THE ECHO

By Sav Bray // Reporter

Aliyana Offett sat down one day to watch something new on Netflix. After scrolling for a while she found a cheerleading reality show and was sucked in. Little did she know she just discovered a new genre of TV that would change her life forever: reality television.

Reality television is a pop culture phenomenon that has risen over the past two decades. People watch reality shows to escape their own reality and live vicariously through other people who signed up to be perceived. There have always been conversations surrounding whether realty TV shows are a healthy thing for anyone to get sucked into. This conversation is especially prominent around how these shows affect high school students’ daily lives.

Offett, a sophomore at Avon High School, first started watching reality television on a whim one day, and it turned into something she watches constantly now. As a high school student, she knows all too well the opinions that some people have about students of high school age watching this type of content. However, she doesn’t think that if affects her in ways one might think.

“It’s not like it changes how I am. I don’t start acting different because I’m watching reality TV.” Offett said which goes against the stigma around high school students watching reality TV and it changes up their attitudes and who they are as a person because of it.

Over the past twenty-five years academic performance has gone down due to big events in history such as 9/11 and the creation of the iPhone. A more gradual event that is a possible contributor to this is the slow rise of reality television, causing people to escape their own reality for a little while and not think of their outside responsibilities, namely, work or school. Leigha Sanders, a junior, says that she watches reality TV but not as much as a lot of enjoyers of that genre. Sanders, however, does not agree with the notion that the rise in reality TV contributes to poorer academic performance in public schools as much as the previously named events.

“I really don’t think it’s the main cause, nor is it nearly as bad a contributor like 9/11 or the creation of the iPhone. However, it has worsened how anti-social people in America, especially teens, have become in the last two decades.” Sanders said, giving another reason as to how reality TV affects teens’ personal lives.

Ashlyn Wible, a sophomore, does not watch reality TV in her free time and has said on many occasions that she watches everything but. Wible’s view on reality TV, even though negative, has nothing to do with it getting in the way of school; it’s just not her personal preference. She just believes that reality television is unnecessary and one of the reasons she thinks is because of how it portrays the people in it.

“I think that reality TV poorly demonstrates the reality but it’s good at showing off people as who they really are.” Wible said, giving feedback to reality shows while also praising them in some respects.

Offett also believes that no matter what reality shows try to do, nothing will stop people from watching it no matter what the age of the viewer. Both sides still have their reasonings for their opinions on whether students in high school should be watching reality shows. There will always be debates on what teenagers should or should not be able to watch or just do in general, and it will forever be a never-ending cycle because of the split discussions and the subject’s involvement or lack thereof.

“I mean you can’t ever help who’s watching. Of course, they have their ratings about what age group is about to watch what, but at the end of the day, you can’t control who watches what and what age group watches your show. I think they’re doing the best they can do on that part,” Offett said.