A realistic reality?

Most of us have watched The Hills and we’ve seen Laguna Beach (and both series’ downhill spiral after the original girl-next-door said adios).

We fell in love with Lauren when she was just LC. We watched “Ste-PHEN” juggle two girls who were way out of his league. We witnessed man-juggling at its best with Kristin (who is now wifed up with a bub – who would’ve guessed). We saw Alex M fail to launch a music career. We watched “Jess-CAH” catastrophically fall from grace (whining and complaining the whole way). And we watched Heidi turn into Speidi.

We’re surrounded by a world that’s constantly giving us looks into other people’s lives. Jersey Shore, Geordie Shore, The Shire (lol), Big Brother, Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant, My Super Sweet 16, The Life of Brian, The Real Housewives etc etc. – PS. special thanks to MTV for most of those.

But how real is ‘reality’ and why are we so obsessed with other people’s lives?

Do we need gratification? Are we better than them? Or, are our lives so boring that we have to watch the way other people live just for kicks?

But everyone knows The Hills was scripted. The Shire is definitely scripted. Big Brother is controlled by a bunch of people.

However, according to Psychologist George Gerbner ‘prolonged exposure to television can shape a viewer’s concept of the world’.

Cool.

So (providing that’s true) most of us see the world as a place where we should get drunk often, bang as many people as possible, always be on/getting ready for/setting up a date, have babies young (or perhaps don’t have babies at all), yell at people (particularly girls), fight with our boyfriends, attend glamorous events, and only concentrate on a social life.

Right?

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