Reality TV shows have a negative influence on viewers according to this article. While reality TV was intended to show real people in real situations, most shows follow scripts and choose attention-grabbing characters. Studies have shown that heavy TV viewers, especially teenagers, see the behaviors on these shows as normal even when they depict alcohol abuse, casual sex, and bad language. Additionally, families now spend more time watching and discussing reality TV than interacting with each other. As a result, important family values and traditions are being replaced. The article concludes that reality TV depicts shallow behaviors and sends the wrong message about life, so parents must control what their children watch and maintain open communication to prevent them from absorbing unrealistic values.

1. Reality TV shows have a bad influence on people
Ana Maria Luna
I remember that a few years ago people used to spend their time in family, talking
to each other and sharing experiences; however, through time the way of
entertaining people has changed and with this change a new kind of television
appeared. Reality TV programs were introduced to show real people doing real
things and they are well accepted by the audience all over the world, especially
among young people; nevertheless, are these kind of TV programs a good
influence on people ?
First of all, they are fakes. They supposed to show the truth, but almost of them
follow a script. Reality TV shows are so attractive to people because TV producers
choose carefully special characters for the program; besides, they design conflicts
to catch the audience’s attention.
Secondly, in recent years reality TV shows have increased and with them
disturbing amount of causes related to alcohol abuse, casual sex, bad language
have grown. According to a recent study from the Florida state university American
teenagers who are heavy consumers of television will have a different or altered
perception of society in comparison to those who watch little television. Teenagers
look at the characters of the TV shows as models of imitation even if their idols
have bad behaviors. It is really disturbing that teenagers think that alcohol
consumption or early pregnancy being normal attitudes if people on TV are doing
the same. Everyone knows or has heard about Jersey shore. It is an American
program created on 2009 which is the perfect example of all the bad behaviors
already mentioned.
Thirdly, since the turn of the 21st Chilean families spend a lot of their time in front of
the television. It does have any sense that the only interaction between a family is

2. talk about what happened in the last episode of a program. It seems that family
values and traditions have been forgotten, sadly. We have to be concerned about
the kind of message that especially children and teenagers are receiving. As
sponges, they absorb everything that they hear and see.
As a conclusion and summarizing, reality TV shows are fakes, they depict a lot of
shallow behaviors and they send a bad image of how life can be. I believe we are
responsible of our attitudes and parents are responsible of their sons. Personally,
The most important thing is that parents control what their children are watching in
front of the television; moreover, a good communication could be useful to maintain
a clear vision of what real life is.