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Kiara Walcott Professor Jan Rieman English 1102 April 5, 2012 When the Cameras go off Reality Television seems to be the show that catches our attention on a daily basis, but is it truly reality or what others perceive as reality?? According to dictionary.com, Reality is the state, or quality of what is being real and also resembles to what is real. In the Girl Scout research survey, that is an organization for girls to help with self-esteem and team building, almost 80% of girls believe that reality TV shows are mainly real and unscripted which is a major concern in our country right now because teenagers believe what they see on television is real. The majority of reality television is scripted and most of the actor and actress have limited actions they are allowed to do on the show. The fights we see are staged and are constructed by the producers or other head people in the TV production. The problem with this is that most teenage girls see these shows not knowing how fake they are and think that gossiping and fighting is normal. These actions it tends to have bad connotations on the teenage girls lives because they look up to these reality TV stars and whats worst is you have teenagers actually wanting to be like these Reality television stars. Now I will take you down the road to some of your favorite Reality TV shows like: Teen Mom, Jersey Shore and Toddlers and Tiaras. How their reality can actually affect

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our body, mind and soul. When we are done we will be able to distinguish between reality and perception of reality. Teen girls are more inclined to watch reality television than teenage boys due to the fact that these shows entail drama, sensitive and a lot of petty fighting. This is why teen girls believe shows are real because these shows portray a lot of real emotions and scenario that are very relatable to teenage girls. Every Thursday on MTV is the one of MTVs high grossing show Jersey Shore and it is about 8 strangers who spend a summer in a beach house off the Jersey shore. All summer they party, drink and club hopping on the daily and every so often they have to work in a t-shirt shop in order to live in their beach house. This show has aired for about three years and has been through a number of girl fights, kicking out cast mates, sexual behaviors, and more fighting. For example, two cast mates Ronnie and Sam have been in a volatile on and off relationship that includes a lot of fighting and emotional stress on both ends. One would think that Ron and Sam should just break up but then that would not make for very good reality television. How does this affect the girls watching it? It shows them that it is okay to stay in aggressive relationships and that fighting is a normal part of a romantic relationship says 73% of the girls scout girls. This is very concerning because with that information it means that there must be an increase in teen abuse or bullying. What these teens do not know is that when cameras are off these 8 strangers have their own life and rarely associate with each other. That most of what is going on in the show is staged and they all have scripts they follow by. For example, that same Ron and Sam fight and make up on each season but off season they are never together and that is because the love between them is not real. The reason why they put Ron and Sam together is in order to have a romantic twist on the show and to show that you can fall in

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love anywhere. The important thing that they should be displaying to the teens out there is a healthy relationship or showing them that when a relationship gets physically one of the partners in the relationship should walk away instead of cave back into the volatile relationship. The other hit show on MTV is Teen Mom which follows the lives of four teenage mom and their trials and tribulations of raising a kid but still having somewhat of a life. Reported in 2006, about 7% of girls get pregnant within the age of 15-19 (Guttmacher). They deal with baby daddy drama, losing friends, and fights with either there partner or parent. This show does have a lot more reality to it but still does not show TRUE reality of their situation. Some teens think that raising a kid is the easy and that everything will be okay when sometimes that is the case but not always will it be that smooth. Most of these girls got pregnant and were not ready for this so it is hard for someone girls to take care of their kids. For example, Janelle is one of the moms on the show and her baby daddy ended up leaving her because he became an alcoholic. Her mom now takes care of her son, Jace, and even got primary custody of the child in 2011 because Janelle was never around. The reason she has not been around is because Janelle has been in so many catty fights over her boyfriends, been arrested for trespassing and possession of marijuana. The fact that she is somewhat of celebrity has helped her in the court of law because if an average person would have been caught with those record they would be in jail immediately. When teen girls see this they think it is okay and that there is no true consequence to their actions when in the REAL world there are many consequences.

