I believe Reality TV corrupts our society; it’s poison to our youth with examples of bad behavior, promiscuity, low morals, rudeness and sin. These shows should be taken off the air, these people get paid millions to corrupt the minds of our children. What are your thoughts?
I think stopping at Reality TV would be a brooooadddd oversight. LOL.
Speaking of corrupting the minds of children, have you watched the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, or ABC “Family” lately?
If I had children, they would hate me. I thought my parents were conservative? I can’t imagine letting my kids watch most any TV shows these days, listen to any pop radio stations, wear half of the clothes they sell for kids now.
What really kills me is that apparently most people don’t see the parallels between modern America and the Roman Empire. This kind of culture is destined to self-destruct. “Those who don’t learn from history…” Eghhhh!
Sorry to disagree, but I don’t see a lot of promiscuity and sin on “Deadliest Catch”, “Cake Boss”, or “Dance Moms”. Maybe you need to stop watching the Kardashians and Jersey Shore?
The man has a point. I’ll give you those 3. But, still, the trash is rampant!
I have a more radical solution I doubt most of you could handle (especially the abundance of youth that seems to inhabit this site):
Don’t take this or that show or program off TV.
Take the TV out of your house. Bye bye!
It really can be done. “Oh, but how will I stay informed?”
I am extremely well-informed: I read.
I haven’t had a TV in 30 years.
As an experiment, just to discover what you will do with all those wonderful liberated hours, try unplugging yours for one month. Maybe for Lent?
It’s an old argument that never seems to get fully answered:
Does television simply mimic society and provide what viewers want or does it shape it? Or both?
As usual, I blame the viewers for tolerating and watching garbage, leading to even more immoral material being developed. It’s all about your free will, a concept that makes many modern Christians uncomfortable because it requires a judgment about good and evil.
Life without reality tv is akin to life without roaches in one’s pyjamas. I can do without it.
I think I love EWTN too much. 
I would say that accounts for 95 percent of my TV viewing.
For the record, I’m 26 and went several years in my late teens/early 20s without a TV (quite happily I might add!)
Still, ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away. Even if we take the TVs out of our houses, there are still millions of impressionable, unsupervised children channel surfing through this moral wasteland. It’s scary. Things are bad enough. What will our country look like in another 10, 20 years?
Our culture in the U.S. seems to have gone off the rails. Every entertainment outlet, year after year, decade after decade, trying to push the envelope for cheap ratings. As a result, the swamp just keeps rising. We are losing our God-given dignity, which is rippling throughout society in such destructive ways. People are out for themselves, for fame and money and their bodies, and our kids are growing up lost and directionless. I’m sure I sound like an old coot, but I’m only 40. Yet the older I get, the more I can’t stand this increasingly degenerate culture. If we give up our dignity, we’ve handing ourselves over to the evil one on a silver platter.
Reality TV-- notwithstanding the examples above (Deadliest Catch, etc.)-- does seem like the epicenter at present time. We need more Godly courage. Who are the folks that can start draining this swap? I’m not talking about censorship at all, as I believe in liberty. But we need a movement in this country to unplug this trash.
Alrighty, rant over! :mad: :eek:
Paid to corrupt the minds of children? That seems a bit far, but I get what your saying. There are some reality shows that are entertaining. How else would I know how to practice my howl to attract big foot? 
But the really trashy ones well that’s where parents come in. Simply not a lot of parents care about what their children watch. Which is unfortunate.
Some reality shows are quite nice, and show good family values. The reality is that every family has issues, and everyone is a sinner.
I wonder if the Dance Moms you are speaking about, is perhaps the one I’ve seen a few times? Here in Canada, it comes on a station provided by Rogers, called Slice. I’ve only seen it a handful of times, maybe less, because Slice isn’t a channel I normally watch.
But if there’s a lady named Abby (I think that’s her name in it) that’s the dance instructor - I often question why I bothered to watch any of it after I had seen it. Some of the behavior!! I could not imagine having such a lady as an instructor for my daughter.
hehe not to derail a thread. I was just curious if maybe it was the same show. Sorry 
I do think there are a “few” good reality shows. The extreme couponing one is kind of neat. A lot of those folks use their shopping/coupon savvy to help churches, the needy, etc. By and large though, they are junk. Honestly, if I were an Italian American from New Jersey I’d be outraged at how my demographic was being portrayed by MTV.
Does Dragon’s Den (or US copycat, Shark Tank) qualify as reality TV? Its a pretty good show and inspires people to work hard for a good idea in business.
A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small Ontario town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.
As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger…he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries and comedies.
If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn’t seem to mind.
Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)
Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home… Not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush. My Dad didn’t permit the liberal use of alcohol… But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular Basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished.
He talked freely (much too freely!) about men and women. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.
I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked… And NEVER asked to leave.
More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents’ den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.
His name?.. … .
We just call him ‘TV.’
Yes, sadly, that is it. I was cruising through the channels and stopped becasue we have a number of friends with kids who do dance. I am not sure how much of Abby is for the camera but I get the feeling it would be the same if there were no TV crews there. I can’t imagine tolerating that no matter how many competitions you win but it’s like a car wreck - you don’t want to look but you can’t turn away.
P.S. - I would rather though my daughters watch that rather than “Say Yes To The Dress” because there is no way I am paying $5000 for a wedding dress! Oh, wait, can’t talk more, “Sons Of Guns” is coming on…
:amen: This is a very funny analogy. Thx.
No TV for 25 years. Keep up with the news in other ways. Sirius Radio is permanently on EWTN. Kids (4 of them teenagers) are growing up TV-less, and seem pretty normal and enjoy their family, learning about apologetics, and love to debate.
My daughter is in dance, and wishes and wishes she were older and could do Pointe ballet thanks to seeing the Nutcracker. But if her instructors were anything like Abby … oh me oh my!
Oh yes there is worse than Abby and all the antics that come up in that half hour (or is it an hour?) They could be watching Jersey Shore like some have mentioned in previous comments. I think I’ve seen it … I want to say … 6 times. But it might now have been that many and it’s NEVER been the entire show. I just cannot watch it. Yet I have friends and relatives that watch it. I can’t see what is watch able about it.
With my daughter being 4, we watch mostly Disney Jr. Or the a few shows on Canadas Treehouse. But other than that, it’s movies for us. Veggietales, older Disney movies, etc.
I do hope to be able to guide her in what she watches and for how long for the next little while. Especially once she gets into school and might hear of some “really cool” shows to watch that I won’t let pass. hehe I often wonder about letting her watch Bugs Bunny:blush:
I enjoy reality tv programs, and I don’t like people who look down on others who enjoy this stuff. Who cares? If you don’t like it, don’t spoil “Survivor” for those of us that do.
Click the button marked “off” on your TV set.
Turn off the television. Read books with your kids. Play board games. Have a family art/science project night. Work with your kids to plan one weekend outing a month. Teach your kids to cook/sew/work on cars/fix the computer/maintain the fish tank. Volunteer with them. Take them to daily Mass.
Pretty soon you and your kids will be so busy being a family that you’ll forget reality television even exists.
Luna