Final Blog Assignment

There are times when I watch television at night and just cannot believe some of the shows that are put on the air. The language, the sex, the violence and most of all, the values. Or should I say lack of values. Any morals and values that used to be found in the media have been completely lost. This prompted me to take a closer look at the way love is portrayed through reality television shows today. Through shows like The Bachelor, Joe Millionaire, Anything For Love and Date My Mom, America is given a false look at what love is. Even more importantly, teenagers are given this fake interpretation of love and forget their values for the media. After doing some research, I found just how the values of people before reality television and the values of people today have changed, but more importantly how this change and reality television affects the current teenagers of our generation.

Before the first reality dating show, which aired in 1965, Americans’ family and love values were much different than they are today. For example, divorce was not acceptable and society shamed people if they actually divorced. Premarital sex was completely unheard of and improper, not to mention teenage pregnancies. According to encyclopedia.org, “In 1950 the percentage of unmarried teenage births was 15 percent, compared with the 75 percent of today”. Although people got married at a younger age, most of the time there was no sex until marriage. When it comes to values on the television—people were always clothed, inappropriate sexual content was not aired and all of the shows were very family-oriented.

The late 1960s was exactly the time when all of this began to change. People rioted and revolted for freedom acts, and sexual expression movements. In an recent article by Joan Marsman, it was stated that “…beginning in the late 1960’s, in response to the increased sexual activity among young people and the accompanying increase in unplanned pregnancies, health professionals, educators, social workers and parents cooperated to develop sex education programs” (1). Today, the divorce rate is at almost 50%, and as mentioned, the teen pregnancy rate is at 75%. These have substantially sky-rocketed. It is now somewhat socially acceptable to have premarital sex and to have a baby without being married. The cause? I believe reality dating shows. The first reality dating show aired in 1965, right around the time when the values of love, sex and marriage for Americans and teenagers began to change. Eventually, television got continually worse and the television of 2010 has lost all of its values. People are nearly naked, curse words are used in casual conversation and nothing has a filter. Obviously, this change in the television is affecting Americans and more importantly, the teenagers watching it. CBS News ran a documentary on this idea of the media’s influence on teenagers and is shown in the following video: (http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3750736n).

The first reality dating show in 1965 had three contestants that would be asked questions to be chosen to go on a date with a person of the opposite sex. A video of the show is shown here: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqyx3Ed7GZw ). At the time of this first reality dating show, people began to riot, revolt and become more “free” with sexuality and expression. The media played a large role in this movement because they also supported more use of sexual content and freedom of expression, by this game show for example. This game show was an inspiration for the following popular reality dating shows which reflect the changes in societal attitudes toward sex. Some popular examples are Average Joe, Blind Date, Married by America, Flavor of Love and Next. And these are only the beginning…

These popular reality dating shows are getting continuously worse with time. The cameras are so involved, you basically get to see everything but the sexual intercourse itself. People on these shows are forced to be crazy and very open, so the corporations receive good views. Therefore, the amount of expression and sexual content in these shows is what is skewing America’s values today. For example, the most famous reality dating show, “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”, portray lust as love for all of these couples. These men and women are forced to date and get to know each other in only a few weeks and claim after the second date that they are “in love”. Then, the whole show continues with all of the contestants declaring they are in love, an engagement is made to one of them and is most likely broken off later. These people go on “perfect” dates with the “perfect” man in “perfect” clothes—of course they are going to think they are in love, it is basically a fairy tale. Unfortunately for us, the viewers are the ones harmed because they believe it to be real. Out of the 13 seasons of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, only two couples are still currently together. At a chance of 15% at finding love, America still continues to watch and believe that what this show portrays is “love”. A perfect example is shown in the following clip: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_mKQP0Rc7A). The show is only 6 weeks long, so while the contestants rant about their love, they could only possibly be at the butterfly stage. The teenagers who watch see these people explain their love and how smitten they are, when it is completely unrealistic. They have not lived together, gone through any type of hardship or spent more than a night with the families. So, when the viewers find someone that also gives them butterflies, they believe it to be love, have sex and forget all morals. This is definitely a large part of more people having a construed view of love, the high divorce rate and the high teen pregnancy rate from teens believing their high school lusts are love.

