0 0 0 4B3 The Statement Wednesday, January 30, 2013 // The Statement 5B The first time I ever got drunk, I was a sophomore in high school. It was 2009 - a pretty indistinct year with all things considered - except a new phenomenon was crashing down with a vengeance on kids my age: the rise of reality television. Prime time gems like "Flavor of Love" or "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" peppered the television lineup like a bad case of her- pes. Then came "Jersey Shore" - the pen- ultimate reality television show for getting plastered, having sex with strangers and living an entirely irresponsible life ... while simultaneously becoming famous and get- ting paid. These stars were impossible to ignore - their faces plastered on billboards, com- mercials and advertisements. So I, much like every other teenager, investigated what the hype was all about and eventually bought into everything the reality TV paradigmhad to offer. My friends came over for a sleepover, and we flipped on a "Jersey Shore" marathon. After my parents went to sleep upstairs, we snuck to the back of the living room, quiet- ly shuffled some potted plants around and broke into the liquor closet. We mixed some vodka and orange juice and began to play a "Jersey Shore" drinking game. "Every time someone refers to themselves in third person - drink!" "Every time someone references gym, tan or laundry - drink!" "Every time they have to blur out a body part - drink!" By episode three, we were passed out drunk on the couch. The next day we awoke with killer hangovers and the vodka safely back in the cabinet half filled with water (sorry, Mom and Dad). In my young mind, drinking and real- ity shows like "Jersey Shore" seemed to go hand-in-hand. I thought getting wasted, dressing awfully and making altogether bad life choices like Snooki and the Shore gang made them seem "cool." And what kid doesn't want to be cool? It's easy to write off this kind of anecdote as teen stupidity. That was "so high school" - after graduation, students receive the gift of maturity along with their diplomas. But the effects of reality shows have a tendency to burrow much deeper than one drunken sleepover. They can alter perception of what is right and wrong and can perpetuate drinking, drugs and sex throughout genera- tions. Communications Prof. Susan Douglas teaches a course that analyzes the effects of reality shows like "Jersey Shore." "Let's say you're thirteen and watch- ing 'Jersey Shore' at night," Douglas said. "You're seeing all of this behavior, and these people that are famous because of this show, which can provide aspirational representa- tions. You want to aspire to these behaviors with the goal of becoming famous." The result: you aspire to these behaviors with hopes of becoming famous. Even for students in college, the idea of being on a realitytelevision show can persist as a last resort. LSA sophomore Mackenzie DeWitt sometimes jokes with friends about how she plans to be on "The Bachelorette." "When your life turns to complete crap, it's always a viable option to go on TV and, make a fool out of yourself," she said. "If we can't become professionals, we can always become reality TV stars!" One of the largest dangers of these shows is the overwhelming glorification of drink- ing and party lifestyle: Entire populations of young adults can have a similar experience to my own in high school. "Shows like 'Jersey Shore' totally normal- ize binge drinking," Douglas said. "They go out every night and drink massive amounts of alcohol until they have something that really resembles alcohol poisoning, which is harmful. We do know that binge drinking - unlike social drinking - is a problem on campuses including ours because it is a dan- gerous health behavior." DeWitt echoed Douglas's sentiments from her own experience on campus. "It seems as though students assume the more they drink, the more it will be like it "A BC claims that t vivacityt."s th e ondrinkn but in my1 becu eset as we sameway me cote doesn't mean either - Commu cations Pro is on television," DeWitt said. "They search for that level of excitement and drama and vivacity." Reality shows don't only perpetuate an emphasis on drinking in viewers, but they also heavily encourage it on set as well. Emo- tionally dramatic shows like "The Bachelor" amp up the alcouae ontent'to make contes- tants irrationally emotive. When the women go to the Bachelor house there's often no food, only alcohol. Producers supply them. with wine, and if that isn't enough to create drama, they crack open the vodka, a fact that Douglas teaches in her introductory communications course. The cast is encouraged to engage in drunken conduct, a behavior that is then transferred to TV viewers regardless of age. "I think reality television portrays drink- ing as something fun that has little to no consequences," DeWitt said. "It sensation- alizes drinking because it shows these huge parties that are exciting and colorful and people meeting other people ....