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On the contrary, Teen mom also has a lot of self-body image behaviors and teens wanting to always look good sometimes have an effect on how they handle things. On one of the shows for 16 and pregnant, the girl Mackenzie told her mom the reason why she did not take birth control was because she did not want to gain weight; in all actuality in the end she ended up having a 9 pound baby so she gained weight anyway because she did not use any contraceptions. Most of the girls on the show are really focused on weight and try to be the skinny girl when it should be more of trying to be the healthy girl. In 2011, yet another teen mom struggled with weight and actually introduced Kayla who was pregnant and anorexic. According to dictionary.com,Anorexic is when a person refuses to eat and view themselves as fat. Kayla had a hard time gaining weight so much that it was really unhealthy for her pregnancy and had to be admitted to the hospital immediately. Television has instilled in our heads if you do not look a certain way you will not be popular, have a great social status and like by others. Teenagers thinking like that has cause teen moms to obsess about their weight instead of the health of them and their babies. Then Lifetime Network came out with a movie called Pregnancy Pact where a group of girls decided to get pregnant together so there kids could be friends with one another. They also wanted be able to dress them up and play with them and this was based on a true story. This is sad because teens understanding the true meaning of child bearing and the consequences it came with. In the movie the community sort of shunned them and made them feel as though they were not wanted and a disgrace to the world. Then you had media reporting glorifying their actions and reasoning with them because it makes for good reporting. Why do we as a country condone behavior like this?? Put on these shows for the teenage audience to feel as though it is acceptable to live this way? It does not show a realistic view that if you do not stay protected

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then there is a chance of a baby but also an STD. A lot of the reality shows do not show the guys using protection and this create an illusion in the teens mind thinking that if they can have sex and not use protection, than they will be fine. When that is not the case but most importantly everyone worries about pregnancy when the important thing is sexually transmitted diseases. Some sexually transmitted diseases you cannot get rid of because they are virally and usually do not have any symptoms. Shows should be promoting safe sex but also going with your partners to go and get tested because you can contract the disease even if it was your first time having sex. Reality Television shows should show more positive shows about realistic things young teenagers are going through. For example, situations like going through puberty or even the transition between high school and college. That transition is when students become more into sex, drinking and partying because they are now independent and have to make choices on their own without mommy and daddys help. College is a hard task to get through so what about a television show to promote how hard it is to balance a social life and academic life. Even on the shows they have now should talk about real life topics versus the same old partying and getting drunk because there is more to life than that. The positive reinforcement can at least help some girls succeed in life. In order to live a good life we must be aware of the positive and negative things that approach our lives but when you have too much negative portrayed in your life. The only thing you can do is start to think and act more negatively because it is what you as a person have become accustomed to in your daily life. Watching these shows are not necessarily bad it just depends what you take out of the show and your actions if you decided to do the negative things shown on the show. As a country we should be stepping up and taking responsibility for

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our actions and living more positively so we can better our generations. Also keep those values that our older generation has instilled into our lives to help create us into a better society. In conclusion, the reason I wrote this piece was to bring awareness to the young teen girls and to show them that they are beautiful no matter what and dont have to prove anything. That true beauty is within not just outside and that we were all created differently and uniquely. We do not have to depend on what the shows on the television to tell us how and what we should look like. Also chose this topic to help teen girls understand that what we watch is not reality and is created for the minds to believe what they are seeing is real and true. Television is not bad but in order to do right things you have to know and I just want teens to know that most of the actions on reality television is not right and not good example for them.

Works Cited "Anorexia." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollinsPublishers.29 Mar. 2012.<Dictionary.com Kost K, Henshaw S and Carlin L, U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions: National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity, 2010,.Web. 28 Mar. 2012.

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"Reality." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 29 Mar. 2012. Dictionary.com "Real to Me: Girls and Reality TV." Girl Scouts.com. Girl Scouts Research Institute. Web. Mar 28. 2012