Reality TV and The Brain: We Are What We Eat
Dr. Joanne Cantor, psychologist and author of the book, “Conquer CyberOverload: Get More Done, Boost Your Creativity, and Reduce Stress.”
Another factor to consider is that everything we see and take in affects us on a cognitive level — just like the infamous saying, “you are what you eat,” we are now becoming more and more of what we watch.
This concept is called media priming — the idea that what we see, read and hear is influencing our behavior and emotions more than we realize.
Naturally, we’re consumers.
I mean how could we not be? There’s so much to be consumed. Even at your local grocery store, you can get just about anything you can imagine.
But consumption is more granular than that.
It’s how we spend our time.
From food to music to film to vices to experiences. We consume.
We will consume our time and our lives with one thing or another. For many, the majority of that time gets dumped into media.
Why? Besides the fact that it’s highly entertaining and naturally addictive, as human beings in the 21st century, we have developed an unprecedented penchant for entertainment. At nearly all hours of the day, we plug in. At work, we listen to podcasts or put the TV on in the background. In the car, we listen to music or podcasts. We binge TV shows and tune in to our favorite live sporting events. Even during meals, we tend to have something playing. Personally, I can’t sleep without white noise or a fan to drown out the buzzing brainwaves.
On weekends we let loose and go out on the town, entertaining ourselves with company and food and drink.
Of course, I’m not speaking for everyone here, but we all know there’s a ton of people who live this exact life. Nothing to be ashamed of, it’s only natural and I’ve definitely spent plenty of days exactly like this.
After a lifetime of exposure, we crave entertainment and stimulation.
“Crave” may be a strong word in this case, but how do you explain something that we do with as much repetitiveness and consistency as we do with media consumption.
We love entertainment so much that we started doing it ourselves on social media—being entertained by our friends and those we’re fans of, and branding ourselves and our output to the world in the process.
And now that we’ve started doing so ourselves, we’ve made basic, daily life ‘entertainment’ and it started, and continues today with Reality TV.
On cable last year, there were 750 “unscripted series” according to RealityBlurred.com.
Fuckin’ Why?
Because we’re gross and addicted to Netflix, but also:
Reality TV is dominant because of the high revenue return potential and simple production value. While the costs of paying some reality stars has increased exponentially, the costs of producing reality TV is still a lot less than creating most scripted programs.
— Investopedia.com
Although the “reality” you’re indulging in is typically some altered version of real life, it’s close enough to your own to relate, place yourself in the situations, and buy in… even if that reality is being nudged by producers. Despite our recognition that these shows suck, we enjoy turning our brains off to bear witness to stupidity. And we buy in at record rates.
Jersey Shore was a phenomenon the world hadn’t quite seen, but even your everyday reality TV show can still pick up millions of viewers…. there are a lot of people out there. So
And this kind of consumption is affecting us in strange ways…
Brain World Magazine goes into depth on why we love it so much:
Why do people love reality TV? Some researchers point to “schadenfreude,” a word used to describe the positive feelings some people get when they see others’ misfortunes. Psychologists also describe this as being an extension of social comparison. “If you’re not feeling that great, but you can see something worse happen to someone else, it makes you feel better in comparison. People like to watch these shows and think, ‘Well I wouldn’t be that stupid,’ and it makes us feel less inadequate,” says Dr. Joanne Cantor, psychologist and author of the book, “Conquer CyberOverload: Get More Done, Boost Your Creativity, and Reduce Stress.”
Another factor to consider is that everything we see and take in affects us on a cognitive level — just like the infamous saying, “you are what you eat,” we are now becoming more and more of what we watch.
This concept is called media priming — the idea that what we see, read and hear is influencing our behavior and emotions more than we realize.
“Seeing something in the media really makes it more accessible to our memory, and is more likely to have an effect on us,” says Cantor. “It’s at the top of our minds, and may remind us of similar things in our own lives. When we see an action or emotion, it’s almost like our brain is making us more ready to perform or experience that behavior ourselves. It promotes both imitation and empathy. Our brains are active when we watch things. It stimulates thoughts that are related to it and increases the chances that you will perform that behavior yourself.” says Cantor.
“Normally if you were to see some really violent thing happening it might cause you to be upset and get emotional, but if you see it over and over again, that sort of behavior that was once shocking slowly becomes more acceptable.”
https://brainworldmagazine.com/people-love-reality-tv-does-it-affect-how-we-treat-each-other/
The Toronto Sun explains how it affects us neurologically (and makes us dumber)
TV watching lowers IQ. And it increases rudeness too.
A recent study by neuroscientists in Japan reports that prolonged TV viewing alters children’s brain structure, which supports findings of several previous studies of lower verbal IQ, as well as increased aggressiveness.
Duh! TV is getting dumber and ruder, and so are we. Think the Bachelor series - Bachelor in Paradise is in full swing – along with Big Brother and the endless Housewives reruns.
Mindless, means mediocrity that masquerades as harmless fluff – but it’s really harmful stuff. “Reality TV is junk food for our brain, and in the same way that junk food rots our teeth and makes us sick, bad reality TV rots our brain and makes us rude,” says Dr. Marcia Sirota, a psychiatrist, coach and professional speaker at marciasirotamd.com.
Most reality TV offers us as much quality as the cheapest fast food, says Sirota. “It celebrates stupidity, boorishness, selfishness, spitefulness and revenge. It panders to our basest urges and impulses, titillating us but providing empty calories.”
https://torontosun.com/2015/08/19/reality-tv-watching-lowers-iq-increase-rudeness
