I have a confession to make: I have a secret obsession with
reality TV. This has been a problem since my freshman year of college. Through
the years I have lost many brain cells watching seasons of the Real World, Road
Rules, True Life, Laguna Beach, The Hills, Survivor, The Apprentice, Deadliest
Catch, Bachelor/Bachelorette, Jersey Shore, The Real Housewives, Big Brother
and others I cannot remember or will not openly admit to. Temptation Island, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Jon and Kate
Plus 8.
So why am I admitting this now? I am annoyed at myself about
this admitted obsession and I feel the need to purge this out of my system. I
have slowly stopped watching most of
them due to me finally reaching a point that I was ashamed of myself for
wasting valuable time on complete garbage. Granted, many shows were canceled
before I was able to come to that conclusion.
Minor detail.
I often wonder why society gets so drawn to these types of
shows. I know why *I* get drawn to many of them. I am intrigued by lifestyles of
people that I cannot fathom. I actually find myself having internal battles
while being mesmerized by these people. A couple of years ago on Housewives of
Bev Hills, Dana bragged about her $25,000 glasses. At first I felt a
millisecond of admiration. Man, how I'd love to be able to afford to splurge on myself like that! Then it immediately turned to disgust in hopes that
they were an award to herself after giving thousands more to her favorite charity. Something
tells me, probably not. Yet season after season I watch and I admire and cringe
and vomit in my mouth a little bit over the amounts of money these people blow.
By the end of the season I swear I won’t watch another.
:::snort:::
Reality television was nonexistent
when I was a kid. The closest to reality tv we got was a 4 minute video
playback of the reel to reel movie my dad created (in super speed) of my sister
and me doing cartwheels in our backyard. Truth be told, if we brought a camera
into our home today all one would catch would be kids on their game stations or
shooting ball in the backyard. I would, more than likely, be doing laundry. D
would be in the midst of his Insanity workout with our dog lying in the corner
with a look of confusion. There isn’t a lot of excitement or entertainment
value in our lives on a daily basis. My dinner at the local Mexican restaurant with a girlfriend over chips,
salsa and a couple of beers is nothing compared to grabbing lunch at Sur with
Lisa Vanderpump. No one wants to see me eat. Everyone wants proof that these skinny
biznatches actually eat food. We don’t get private jet weekend getaways to
Fiji. Our weekends consist of kid sleepovers with blanket tents and milkshakes.
There are no huge bows sitting atop a brand new Maserati. The Toyota Sienna with the scratch on the side from the trashcan is
where it’s at. The $25K sunglasses are replaced by a last minute grab of the 10
dollar shades in the spinning display at CVS.
We are living the simpler life and that is the core as to why we are drawn to these ridiculous shows displaying endless
cash, bling, mansions, infinity pools, private jets, sports cars, turned insurmountable
debt, and shallowness. Our guilty pleasure; an hour of
admiration turned nausea turned relief. In small bits and pieces of episodes, I am still in awe. But more times than not, I like the fact that it reminds me that my life, while it
is never going to be Reality TV worthy, means it’s normal, it’s stable and
it’s all mine….normal names and all.
Eat your heart out, Kim Kardashian.
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