- and that's really not how it is at afrat p, ple." Reality television can also fashioned notions about sex ing. Women-are encouraged as "the slut" and are simulta ued by doing so. on the opp can be players and promis: consequence, sometimes even "There is this emphasis on ing with other women over said. "Women are stereotype along, competing over then judged by their experiences 1957 kind of stuff." Shows that each season alt as the object of affection only types. "ABC claims that they hav lorette' so they're 'gender neu opinion, just because you ob the same way you objectifyN mean either one is okay," D "The dynamics behind it is so The concept of "The Bach: Bachelorette" seem to be sin arty, for exam- first in the sand we think, 'Hey, that looks like fun?' Are the casts of reality television preserve old- a reflection of us as a generation, or are we ual stereotyp- the ones who set the entertainment agenda. to fulfill roles "I feel as though people turn to real- neously deval- ity television as an alternate source of what osite end, men reality should be like," DeWitt argued. "You cuous without see these beautiful attractive people being with reward. promiscuous and doing ridiculous things, women fight- and some people use that to justify mirror- men," Douglas ing those behaviors in real life. Instead of a d as not getting culture shaped by more intellectual enter- nen and being tainment we turn to "Jersey Shore." . That's really Television networks follow market trends shows that don't get an audience will not ernate genders stay on TV. Reality TV sells, making this sys- spread stereo- tem unreliable in providing what we really should be watching. Though the Shore team ve 'The Bache- finally left the boardwalk for good, shows tral,' but in my like it will keep succeeding because they jectify men in show viewers what they want to see. women doesn't We, as television watchers, perpetuate ouglas argued. the presence of low-quality television. retrograde." "Since the 1990s in particular, there has elor" and "The been an increase in sexually explicit mate- milar to a dra- rial in a variety of TV shows, and young people favor these shows," Douglas said. "'Jersey Shore' amped up the drinking and the sex, using infrared cameras to film scenes that suggest that casual hooking up is the norm, normalizing it and putting minimal attention to the importance of safe sex and contraception. Do they reference sexually transmitted diseases? Or even talk about condoms?" The answer is no. Recently, reality shows are nothing more than superficial. Charac- ter's personalities only skim the surface in a way that makes them easily classifiable: the bitch, the whore, the player, the good-girl, the nice guy, the clown. Even though no one in reality is that simple, TV viewers don't want to deal with complications in their entertainment. So, when it comes to a one- night tryst between "the whore" and "the player," viewers want fulfillment without any of the messy consequences that might come of the situation. "They aren't safe, and they are at risk, and ne dating and it isn't talked about as much as it should be competition is because that's not what they want to feature true love. The on TV," Dewitt said. lasting love in So what came first, the proverbial chicken seems next to of reality television, or the degradation of eople on real- the moral fabric of our society, represented motives, such by the egg? TV shows like "Jersey Shore" s of "winning" took off so quickly because of the way the o be in favor of producers framed the people on the show. -The mode of address seems to suggest that especially with -the viewers are better than the people per- who are beauti- forming these ludicrous acts on national 1 are turning to television. No matter how out of control you they can find get, the show seems to say, at the very least " DeWitt said. you aren't like these people! ne dating sites. But if at first the point was to poke fun at ological outlets the characters while flattering the viewer, elves out there, the reality TV phenomenon has evolved he way that we into another beast entirely. I can say with certainty that you could get exact re-enact- ned to our con- ments of scenarios on "Jersey Shore" right throwing back here on campus on any given Friday night at eremony? Why Rick's - a fact that calls into question, does i,pass out face- anyone really want to be like Snooki? matic combination of onlii "The Hunger Games." The fierce and only one can find probability of finding real,l front of millions of viewers impossible, because most p ity television have ulterior as fame and money. The odd reality television don't seem t the contestants. "I think it's funny because, 'The Bachelor,' these peoplev ful and apparently successful TV because they don't think someone in the real world, "It's kind of like using onlir People are turning to technc instead of just putting thems which arguably is altering tI see love." So what exactly has happe cept of social drinking into cosmopolitans before a rose c is it that when we see Snook