Unreality Shows

As the reality show Pinoy Big Brother hits yet another season, we are witnessing something that is more than a media flick that manages to successfully distract Filipinos from their country’s socio-economic and political woes. It is morel likely to be an indicator of the low level of personal esteem and integrity in the general audience and consequently greater appreciation for distasteful forms of behavior.

Avid followers of reality shows, as well as hopeful candidates of these programs, may disagree. They may claim, and they are correct to some extent, that such shows actually give people the opportunity to be discovered and become successful. Granted that this is true—at least for the lone winner who takes home all the cash—we may ask ourselves if success or fame is justified when these are attained at the expense of the person’s dignity?

The origins of the Big Brother reality show dates back to 1999 when the Dutch media had the idea of hosting a program to pay tribute to George Orwell’s novel “1984”. The T.V. program recreated Orwell’s concept of the “Big Brother” where the participants’ every move are scrupulously watched and controlled. Since then the concept of reality shows was born and immediately copied by other producers worldwide and fashioned to the idiosyncrasies of their culture.

This was a most ideal show whose unlimited variations assured that the viewing public will never get bored. The setting, the topics, and the people involved did not really matter much as long as –aside from making money roll– the public had their fair share of entertainment. But what form of entertainment?

The idea was to amuse the public by broadcasting real life situations taken from every possible setting such as houses, buses, elevators and even hospitals. But aside from these, reality shows also projected real life situations revealing the most intimate things about the participants. These ranged from talent search for budding artists, match-making situations, real-time coverage of heart attacks, surgeries, interviews with people about their most weird experiences from sex to assassination attempts, etc. All these were meant to give the audience a real dose of life. But again, what kind of life?

A closer scrutiny, however, of reality shows reveals otherwise. In the first place, its producers are not only interested in broadcasting just any particular life setting or individual, but impose a series of rigorous selection processes to come out with the desired “reality”. And it has to effectively catch the audience attention. More often than not this key ingredient is found in the revelation of what is most intimate to the person.

Thus, aside from being disposed to doing or saying anything, the candidates are also chosen from backgrounds that would make them stand out from the usual John Doe or Juan de la Cruz. In other words, if one has traits of deviancy in his or her life, say coming from a dysfunctional family, or being a single parent, a college drop-out or a reformed drug addict, etc. These crucial ingredients of almost every reality show can innocently pass as another unique way of entertainment. But these shows are actually hiding from the audience a bleaker and more disturbing reality: man who is interiorly empty of personal intimacy.

Now, among many of man’s unique traits given by God is his capacity for interior awareness. Only man has the ability to look into himself, and become conscious of a treasure called self-possession. This gift allows him to possess, what we often call an “idea of himself” from which arises his personal identity and dignity. This possession of self also becomes the core of personal intimacy, to which only the person has a right to.

The mass following for reality shows reveals that man is hungry for intimacy, but not what could be found within himself and develop his personal integrity. Instead, he fills his inner void within with the intimate but deviant behavior exposed by some candidates of reality shows. In the process, man becomes emptier than ever because he does nothing more than absord the emptiness of other persons. Moreover, it isn’t just other people’s shallow intimacy, but a distorted intimacy that paves the way for the deconstruction of individual character and identity.

In no time a great multitude of young people who are seeking a piece of something meaningful for their inner selves, are only led to swallow the subtle but deforming examples communicated through reality shows. Thus, premarital relations, indecent speech and behavior, violent gestures and reactions, and the “congratulation of first experiences” of vices such as gambling, masturbation and even drugs, etc. are held to be acceptable forms of indulgence for the youth.

It’s about time for Pinoy Big Brother, as well as any other reality show, to get real by fostering the values and dignity of our Filipino culture! Otherwise viewers are immersed and drowned by the unrealistic portrayal of man’s original dignity and intimacy that God created him to enjoy.