal, have big parties, drink and use drugs, have sex and get pregnant, and have guys just want you for what you look like and not what you think, than we don’t need to change anything, but if you don’t believe all of that then we need to change what it is our children and even ourselves watch. The only way we can change all of this is to make changes in our homes first, then in our schools, because if we change these first the media will change afterward, because they will not have the ratings to keep all that junk on the air. I believe if we would change than everything else would change, but we have to start with ourselves and our children. Then work with the school systems. Once we get these areas in control then we can work with what kind of shows we get to watch, but to make it all work we have to be willing to get out of the thinking you have your life and I have mine. That is one reason our country is in the shape it’s in. The more we work close to home the more it will spread for the good of everybody work with the school systems. Once we get these areas in control then we can work with what kind of shows we get to watch, but to make it all work we have to be willing to get out of the thinking you have your life and I have mine. That is one reason our country is in the shape it’s in. The more we work close to home the more it will spread for the good of everybody.