A perfect example of how these reality shows have affected teenagers is the new current craze, “16 and Pregnant” on MTV. This show highlights about five different girls and their journeys through their pregnancies and lives afterwards. Although it does not always show these pregnancies in a good light, there are people who look at these shows and decide that they want to get pregnant. Back in the 1950s, there would NEVER be a show like this on television! It just supports the high teen pregnancy rate, by showing these girls that they are going to make them celebrities for doing something that used to be against Americans’ morals. These values have obviously changed and are going to prompt even more change with every new season MTV releases. These girls are not in love, are not married and do not have any of the values that we used to see on television. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qmtRyxl5RY – Farrah has premarital sex with a guy she no longer talks to, leaves her baby to go out and is completely disrespectful to her parents. This does nothing but teach fellow teenagers that these behaviors are okay.

Face it, these reality dating shows are affecting the morals and values of our teenagers every day. One of the biggest problems with these shows is the name “reality”, because that is just it—it is not real life. We watch these shows and assume that everything in it is real, but it takes time and maturation to realize that these shows are everything but that. As more television shows came out with more vulgar content, it became socially acceptable in America to also repeat what is seen. In a study done on teens and the media by several doctors, “Male and female students indicated that sex was everywhere in the media and that they felt the pressure to develop sexual behaviors because ‘it was encouraged’ and ‘it was expected’” (Polacek 5). Once television started to lose its filter, it has only gotten worse and worse. So now, looking at a channel like MTV, it is hard to see any morals and values at all. When television used to have family sitcoms and dramas, there is now “reality” dating shows because it is cheaper and more appealing. These teenagers are being affected by this tremendously and eventually, there needs to be an end to this nonsense. In the conclusion of the previous study, the doctors found:

The media, as one of the students stated it, taught them…how to kiss, date,
perceive sex and romance, have sex, dress attractively, behave as a sexual
male/female, behave with a girlfriend or boyfriend, perceive a woman’s
body, and also obtain information about rape.They acknowledged that they
feel pressured to participate in sexual activity and that sex is an
everpresent focus in the media they consume. The casual attitude about sex
portrayed in the media makes them feel unsusceptible to the risks and the
realities of sexual behavior.(14).

This is a prime example of how the media affects teenagers and their actions in today’s society. The statistics are even here to prove it. Teenagers mistake these reality shows for real life and lose their morals with each episode they watch.

As a whole, these reality dating shows have no positive impact on America. They have been included as a part of our culture and have done more damage than one can see on the surface. These shows have been a part of the loss of values in American television and in teenagers of the 21st century. Because of these shows and the loss of values, teenagers mistake love for lust and are caught in premarital pregnancies and future divorces. From this research and investigation of this subject, I can honestly say the teen pregnancy rate and loss of morals in teens would never be the way they are now if it were not for these reality dating shows.




Works Cited

Marsman, Joan C. and Edward S. Herold. “Attitudes toward Sex Education and Values in Sex Education.” Family Relations 35.3 (Jul., 1986): 357-361. JSTOR. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.

Johnston Polacek, Georgia N. L., et al. "Media and Sex: Perspectives from Hispanic Teens." American Journal of Sexuality Education 1.4 (2006): 51-69. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.

Couric, Katie. “Eye To Eye: Teen Pregnancy.” CBS News. 24 Jan. 2008. Web. 26 Apr. 2010.

“Divorce Rates in America.” Divorcerate.org. 2009. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.

Lindenmeyer, Kriste. “Teen Pregnancy.” Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood in History and Society. Encyclopedia.com. 2004. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.

“Teen Mom: Farrah Fights for a Social Life.” Youtube.com. 05 Jan. 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.

“The Bachelor Season Finale: Jason and Melissa.” The Bachelor. Youtube.com. 02 Mar. 2009. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.

“John Ritter on The Dating Game.” The Dating Game. Youtube.com. 14 Jun. 2007. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.

Clarke-Copeland, Judi. “Television of the 1960s: Nostalgic Family Values.” JCE Enterprises. InformationandEntertainment.com. 2009. Web. 19 Apr. 2010.