Bombshells and bikinis make up a captivating formula in the entertainment sector. It even made its way into Leadership’s back to school rally video where a Campolindo spin on Love Island was featured.
Over the years, it seems consumption of reality TV and binging culture has risen. TV binging and the consistent consumption of reality TV among the teen demographic have nothing to do with someone’s intelligence, character, or drive. Watching reality TV as an easy form of entertainment — whether as a way to destress and relax after hard work, or a way to procrastinate the hard work for an extra hour, seems at face value to be benign. This kind of easy, “brainless” entertainment indulged in occasionally isn’t inherently wrong or bad.
However, when it becomes a habit it’s important to ask ourselves if it’s one we want around. Junior Talia Rosenblat said she has seen many of the popular reality dating shows including Love Island, Too Hot To Handle and Perfect Match. She noticed “a lot more teens have been watching reality TV more often…my friends were watching this summer…You go online, it’s a massive thing all over Instagram. It’s just everywhere.”
Rosenblat described her time watching these shows as “a way to have this mindless release of energy…like just watching without thinking.” She referred to this as “not one of [her] best habits.” However, her main concern is for those watching who are younger than her because she doesn’t “want them to see these people [reality TV actors] as role models…It definitely impacts the world like the words they [reality TV actors] say become kind of like things everyone says.”
In a world of passive media consumption with Instagram reels, TikTok feeds, and endless streaming services, we often consume without intentionality. Yet, that intentionality is necessary because to different degrees—depending on the individual and how much they consume—our media choices, whether made actively or passively, shape the way we think. As Rosenblat pointed out, they shape our culture, our norms, our daily interactions with others – not completely, but enough to demand attention and reflection.
Many reality TV shows with premises based on relationships, sexual desire, and competition may at first seem hilarious because they’re so ridiculous, until we become desensitized and that ridiculousness has found a way to manifest into our own cultures.
Like Rosenblat, Senior Libby Wong has noticed “a lot of teenagers were watching [reality TV] over the summer and it was a bigger deal than it usually is…like there were these watch parties for Love Island because it was coming out every week.” This poses another interesting facet of the reality TV trend: the shows provide a medium for socialization and potentially a common starting ground for connection. However, it is a medium with potential collateral damage that isn’t always worth it and isn’t always considered. As Wong said, “people just like to watch drama and see relationship issues in a villa, in these romanticized places.”
Hearing conversations in hallways about who’s chopped, who’s hot, and who’s had a glow up or glow down, doesn’t often turn heads because it’s our normal. Those conversations aren’t unique to our 21st century highly technologically advanced high school experiences. Those conversations have been pervasive in high school halls for many decades. However, we still have to decide our boundaries.
This past summer many boundaries were crossed by Campolindo students who chose to create and send out a google form ranking girls in the junior class. It was incredibly offensive for both sexist and racist reasons. Now, our email passwords have all been reset and restrictions have been placed on who students can contact and who can contact students using AUHSD school emails. Additionally, this past spring there was also a google form circulating consisting of hurtful comments, making fun of, and ranking guys in the current junior class.
Hyper-sexualization and being more likely to judge someone based on appearance rather than character, seems to be a part of the teen climate. A lot of our media consumption, ranging from reality TV to videos about working out and dieting, can accentuate negative societal standards. Junior Drew Shogan said, “while Campo’s culture could surely be improved, so could almost every high school’s. Reality TV in particular shows off a fake world where everyone is not only perfect, but judged based on the way they look. It cannot get worse in terms of imbedding stereotypes into young people’s minds and forcing a ‘looks over everything else’ mindset.”
Maybe some would say hallway conversations and the colloquial forms of sexualization “aren’t that deep.” Maybe they are also easier and less vulnerable than considering the inner quality of a person. But easy for some, doesn’t mean there isn’t an impact for everyone involved.
Yes, insecurity is part of growing up. Yes, societal standards embedded in our culture will most likely always exist. Yet in spite of it all, the way we accept, don’t accept, and build our culture is based on a series of choices–ones we should aspire to make actively.
In the United States, in California, in the East Bay, in Lamorinda, at Campolindo, we have freedoms. We get to choose what kind of campus we want to learn and live on. We get to choose what our norms are, and they don’t have to be limited by what has existed before.
These freedoms especially apply to the majority demographic, and the demographic most supported in our country right now: students who are Caucasian and students who are male. Rather than being a burden, this application can be a responsibility met with grace and compassion. And for everyone, for every student, the ways we fill our free moments are opportunities. Whether that’s sitting and staring off into the distance, watching a show, reading a book, taking a nap, listening to music, our thoughts are precious. We should honor them; therefore when we have the control, we should consider what we allow to shape them.
