I'm sick of my TV telling me what I should be doing with my life. Every show like "Entertainment Tonight" never ceases to piss me off. I don't care which celebrity had to go the dentist after chipping a tooth on their Hummer, and I never will. All of my anger towards the current state of the media funnels into this thought. I hate when someone else tells me what I'm supposed to like. Until I ask for an opinion, I don't want someone throwing 'The Years Best. . . .' or 'America's favorite. . . . .' in my face. Quite frankly, I don't give a crap what most Americans consider worthy of their time. I'm afraid our culture is awash in a sludge of media opinion. Which brings me to another point; well, maybe a random point, but you get the idea.
Why am I supposed to care about the styles of some celebrity? By the way, we're also to assume that you're a nobody unless you can star in movies, play in a band, or be an amazing athlete. But why am I supposed to care about the styles of some actress who worked for two months filming a movie? Is it because she's rich? Well I tell you what, there are plenty of people in this world with much more money than anyone in hollywood could dream of having, yet we're not oggling over what kind of toothpaste they use. So if it's not the money, it must be something else. Maybe it's the perception of money, and the flaunting of it. We in America have this image of movie stars that is completely off the edge. We give them authority to make decisions in our lives in terms of what we watch, what we want to wear, and what political stance we should take. "Oh look honey, Tim Robbins hates President Bush; how eclectic and trendy of him!"
The shows themselves I have no problem with, at least for this topic. It's the reality that we watch that bothers me. We sit on our couches and watch life happen, instead of going out and living life. Thursday nights, instead of hanging out with real friends, we watch them on tv, as if they were our own. Reality tv is such a load. Why can't anything just be called a 'Game Show' anymore? By the way, Fear Factor has been done before, but it used to come on Nickelodeon and it was every kids dream. Remember? It was called Double Dare, and those physical challenges ruled. (By the way, I would have owned that final round thing, most of those kids who tried it were wusses.)
So here's my final round of rants. Quit letting so-called-celebrities inform you about real-life-issues. If I want to learn how to act, I'll listen to an actor. If I want advice on any other subject, I'm going to a professional; I don't care how many academy awards you have. Live life, quit watching it happen on a 'reality tv show' that isn't even close to reality. We should collectively ban the entertainment info shows and magazines. I would love to see the faces of the producers when the average American says 'so what' to every piece of media that informs them about who's dating who, and what J-Lo had for dinner last night. What we need, instead, is personal shows like this that inform me of the people I know and love. That would be exciting. To sit down and watch a 30-minute segment that informed me of my friends daily happenings. Well, until that happens, I'll be yelling at my TV on a daily basis like an old man.
