Big Brother, Duck Dynasty, Keeping up with the Kardashians, The Bachelor. Chances are you religiously watch one of these shows or know someone who does. Why? What draws so many people to sit down and watch others live their lives? Kelefa Sanneh, former staff writer for The New Yorker, attempts to define exactly what makes reality TV so appealing and expose its hypocritical nature in his 2015 article “The Reality Principle.” Sanneh suggests that reality television has thrived on a person’s innate need to see change, which is why transformation shows have become so popular. Maybe this is because scripted television often reveals that transformations are “temporary or unnecessary,” but reality television gives into our need to see improvement and portrays change as “urgent and permanent;” we’re taught the after will always be better than the before (7). Inevitably, the after easily becomes the new before: sure one thing is better, but now something else needs to be fixed. He claims the reality movement has strayed away from the long-time concept of the sitcom…show more content… Shortly after the rise of reality TV, another form of media seemed to explode overnight. Social media. I believe that the reasons we are so drawn to social media are much the same as the appeal for reality TV. The majority of teenagers and adults have been swept into the social media frenzy. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat, have become a part of everyday life for much of America. According to , Facebook alone has over 1.71 billion monthly users. Social media follows much of the formula Sanneh found comprised reality television. Social media allows us to watch others change, and survey other people’s lives – ordinary people; we watch them lose weight, learn to cook, or simply gain more and more
