Back in 1999, there was a cute little film named EDtv, starring Matthew McConaughey, that was released into the theaters. A simple concept really, it was about a television network who followed a guy named Ed, twenty four hours a day, 7 days a week, and aired it as a show on prime time. The show soon became a number one watched program where everyone always wanted to know with great anticipation what was going to happen next to Ed. Zoom forward to 2013, and it seems as if I can find a version of EDtv on every single channel almost all the time.
I’ve lost count of how many shows exist now that are about following the lives of certain people or groups of people. Some of the real big named reality shows in the past few years, have included Duck Dynasty, Jersey Shore, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. And this only is just a fraction of all of them that exist. Not only are there reality shows that follow this type of sub genre which are labeled as Documentary style, there are plenty of other classifications as well including historical re-creation, science, dating, law enforcement/military, makeover, lifestyle change, fantasies fulfilled, hidden camera, game shows, talent searches, spoofs, and parodies.
Ironically, what was once the majority of the type of shows that existed when I was growing up are now fast becoming the minority. Much of the world has become fascinated with watching everyone else’s realities now. Why is this? Why are millions upon millions of people watching reality television when they have their own realities to deal with? Is it an escape or an avoidance of their own lives? I don’t have the answers to those questions. The only thing I know is that I miss television from the 80’s when most of those shows didn’t exist.
Back in that time, when I was a teenager just starting to get into television, there were only a handful of channels to watch. During the morning it was all about cartoons, during the afternoon it was all about talk shows, soap operas, and games shows, and during the evening, all the programming was fictionalized drama or comedy based shows. Shows like The Hulk, The A-Team, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Knight Rider, Too Close For Comfort, and Three’s A Company were some of my favorites. While shows like this still do exist in different incarnations, they are rapidly becoming extinct and being replaced by those scripted reality shows that people are watching so much more of now.
What’s ironic is that my life is full of reality every single day but I don’t have any camera crews following any part of it. Is that because I’m not important enough or because my life doesn’t have something that’s interesting to follow? I’m sure Honey Boo Boo thought the very same thing until her life became a hit television reality show. Regardless, I try not to invest much time in watching any of those reality television shows these days. I find it’s more important for me now to work on creating my own reality of being a healthier person in this world who is dedicated to helping God bring more light and love to this planet. No offense to the Kardashians or Honey Boo Boo or any of the Real Housewives from anywhere but there is no difference between any of you and any of those of us who don’t have shows about our own lives with maybe the exception of the fact that you are making a lot more money from people who keep tuning into the shows about you. We are all God’s children and each of us have an equally important reality and purpose in life that don’t need cameras to chronicle any of it.
Could our world be a much more loving place to be in if we all started tuning out some of those reality shows and started tuning into working on our own lives a lot more by bettering ourselves and being more loving to each other? By working on bettering myself and being more loving to everyone, I have learned to really enjoy my own reality as compared to my past where I wanted to tune it out and follow someone else’s instead. The last thing I want to do now is spend my days vicariously watching anyone creating their own realities when I am already doing so with God. So maybe then I should have a show named ANDREWtv…NOT!
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
To answer your question. Yes I think people focus on othes reality to avoid focusing on their own. I think sometimes in an AA meeting people including myself sometimes can focus on someone elses issues and cast judgement on how they are dealing with a problem and avoid focusing on their own. So yes I thiink I need to keep my own side of the street clean.