Mears: reality television sends the wrong message

From shows glorifying teen pregnancy to shows encouraging women to chase after a man’s ‘heart’ because he has millions in the bank, modern television has been glorifying all that used to be considered wrong or looked down upon.

One current hit show, MTV’s “Teen Mom,” shows what it’s like to be a teenage mother and all the ups and downs that come along with teen motherhood. While, yes, the show expresses how hard being a teen mother is, it also glorifies teen pregnancy to a point. It is as if the makers of the show are advertising, “Hey, if you are a teen and you get pregnant, let us know and you could be on our show.”

Nowadays it is as if teen pregnancy is the cool thing to do because of shows like “Teen Mom” and “Sixteen and Pregnant.” What happened to being seventeen, graduating and going to college?

Not only is teen pregnancy being advertised, reality television has taken a new look on “love” and what people will do to find it. From the hit shows “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”, television is driving people to join in a contest of sorts to win someone’s heart and then have their quest for love aired on television for millions to see. The shows advertise that it is a “reality show,” explaining how everything that viewers see happen on the show is real. They claim that the show isn’t scripted and the people in the show aren’t pushed into any of the situations that viewers see them in on the show; however, many beg to differ. How many self-respecting people would go skinny dipping in a hot tub and make out with some random guy that they claim they love after knowing them for maybe a week? Not many unless they were pushed by producers or by the want for fame and money.

These shows have nothing to do with this so called ‘search for love’ that they advertise. The shows are made for pure entertainment to bring fame and money to the actors, writers and everyone involved with the show.

Television has gone from entertaining families at home to encouraging all that used to be looked down upon. From teen pregnancy to finding love in a few days on a game show, television has gone from family-friendly shows to shows that glorify what is wrong in our society. The next time you turn on your television set, look at the shows that are available for you to watch. Look at how far our society’s entertainment has strayed from the path of family friendly shows to ones that encourage the wrong.