What Messages Do Our Children Get from Reality Television?

Janelle Harris has a thoughtful essay called “How Reality TV Has Changed Our Daughters” on The Root.

Far, far away from network storyboarding and big-money business decisions—but not beyond their reaches—I am raising a 16-year-old daughter. She’s a good girl, free-spirited and introspective. Much to her mama’s disappointment, she doesn’t find reading pleasurable, but she doesn’t watch much TV, either, save a sudden interest in VH1’s Love & Hip Hop that developed last year. She doesn’t have to to be infected by the vitriol of reality shows. It’s already ingrained in black youth culture, and in her I see a hostility and distrust of other girls that breaks my heart and makes me doubly regretful about the reality-show facade.

Harris is writing about the special challenges faced by minority families because the opportunities to see reflections of their own experience are so limited in popular culture. All families, though, are challenged to explain appropriate behavior and encourage meaningful goals when “reality” television provides the outrageous, demeaning, and destructive behavior we see on shows from “The Bachelor” to “Honey Boo Boo,” and the issues she raises are important for every parent to think about carefully.