reality tv, social media, and the death of america

I remember seeing OJ Simpson’s white Ford Bronco being chased and having no frame of reference for what was happening. It was 1995 and I was just a kid. But every news station was covering it. They were breaking into their programming to cover his attempted escape and subsequent trial. It was a ratings boom for multiple networks and it showed executives that people craved real-life drama. Just a few years later, many of the people involved in the Simpson case found themselves helping to create reality television shows. Thus, the advent of Reality TV was upon us.

The early 2000s saw the explosion of Reality TV with American Idol, Suvivor, and Big Brother really coming into their own. By the end of the decade, it seemed every network had some “reality” TV show. By 2020 it seemed Reality TV composed most of the programming on television, though since COVID and the writer’s strike it’s been on life support. Still, reality television and its various genres took off from 2000-2020.

One factor in Reality TV’s demise that hasn’t been considered, however, is the rise of TikTok and other social media platforms. Around the time that our entertainment consumption was turning to mindless, low-scripted reality shows where selfish behavior was rewarded, we were creating a new social media system that rewarded posts and videos based on likes and views; meaning controversy generated views, which generated profit.

Social media took the self-centeredness and didn’t only make it a virtue, it made it the modus operandi of life. We all exist in this wide world, but we get to be the stars of our own shows. We all want to go viral because with that viral post comes a following, and with a following comes sponsors and money. And the algorithm doesn’t care if your content is good or if it’s harmful. It doesn’t care if it’s true or false. It doesn’t care so long as you’re making money.

Thus, we created two industries that reward people for bad behavior and set them loose on the world. In the various reality competitions, it’s the conniving, the snakes, the backstabbers and people of loose commitments that win. They are the ones who get the reward in the end. In social media it’s the loudest, most shocking who can get the clicks and attention. They are the ones who get the views in the end and the revenue.

What we’ve done is elevated celebrity as a virtue in and of itself, no matter how that celebrity is gained. We’ve created and enforced a culture where in order to get ahead, you have to be the most selfish, brutish person out there. We see this flow over into the work life where, people not content with the drama they see on TV or on their mobile devices, decide to create reality-style drama at work. Or in their friendships. Or in their relationships. Monkey see monkey do.

Another way to view it is a child throwing a tantrum. When a child can’t get their way they’ll often resort to bombastic behavior to draw attention to themselves. There’s no logic behind it, no rational, no grand strategy; they’re acting like a trapped animal and drawing attention to themselves. Sometimes, parents and guardians will acquiesce to the child out of desperation, which then teaches the child a valuable lesson; if I can get the attention on myself, good or bad, I can get my way.

Both reality television and social media influencers have created the perfect storm in our culture where we’ve monetized a bunch of children screaming and throwing a fit. This has created a culture where such behavior is acceptable – maybe not to the extremes that we see played out on the screen, but the selfish, “me first” attitude has absolutely taken over the American ethos.

Perhaps we’ve always had this ethos. I think there’s a case to be made that we have, but we’ve also understood social cohesion. After all, how else were the Democrats able to get a bunch of white Americans in the 1960s to vote for desegregation? I truly believe that the combination of reality television and social media stardom hypercharged the individualism already inherent within the American ethos. Behaving poorly might get you in trouble, but looking out for number one comes with rewards while being social conscious does not. And we’ve reinforced that in our society.

How many CEO’s have gotten away with outright theft and suffered no repercussions? We talk as though the election of Trump in 2024 is the beginning of the American oligarchic period, but it’s not. It’s the culmination of a decade of these oligarchs being formed because we have continued to reward bad behavior. And society went along with it because most people, at their core, are just as selfish as the most corrupt billionaires, they just lack the means to exercise that selfishness. And they are selfish because we as a culture have created the cult of the individual, worshipped in our reality shows and social media influences. We see no accountability for the powerful and so we adopt that in our own lives.

“Why should my tax dollars pay for x, y, and z when they don’t benefit me?”

“Why should my tax dollars help people in another country?”

“Why should my tax dollars help some single mother, she’s not my responsibility!”

And the list of “why should I” goes on. It goes down to an incredibly selfish and self-centered view of the world; that the world exists for me and my place in this world is to learn how to manipulate it to get the world to serve me. This is very much the worldview of the successful reality television show star or celebrity influencer. Want to become famous? Want to make it big? It’s simple – be willing to do anything to get what you want, but so long as you do everything for yourself and nothing for anyone else, you’ll make it.

This ethos is toxic for any society, much more for a democratic society. For any society to function there has to be social cohesion and trust. Despite what white nationalists might tell you, social cohesion and social trust form from a shared ethos and concern (ethnicity and language really don’t play into this), or put in more simpler terms, society works best when people operate on the principle of, “We have obligations to one another.” In any society there’s going to be give and take, the individual simply won’t be able to reign supreme every single time. At some point the concerns of the collective, of the whole, must be evaluated and even weighed against the concerns of the individual. However, when there’s a lack of social cohesion and trust, when people tend to look out for themselves primarily rather than the common good, the ability for social compromise is disrupted and society begins to crumble.

If I understand that I have obligations to other people, then I realize that I’m not the main character in every story. I’m certainly the main character in my story. It’ll always be that way, I can’t escape that just like no one else can. But acknowledging that everyone else is the main character in their stories opens me up to social compromise, opens me up to ensuring that the best deal is reached for all and not just myself. In short, knowing that I have obligations to other people makes me consider my actions within the greater social group.

The reality is the United States simply can’t become a social democracy or build up a social welfare network even under the best circumstances because our culture is built to be self-centered. And no society can last where everyone is looking out for themselves first. There must be a greater sense of who we are as individuals within the context of our society. But we’ve promoted an entire entertainment industry that revolves around being selfish and conniving.