In his article, "Reality Television Debases Society", Jonah Goldberg argues that reality television has a negative impact on viewers, in areas ranging from values to wisdom. He believes that reality TV contributes, at least in part, to the degradation of American culture and society, arguing: “Reality TV culture has thrived in [a] moral vacuum, accelerating decay and helping to create a society in which celebrity is the new fashion. nobility." Goldberg uses the social theories of Arnold Toynbee and Charles Murray to explain the negative outcomes of reality TV that tilt the social scale by homogenizing rich and poor. He also offers an economic reasoning for why the rich can afford to behave badly, while the middle and lower classes cannot. Indeed, the immoral actions of celebrities, the unspoken upper crust in America, spill over to the lower rungs of the social ladder; this ripple effect causes an almost total abandonment of necessary virtues, not to mention the 'intelligence. I agree with Jonah Goldberg's argument in "Reality Television Debases Society" that reality shows show America as corrupt because they show unacceptable behavior, that ordinary people, who go out of their way to emulate an elite, they will do nothing but repeat, and because they give people false expectations for real-life scenarios by glorifying otherwise shameful behavior. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Reality shows hurt society by implicitly exhorting the middle and lower classes to resort to egregious behavior because it assimilates them to celebrities, to the modern American elite. In the 1960s, social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted experiments with an actor posing as a volunteer "student" in the experiment and a real volunteer "teacher" tasked with administering increasing voltages of electric shock to the student each time he responded incorrectly to a question. Milgram told the students to answer almost every question incorrectly for the sake of the experiment. Of course, the students never received a shock during the experiment; they just pretended. Nonetheless, sixty percent of the teachers, who all thought the students had actually received the shocks, administered the maximum shock to the students, even after hearing the students' painful pleas to stop the shocks. Just as the teachers obeyed Milgram, the social authority in the experiment, the average American “obeys” the rules suggested by the actions of the elite; as reality TV stars behave badly, average Americans follow suit by imitating the actions of a group of people with the wealth and status they wish they had. In doing so, these Americans lose their morals and other positive attributes. Therefore, reality television negatively affects society because it encourages ordinary Americans to emulate the bad behaviors of celebrities. Furthermore, unacceptable behavior now finds approval on reality TV, which means it will gain acceptance from viewers as well. Often, reality TV stars are forced to exaggerate or unnecessarily dramatize their lives to attract audiences. However, because viewers are under the impression that “reality” involves authentic, unscripted scenarios, they fail to recognize this, instead thinking that extreme behaviors are acceptable. Viewers also tend to forget that reality stars' bizarre behaviors are only acceptable for entertainment purposes; the company accepts the ,.
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