Monday, March 17, 2008
Love on TV
I realize I am writing a lot about TV but being home for break gave me a lot of time to watch. I'm sure someone has written on the following topic but I would like to write regardless. It seems like every other station you flip to their is some sort of reality TV show. I'm not going to sit here and say they are bad because I enjoy most of them. I am going to sit here and say they are not fooling anyone. Besides most of them being scripted, nobody believes these people are actually finding love. What are the odds that the network happened to pick the girl or guy you are supposed to spend the rest of your life with? I'm not good at math but they can't be good. I have never been on one of these shows but my best friends older brother has. After he was on it he explained that this so called reality TV show was more scripted than regular TV shows. The best example I can think of is The Bachelor. One guy and twenty five girls or so that the network picked for him to fall in love with. Call me old fashioned but I have a hard time believing one of those girls is the one he would have naturally fallen in love with. Maybe it's possible. The funniest thing to me is how at they end they are always torn between two girls they are in love with, but two months after the show they brake up. I dont want to be a downer on new forms of love just skeptical I guess. Like dating services, I dont have experience with them or know anyone who does so my opinion is strictly opinion. They might work great and I hope they do because so many people are looking for someone, I would just hate for people to be fooled into doing something that won't last. Maybe all of these things have to do with our high divorce rates or maybe its just the age we live in. I hope its possible and that I'm completely wrong for those peoples sake, I just had to state my opinion.
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5 comments:
I agree with you Powerade. It seems that ever since the first season of Survivor reality shows have been popping up everywhere with almost every conceivable scenario being filmed. In my opinion I think both the audience and the network know that nobody is fooled by the unrealistic plots, but it’s that desire to know “What happens next?” that keeps us plugged in.
However I don’t think online dating service is a bad concept. Though it may be flawed in reality, in theory I think it’s a great way to meet new people. As long as the instrument of matching compatibilities is accurate online dating services can potentially reduce the geographic barriers to relationships. Perhaps that special someone is somewhere in Chicago, with an accurate online dating service you can meet that person or a few other potentially compatible people.
A better way to think about it is this: The goal is to marry someone who possesses all or most of the ideals you desire in a spouse (finding the best deal). Dating is the process of valuing each individual (kind of like shopping). But dating is largely inefficient. You’re probably limited to dating the girls around your geographic location (bar, night club, book club, coffee shop). You probably don’t have time to date and evaluate all of the potential women (biological clock / we’re all going to die some day). When you find a good girl you probably don’t know if there is someone better out there (uncertainty…cold feet). I believe that online dating services can assist in some of these endeavors not as a supplement but as a complement. Effectively reducing the potential list of women you can be more confident that the right woman is somewhere in that pool and even if you miss the pool is still pretty compatible
I don't like to admit it, but Silverlight has some good points. The dating service kind of weeds out the really impossible matches that you might mistakenly fall in love with for some emotional reason but be totally incompatible with after the sparks die down. My twin sister met her second husband on line, and they are happy. You don't have to marry your match--so human feelings do enter the picture once the two of you meet. And in her book Jean Twenge says that's how she met her husband too.
I have to agree. Reality TV shows are more common now then they have ever been, and an interesting question is why? What about them appeals so much to our culture? Especially when many of them aren't even "reality"
I thought that this post was very interesting. I have wondered for a long time why people would want to go on realty television shows. Since they are scripted, they present a distorted version of who the people actually are, and usually not in a positive way. I especially wondered why people would want to go on the dating/love reality shows. I agree with Powerade, that there is such a small chance that you will meet someone that will actually be someone that you can stay together with. I think that out of all the seasons of the Bachelor, only like 2 of the couples are still together. But I think I agree with SilverLight, that the thing that keeps people watching is the desire to know “What happens next?”, and I think that people will continue to go on these shows hoping to be the exception and truly fall in love.
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