Similarities and Differences Between Reality Television and High School

It is not difficult to mistake the differences and similarities between reality television and high school. Reality television is often about celebrities and the depths within their own lives while high school is something that everyone has to experience at some point in their lifetime whether you’re a celebrity or not. Both subjects come with their ups and downs. The main difference between high school and reality television shows is that high school comes with no script. Reality television shows are often scripted and played out. Most popular reality television shows are found on MTV (music television). James Poniewozik said that:
“Reality TV is a big, diverse medium, of course. Some of it is raunchy, some obnoxious and some very, very good.”
Jersey Shore is a good example of reality TV. Jersey Shore was scripted out and the drama that went on between the housemates was completely unreal. The show was constantly showing out of control partying and cursing. Although young children of today know that the shows are scripted, they still want to be like the celebrities shown on the reality TV shows. This could be a good reason as to why such outrageous behavior is beginning to happen in high school such as teen pregnancy, under aged drinking/smoking, sex, etc.
Scholastic Choices said:
“Insults, temper tantrums, selfishness, gross behavior, and plain old stupidity -- these are the main ingredients for most of today's reality TV shows. Guess who's watching them? Millions of young people just like you.”
Anthony Patino said that:
“there is evidence that young people emulate the behavior of reality stars (Watson, 2008) and that reality programs influence their buying behavior, which accounts for more than $20 billion of spending per year.” Teenagers often imitate their idols. Whatever the celebrity on television does, their actions could possibly be imitated by young viewers. This is a good explanation of all the teen pregnancies that recently came into action.
Bonnie Vaughan said:
“Those who watched reality television sexual relationship shows as compared to those who did not had greater odds to engage in one-night stands.”
Jersey Shore featured eight people who didn’t know each other to begin with. As more episodes aired, the cast members began to bond more and became really close, almost like a family. Due to the fact that Jersey Shore was scripted, the viewers will never know if the bond between the cast members was real. That’s a main difference between high school and reality television.
As mentioned earlier, reality television comes with a script where high school does not. So is reality television really reality? It is hard for the viewers of Jersey Shore to know whether the bond is real since it is all played out. High school isn’t anything like this. High school doesn’t come with a script and you are on your own in the social world. Making friends is a task that must be handled independently. There is no director that can quickly give someone a few lines to memorize so they can walk up to someone and say the right thing in order to become their friend. In high school, there are different cliques of people. An important task of someone in high school is to find out which clique they belong in where as in a reality television show like Jersey Shore, the cast members are forced to fit into a group of people where they might not have much in common with.
Something that reality TV and high school have in common is drama. Drama surrounds the world and can happen anywhere whether you’re in a group of people that are just like you or not. It is not uncommon for two people to disagree on something. People become famous for the problems they get themselves involved in which explains why so much drama festers within reality TV. In Jersey Shore, one of the cast members decides to leave the show because of the hatred that the other roommates had for her. They disagree on simple stuff such as cleaning up after herself and doing chores around the house. This is a more common argument between college students instead of high school students. Typical arguments found in high school students are over boyfriend/girlfriends, power to be at the top of the social food chain, etc. In both high school and reality television, a turning point is possible which is another similarity shared between the two. It is always possible for two people who were not friends to make up.
Reality television in general is a bad indicator of what real life is really like. The show Awkward is aired on MTV as well. It is about a 15 year old girl in high school who has common high school problems. Some examples include boyfriend issues, best friend issues, and parent issues. The show is scripted so the problems the teenager is faced with are solved in matters that wouldn’t really happen in real life so now we are back to the question, is reality TV really reality? Karyn Riddle said:
“Survey data collected from 145 young adults reveal that beliefs about the real world often match these content patterns. Heavy viewers of surveillance programs were more likely to think females in the real world engage in inappropriate behaviors (e.g., arguing, gossip) more than males.”
This is a good example of false personalities shown in reality TV. The people involved in the survey thought that females in the real world engage in inappropriate behaviors due to scripts written by the director of the show. This is giving false images of the cast members because it all is acted out.
High school is meant to better each human as an individual and prepare them for college. Reality TV could possibly slow this process due to children not studying and instead, watching reality television shows. This is another difference between the two topics. High school is meant to better you and lead you on the path to make more money where reality TV has very few positive attributes to individuals.
It is apparent that there are many similarities and differences between reality television and high school. They are different in the sense that reality TV can sometimes be scripted and high school is the real deal. They are similar when it comes to the issue of drama amongst a group of people. Overall, reality television shows and high school seem to have more differences than similarities.