Reality TV – (or is it?)
Good morning, afternoon or evening. Welcome back. It’s good to have you visit us again.
Today’s “Thought for the Day” is going to be “live” today as time has been against me and I haven’t had a chance to have a particular topic to discuss. So, what I thought I would do is simply write the intro (which you are reading now) then look around my office, pick an item and see how I can relate that to our life! So are you ready for “off the cuff” stuff? Let’s go…
Looking around I see… my computer is displaying the Big Brother web site. Hmm, this will be interesting! There are so many tangents I could take…
Actually, this is an awesome topic for today as I have had one of my greatest realisations this year from watching Big Brother!
Firstly, I must say that I am an avid fan of the Big Brother franchise. A lot of people I know do not share my enthusiasm for the show, but I find it a great social experiment seeing how a group of normal everyday people behave when thrown in a house with fifteen others and how they interrelate.
For those who may not know the format, a number of people enter a house that has been modified to include microphones and cameras so that every minute is recorded. An outside entity (Big Brother) assigns them tasks and controls what they can do. No electrical devices, books or writing materials are allowed into the house and there are no clocks. Each week the housemates secretly vote for who they would like to have removed from the house. The three housemates with the most votes are placed up for eviction with the general public having the final say about who leaves. After about 100 days there is one person left and they are the winner.
Monday to Friday we get to see a half hour “daily show” of the action that took place during the previous 24 hours. This turns out to be about 17 minutes once you take out the ads. It is from this that we as the public base our votes.
The other point to note is that the target demographic for the Australian Big Brother is 15 – 34 year old females.
To keep the interest of it’s viewers the editors need to create and follow story lines and make 24 hours fit into 17 minutes. Across the course of 3 months you feel as though you get to know the characters, but how much can you know about someone from viewing 1.18% of the time frame, and this does not give equal time to everyone.
Out of the six seasons so far for the Australian Big Brother there has been one female winner with the other five being quiet, good looking young men.
There is a lot of their reality that is deleted and generalised when conveyed to us. Conversations take place that we never hear, arguments ensue that we don’t see and if they don’t do an activity that stands out or get involved with a storyline, we never get to see it.
This is exactly like us and our everyday life. We make decisions (assumptions) based on our own experiences of others.
This Thought of the Day is going to end with a question… Can we make judgments of others based solely on our experience with them?
Do we have the right to say “Peter is an arrogant so-and-so”. We place our own distortions on our experiences with Peter. We don’t get to experience the way Peter thinks internally. Can we ever know Peter well enough, AND do we ever earn the right, to judge?
Something to think about.
Until next time, Live your Ultimate Life, and enjoy it.