Recently I was talking to a couple of college interns at work and happened to mention something I’d seen on MTV’s Jersey Shore the previous night. Before I could even finish, all three of them released a collective gasp. “YOU watch Jersey SHORE?” I nodded. They giggled as if I’d just told them I dressed like a chicken at parties on weekends to supplement my marketing gig. Hilarious how hilarious I’ve become without trying.
A friend put this into context for me: you have to keep up with current pop culture so that when you make references, you sound credible and current. But this is not that. I’m talking about the unspoken shame in admitting that you watch reality TV or like pop music.
While I occasionally tune in to NPR while driving, I prefer to listen to pop music. It wakes me up, OK? And sure, I watch documentaries on war and infrastructure. I dig Masterpiece Theater. But I also dabble in Dr. Phil and Teen Mom and Hoarders. I liked VH1′s Rock of Love. (Season 1 was my favorite.) And Oprah too–I was almost on Oprah, too. More on that soon.
So, for all of you out there who deem reality TV, talk shows and other stuff as beneath you, I offer 7 unscientific reasons why watching reality TV is good for you and why you should indulge from time to time:
1. You’ll sound less old. If you say, “What’s a Snooki?” or “What’s ‘The Situation‘,” you sound old. Now, maybe you are old and don’t mind admitting that you have no idea what “the kids” are watching these days. Me? I know I’m getting old. I see it in my reflection every day. I don’t need to be reminded of it every time someone mentions a TV show in conversation and I’m clueless. If you feel out of the loop on a daily basis in conversations, plop yourself in front of a reality TV channel and QUICK.
2. Get more street cred. Media viewing habits are so fragmented that it often seems as if we’re all watching something different. It’s nice to know what programs people are referring to, even if you don’t watch every single episode. It’s common ground in increasingly uncommon times. And you look like you are keeping up with the times and the Kardashians.
Plus, it’s fun surprising people. Once a new acquaintance made a comment about watching “LA Ink” and shyly said, “Oh, you probably don’t know what I’m talking about.” When I said I watched the show, knew who Kat Von D was and that I also had several tattoos, the conversation expanded and we went from acquaintance to friend in no time flat. You are what you watch. And so are your friends.
3. Be less shell-shocked by the “real world” when you see it. When I see people behaving badly or acting strangely or doing something some might consider “unconventional” out in the “real” real world, it’s not as shocking. I’ve probably already seen it or something like it on reality TV. I’ve had time to process my thoughts about “abnormal” behavior so it saves me time out in the real world. Now that’s efficient!
Confession: I like to say that I watch reality TV because I’m in marketing, and that’s partly true. I need to stay on top of what people are watching, not watching, what they’re saying, what’s hot, what’s not, so that I don’t write or pitch an idea that’s…old, out of touch or just not in sync with today’s world or my audience. It’s not for me. It’s for the good of the brands I represent. That’s…mostly true. Mostly, I enjoy it. And I don’t want to look old.
4. Reality TV is a self-esteem boost and stress relief. I can’t tell you how many times watching Super Nanny made me feel better about my shortcomings as a mom. And just knowing that there is a wife out in the world who bottles deer piss for her husband’s side business made me feel better about being my household’s primary dog pooper scooper.
Or how trying to watch the Real Housewives of any city took my mind off of the myriad things I worry about on a daily basis, from global warming to Did I sign that field trip permission slip? to potential layoffs at work down to, crap, am I wearing two different earrings AGAIN?, which leads to, Am I getting Alzheimer’s? Watching CNN gives me more things to worry about. Maybe this makes me a dunderhead, but as my design friend Kathy would say, “I’m sorry, but I’m not apologizing.”
5. Reality TV provides many teachable moments for kids. While we all agree some shows are not for kids, some have provided terrific opportunities for me to talk to my kids about things that matter. MTV’s Teen Moms is a perfect example. The girls on the show are often struggling to grow up themselves let alone raise a baby, sometimes without the support of the babies’ fathers or their families.
It’s a realistic, not glamorous, portrayal of real life. It’s made me realize what young teen moms really go through. Not everyone is open to having those types of conversations with their kids, but for those of us who are, this makes it easier to have conversations that otherwise might be forced or not had at all.
6. It’s guilt-free, budget-friendly fun. There’s not much to laugh about in today’s economy and I’m a busy working mom with two kids, no time and a lot of laundry, so I take my fun where I can get it. Reality TV is a perfectly safe, inexpensive outlet that comes with my cable package, doesn’t require a sitter and won’t ruin my lungs or my liver, make me hungover or make my butt bigger (as long as I don’t eat M&M’s while watching it).
Unless you count how sheepish I am when Hubby catches me watching “Wife Swap” again and I say, “What?!? I’m watching it for work,” and he says, “Uh huh.” Then I remind him of his penchant for watching WWE and there is a moment of silence before he asks if I want some M&Ms. Speaking of Hubby…
7. Reality TV gives us something to talk about. Earlier this year, I took Hubby to the Oprah show. It was a surprise he would never in a million years guess let alone want. But early on in our relationship, he always liked to make our dates a surprise. So, competitive as I am, I have to spend the rest of our married life together trying to top him.
