Reality Tv and Life

Reality TV Response
There is social value in the show Little People, Big World. There is value in the way that the family overcomes their disabilities and works toward their goals. As we saw in the first episode Matt, the father, has worked at his own business, which helps people with dwarfism, to get it to a point where he can make a significant amount of money from it. He started the business with the hope of just making extra side money not knowing where it would take him, but it grew to a point where, as we saw in class, he was sponsored by a large company (Little People, Big World). Society can learn from Matt that even just a simple idea can grow into something significant if you just work with it. Furthermore, Matt has dwarfism, and not only has it not slowed him down, but he used his own experiences to develop a profitable business. I think this is valuable because he took what most people would call a negative, and turned it into positive. This is a valuable trait to have as a person because throughout our lives we are faced with obstacles and challenges, but it’s not the obstacles and challenges that determine how successful or happy we are, it is our response to these obstacles and challenges. Matt just has a positive outlook on life. This is something that our culture should learn to embrace with all the negativity that surrounds us from things like the war in the Middle East to the recent recession.
Additionally, Matt and his family run a successful farm business. His plan was to have his farm grow over several years to a point where it was lucrative. The second episode in class showed us how crowded the farm became during pumpkin season just after a couple years. However, Matt was not capable of running the farm on his own. His family provided the majority of the help along with some extra workers and friends (Little People, Big World). We saw how important working together can be for a business. I think that our society does understand the importance of collaboration, but this certainly reinforces it. Without the help of his kids and parents, there would be no chance of the farm being profitable. Similarly, if each part of the economy all the way down to the workers didn’t work together, our society would crumble.
In summary, there are social values in the reality television show Little People, Big World as seen in the examples listed above. Our culture often views reality television as just a source of entertainment, but this show can be looked at with a deeper meaning. Society can learn from the characters’ attitudes towards life and actions towards others on this show.