Of all the genres on television the most perplexing is the reality shows. Why are we so interested in the way other people are living their lives and being treated? Do we not have enough drama in our own lives that we must be embroiled in the saga of other people’s fears, tears, sins, intrigues, deceptions, turmoils, love lives and agonies? It’s a disturbing trend.
Houses have walls to provide privacy. God has given our brains a covering to allow us privacy of thought. We cannot read each other’s minds. This allows us to share our opinions only when we want to purposefully do so. A person who cannot control when he/she speaks is thought to have a disorder of the brain. So this begs the question why are we intruding in areas once thought private? Why are we becoming a nation of voyeurs cruising into this or that melodrama at will? It also causes me to wonder about the people who would open the sacred pages of their lives to the scrutiny of any person who owns a remote control and a television.
This is willful invasion of peering here and there into people’s lives is not done to enhance our own. We have become a nation of busybodies nosing in here and there.
Look at the top talk shows. When given a chance to do so, the audience members willing dish out advice, condemnation, and judgments to the “guest” without even having spent fifteen minutes with the people in question. I’m sorry I just don’t believe we are that wise that we can solve other people’s deep problems in a few minutes. Let’s be real. The bottom line is that the reality craze fits into our desire to escape from our own problems.It also fits into the pockets of those who own and produce them. If they were not profitable, they would not be proliferating.
These shows are not about healing families, helping people overcome fears, or advancing one’s career-unless it’s the producer’s career. This is a money driven craze that fits into our societies need to victimize and demonize people. Come now let’s reason. Showing how a well adjusted family lives is not why we look at these shows. People want to see l the ugly side of life. People want to be able to judge and say I’m not that bad.
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious--the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.
Philippians 4:8
Houses have walls to provide privacy. God has given our brains a covering to allow us privacy of thought. We cannot read each other’s minds. This allows us to share our opinions only when we want to purposefully do so. A person who cannot control when he/she speaks is thought to have a disorder of the brain. So this begs the question why are we intruding in areas once thought private? Why are we becoming a nation of voyeurs cruising into this or that melodrama at will? It also causes me to wonder about the people who would open the sacred pages of their lives to the scrutiny of any person who owns a remote control and a television.
This is willful invasion of peering here and there into people’s lives is not done to enhance our own. We have become a nation of busybodies nosing in here and there.
Look at the top talk shows. When given a chance to do so, the audience members willing dish out advice, condemnation, and judgments to the “guest” without even having spent fifteen minutes with the people in question. I’m sorry I just don’t believe we are that wise that we can solve other people’s deep problems in a few minutes. Let’s be real. The bottom line is that the reality craze fits into our desire to escape from our own problems.It also fits into the pockets of those who own and produce them. If they were not profitable, they would not be proliferating.
These shows are not about healing families, helping people overcome fears, or advancing one’s career-unless it’s the producer’s career. This is a money driven craze that fits into our societies need to victimize and demonize people. Come now let’s reason. Showing how a well adjusted family lives is not why we look at these shows. People want to see l the ugly side of life. People want to be able to judge and say I’m not that bad.
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious--the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.
Philippians 4:8
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