Is Reality TV Shading Your Reality?
By Crisbely Welsh
Turn on any streaming service or scroll through social media. Even if you don't watch reality TV, you can't miss it. You know the names: “Love Island,” “The Bachelor,” “The Kardashians,” “Love Is Blind,” and a new show on the scene, “Baddies.”
Reality TV has perfected the art of turning relationships, friendships, breakups, and arguments into million-dollar stories. Stories teach us and shape our opinions. But what are we learning from the stories these reality TV shows tell?
For many students, these shows are just a chance to turn off their brains after a long day of classes or something to look forward to during the week.
"I watch [Baddies] every Sunday when a new episode comes out," said Kaitlin Holmes, a freshman pre-nursing major, about the show that puts a group of women with strong personalities in one house, where producers often set up situations that lead to arguments and physical fights.
But when college students watch these shows for hours on end, how much are they able to separate what they are seeing from real life?
"I know it's not real. I watch it like you would watch a movie," said Anayaliz Reynosa, a freshman nursing major.
And even if we know that the shows are highly edited, can we really comprehend to what degree they are?
"It's just entertainment,” Holmes added. "Sometimes they leave out parts that they should have in there, so they paint people to look a different type of way."
Ashton Friend, a junior nursing major, is aware of how manufactured the drama is.
"In Baddies, they pay them to fight each other. They're not actually angry at each other," she said.
However, the line between escapism and expectation can easily blur. These shows are highly produced, with casting directors selecting specific personality types and editors crafting narratives to maximize drama. It's understandable to think that when students consume this content daily, it can subtly shape their ideas about dating, beauty, friendship, drama, money, and success.
The aesthetic of reality TV is often unrealistic. Cast members on “The Kardashians” or “Love Island” are rarely seen without professional hair, makeup, and designer wardrobes. The shows frequently flaunt immense wealth and luxury travel.
Then, turn to dating shows like “The Bachelor,” which is a dating competition where one man dates a group of women and eliminates them one by one through rose ceremonies until he chooses one to engage, normalizing the idea that romance should be a grand, high-stakes competition.
“Love Is Blind” is a dating experiment where singles talk to each other through pods without seeing each other and then get engaged, pushing the narrative that emotional intimacy forms instantaneously.
So why do students still watch these shows knowing that “real” reality is quite different? Perhaps the familiarity of the genre is what calls to the viewer.
Reality TV goes back to shows like “Candid Camera” in 1948 and “An American Family” in 1973, but the modern reality TV boom started around 2000 with shows like “Survivor” and “Big Brother.”
“Keeping Up with the Kardashians” premiered in October 2007 on E! and was created by Kris Jenner and Ryan Seacrest. The show became popular because it mixed family drama with the family's growing social media presence and business empire.
"I've always been keeping up with the Kardashians since I was a kid. So sometimes I'll watch a season if they come out with a new season, but I don't watch it very often," Friend said.
Today, reality TV makes up a large share of what people watch. One analysis found that about 32% of shows on major U.S. streaming services are unscripted, and industry insiders say the ratio of scripted to unscripted content has shifted from about 80/20 to closer to 60/40 or 70/30.
Perhaps the most toxic element of reality TV is its reliance on conflict. Gossip, backstabbing, and explosive arguments are the driving forces of the genre. This constant exposure to manufactured drama can desensitize viewers to toxic behaviors or make them expect constant chaos in their own friendships and relationships.
Take “Married at First Sight” — a 2025 Australian Broadcasting Corporation article reported that police and SafeWork were investigating the show after a contestant punched a wall on camera, and experts criticized the show for normalizing violent behavior while it continued to win its ratings timeslot.
From a psychological standpoint, this connects to social learning theory, which says people learn behaviors by watching others, and to desensitization, which means repeated exposure to intense conflict can make viewers less reactive to toxic behavior over time.
Some Barry students believe that reality TV doesn’t have to impact the way you think.
"Maybe I'll quote a few lines. But as far as personality, it doesn't change my personality in any way," Holmes said.
Reality TV might not be ruining our lives, but it is undeniably shaping our cultural expectations. As students continue to binge-watch these highly edited storylines, the challenge is to enjoy the drama on the screen without letting it write the script for their real-world lives.
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