I have been cramming my brain in an attempt to keep up with everything going on in politics. I recently watched close to a 3 hour congressional hearing regarding the sanctuary city mayors. Prior to that, I viewed the 40 minute discussion between President Trump and Zelenskyy in addition to the nearly 3 hour confirmation hearings for Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr. I’m starting to think they make these hearings so long in order for the general public to lose interest in watching!
While all of these hearings have been extremely informative, they have also been extensively exhausting. Throughout these hearings, there were moments of comic relief when each involved party cited their responses or questions in an argumentative format with “I gotcha” hit lines. These back and forth arguments reminded me of an episode of Love & Hip Hop leading me to begin watching the show after I took a 10 year hiatus.
As I began watching, I started to wonder, “Why do people watch reality television?”
How many people watch reality television and why?
According to PBS, 80% of adults watch reality tv https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/history-of-reality-tv-and-impact-on-society-chronicled-in-new-book-cue-the-sun#:~:text=Reality%20TV%20dominates%20television%20today,viewers%20watch%20reality%20TV%20shows and Gold79.com reported an estimated 76% of Gen Z and 68% of Millennials consume reality television.
Love & Hip Hop aired in March of 2011 and since then, an estimated 88,000,000+ viewers have tuned in according to numbers provided by Wikipedia. In 2023, Gold Rush and Naked And Afraid (my all time favorite) were the top 2 reality television shows in the US amassing over 1 million viewers per episode!
Naked and Afraid is my all time favorite reality show. I gain survival tips if the world is to end, and it also provides a sense of peace in knowing that if every piece of technology fails, humans still have everything we need to rebuild and survive in harmony. Naked and Afraid also has it’s drama, competition, and a new series about romance!
Dr. Marianne Trent, a clinical psychologist explains that when we watch people falling in love via reality television, oxytocin, affectionately nicknamed the Love Hormone, is released in the body’s endocrine system. Alternatively, when something stressful or aggravating is shown, our body releases the stress hormone cortisol which, in my opinion, keeps us connected to the show and the characters.
Everydaypsych.com reports that people have the opportunity to engage in a similar way as to watch sports. You get to choose the side you are for and root for them to win against their opponent. Each episode brings you closer to the win or further away https://everydaypsych.com/why-do-people-enjoy-reality-tv/.
Reality tv also allows for difficult discussions with the person you are watching with as it introduces subject matters that pertain to real life scenarios. It can also provide a bit of escapism from the heavy mental loads of students and professionals alike https://www.artefactmagazine.com/2024/01/09/the-psychology-behind-reality-television/.
The biggest misconception is that uneducated and lower class consumers are the only partakers in reality tv viewership.
Do the college educated watch reality tv?
The most profound answer is a resounding YES! College educated consumers indulge in reality tv. A study conducted by the University of Kentucky debunked the notion that those who watched reality tv had lower levels of intellectualism or higher levels of laziness.
The same research concluded that participants who watched reality television had higher motives of status and vengeance along with lower motives of social contact, honor, order, and romance compared to those who didn’t watch reality television. The analysis also culminated those who watched two or more reality television shows leaned more toward social life, order, and romance https://www.uky.edu/~dlowe2/documents/3.ReissandWiltz2004RealityTV.pdf.
Proteacher.net has an open forum for degree holders who watch reality television.
A Masters degree holder cited that they enjoy reality tv to disengage while another user cited that her sister holds a Masters and enjoys Real Housewives. Others cite that they hold a high school diploma and didn’t watch reality tv at all as another participant cited she and her husband bold hold advanced degrees and host parties to discuss the reality television they consume https://proteacher.net/discussions/threads/correlation-between-amount-of-education-the-shows-they-watch.441669/.
A statistic published by Georgia College & State University studied the correlation between traditional television watchers and reality/internet audiences on their student population.
69% of respondents were female and 31% male with 88% Caucasian and 7% African-American. The study found that those who watch both reality and internet television are more engaged with the show and the shows concepts compared to those who only watch in the traditional manner.
This study not only displays that college educated individuals watch reality television, but they become as engaged in the storyline as those who have no college experience https://kb.gcsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1207&context=thecorinthian.
NYU School of professional studies offers a course in reality tv along with UCLA, Princeton, Stanford and the Cornell Department of Performing and Media Arts broadening the space of reality tv in casting and production.
We all watch reality television, no matter the education level!
For clarification purposes, I was unable to locate a single verifiable source conducting research on race, ethnicity, gender, age, and educational attainment level in correlation with reality tv consumption.
Based on the research I was able to securely verify, all of us seem to utilize reality tv to put down our mental loads and take up thoughtless television engagement. These shows may offer us laughter, comfort, a sense of competitiveness or something to talk about with others.
In any case, one who consumes reality tv and one who does not, holds no superiority over the other.
Ecclesiastes 2:24-25:
A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him who can eat or find enjoyment?
With Love,
Mother Ocia