Hawa / Reality TV at 10: How It's Changed Television — and Us

3 main points of the article.

1. Reality is more than a TV genre now. People are getting more and more desperate to get their five minutes of fame, which leads to instances like the Balloon Boy hoax and Tareq and Michaele Salahi crashing a White House dinner.
2. Outrageousness pays in Reality TV. The writer said that the crazier their antics are, the more attention they receive.
3. Reality TV makes people famous and rich for nothing and not hard work.

I agree with the writer to a very large extent. Reality TV which was once upon a time used to consist of shows like American Idol, Survivor and The Biggest Loser which were family friendly are now revolutionised to have more shows targeted at teens like Jersey Shore and The Hills. Unlike family-friendly shows, these "revolutionised" reality shows feature these "stars" dressed skimpily, spewing vulgarities and indulging in things like sex and alcohol. The author said that in reality TV, the more outrageous you are, the better and I totally agree with this. Heidi Montag underwent up to 10 plastic surgery in a day which included breast augmentation, collagen lip injections, and rhinoplasty. After her surgeries, she was the featured in many tabloids and received a lot of media attention. However, seeing that such shows are targeted at teens, what kind of message does this send out to them? That it is okay to be insecure in your own body because you can't always go under the knife to fix them? Furthermore, these "celebrities" are earn high salaries just by having their private life broadcasted on national television for the world to see. Perhaps they feel that showing the world how they live their daily lives shopping, surfing and partying till late at night is a good way to get a high salary. But then again, these "celebrities" were born into high-income families, meaning money was never an issue for them.