His birthday happens to be on the same day as Oprah’s and she was giving away tickets to people who shared her birthday. I wrote an essay about how I was going to blindfold him and drive him downtown early that morning and surprise him with tickets to the show. At the last minute, the producers asked if they could film the surprise and feature us on the show in a brief segment.
I was scrambling to make arrangements for my kids, so it didn’t dawn on me what would be entailed until the night before the show as I sat on my bed trying to videotape myself saying the loose script they had provided me with only hours earlier, at which time I panicked when I realized that:
A. I was going to need A LOT of makeup and I talk like a typical “Da Bears” Chicagoan (eek!)
B. This will be seen live by the ENTIRE WORLD including everyone I know (eek!)
C. My husband is NOT an Oprah fan and will NEVER speak to me again (ruh roh)
D. My husband is going to sit on Oprah’s stage during a LIVE show and look exactly like he does when I make him go shopping for pants: depressed, pained, trapped. (Oprah was gonna be pissed!)
Reality TV is a lot harder than it looks. Luckily, they called later that night to cancel our segment, replacing it with a “No texting and driving” one. We still got to go to the show and even received gift certificates for 4 free nights at a Hilton Hotel. Even though we didn’t appear on stage, I got so much out of that brush with reality TV’s 15 minutes of fame–between the clandestine calls to family and friends, hilarious suppositions about Hubby’s potential reaction, furtive Facebook status updates (“It’s 5am, I’m in Dunkin Donuts drive-thru and Hubby is blindfolded. Hope they don’t call the cops on me.”), it was a bright, exciting moment in an otherwise long, dark, freezing cold January in Chicago.
And if that isn’t a good thing, I don’t know what is.
The 8 most annoying Facebook personalities
Published October 13, 2010 Creative Life , Fun , Social Commentary , Social Media 9 CommentsTags: bad Facebook behavior, Facebook, Facebook guidelines, social media do's and don'ts
Recently I took an informal survey of my Facebook friends to see what they thought were the best and worst things about Facebook. The stories and insights that emerged were fascinating, revealing and too good not to share. Today, we focus on the most annoying. (Of course we all know that WE don’t do these things, but we probably all have a few of them lurking in our friend list.)
Who, me?
The Instigator. This is the person who likes to stir up trouble by posting argumentative comments, strong political or religious opinions, or bashing people who annoy them. I once watched a couple break up via Facebook–complete with status updates ripping each other to pieces and giving everyone enough detail in the comments to know who cheated on who, who threw the plastic chair first, who had a drug problem, who needed to grow up and act their age – ?
It was like a soap opera that I couldn’t stop watching. Thankfully, they both deleted the majority of posts later that day and took it offline. Please, if you’re breaking up or pissed off at something someone else said, pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. Don’t subject the rest of us to the bitterness.
Game Addict. The consensus was clear: NO MORE fish or mafia wars or Farkle scores or farm animal stories (unless they were funny and sarcastic).
Photo Upchucker. “Florence just uploaded 577 new photos of the kids’ clog dancing class!” I’m sorry, but I can’t even look at that many photos of my own kids let alone someone else’s, especially of clog dancing (no offense, clog dancers).
This is also the person who posts photo upchucks of you–tagged!–so that the lovely photo of you with three chins or a mouthful of food and one eye half-shut is right there, front and center, on your photo page.
The Drama Queen. Another day, another drama. You’ll see constant updates that are all about the drama at work, the drama at home, the drama with the kids. One wife posted that her young husband was going to the ER for what he thought was a heart attack. 28 comments and two hours later, turns out he had indigestion and everything was fine.
Later she posted that they went out for dinner and a movie–talk about anticlimactic. Maybe…hold off on the status update until you have more facts; if your husband is having a heart attack, why the hell are you on Facebook???
The Hypochondriac. It’s one thing to have a casual acquaintance who is a hypochondriac. It’s quite another to be Facebook friends with him or her and bear witness to every bee sting, garden injury, torn ligament, achy toenail and virus to end all viruses–all in one week. I’m sorry, but if you start sounding like one of my elderly aunts grousing about your aches and pains, I’m gonna have to hide your achy breaky arse.
The Narcissist. If you never comment on anyone else’s posts, never join the conversation unless it’s about you, and only post things about yourself, hello Narcissist!. If you’re an ER doc or attorney or president of a company and just decided to run for mayor of your town, hey, that’s great, but posts like, “Just saved another life today!” or “The limo was late, AGAIN” or “I hate when the maid makes my bed wrong!” tend to alienate us regular people. What fun is it comment on THAT (unless you know them well enough to make fun of them).
The Facebook-aholic: You know who you are. You post more than 6 times a day–interesting links, funny videos, photos, status update quips, quotes, you name it, you post it. Some of it is interesting, but after a while, people start wondering if you have a life.
The Hypochondriac Narcissist with Photo Upchuck Tendencies: Enough said.
Next time, I’ll share the positive aspects of Facebook from my independent survey. In the meantime, feel free to share your favorite Facebook personalities, good or bad.