Just another typical standard?

Jon and Kate plus 8, a huge new hit on TLC, is now fading into the background of old television shows. It seems to be a huge item when you have a large or interesting family and you publicize it for the whole nation to view. Although, no one predicted anyone’s family to completely fall apart and split up because of the publicity and the up roaring news and commentary of their family. Reality is reality and what you do in the world reflects how others look at you and form their opinions about you.

Reality shows on television have become a huge occurrence to see. A variety of types of families have become America’s future and role model to all viewers. I believe when many families apply to have their lives be taped almost every second and aired on television for the whole world to see, it becomes a factor of money and publicity. These families hold high hopes to climbing the financial ladder and living a life of luxury. Although seeing families with multiple children and different ways of living is interesting, but showing the world every aspect of how you live is not very smart in a sense of, it is your privacy and not for the rest of the world to get involved in. This is exactly how the Gosselin family got exposed and torn apart. They never knew that getting into this television world would soon split them up and put stress on their children at such a young age in life.

In reality television shows, families live how they normally do or how they say they normally do. But in all honesty, people change their daily lives to accommodate how they are viewed on television. So when people watch these airings we see the families how they want us to see them, not how they always really are. This is the biggest misconception on families who have shows. The Gosselins weren’t always at right standings with their financial needs and when the public was aware of this they intervened and changed their family according to how they wanted to live and what they needed. The money suddenly came to them as each show aired and became bigger hits than like the Cosby Show. As their lives became “better,” the real sides of each person came out and stung each other in the butts as a huge wake up call. When we first saw the Gosselin family, we thought of a sweet family that loved how they lived with their eight children. But the money and the publicity came as a shock and a new introduction to the whole nation. Kate, who was the very organized and the “I am a stay at home mom but I love doing everything,” type of person; is now the mom who had money take over her life style with getting her toes and hair done to designer clothes and items to control her life. She is no longer happy and hates being away from her children. http://www.myfoxnepa.com/dpp/entertainment/dpgo_092409_kate_Gosselin_breakdown_post_3678138. And Jon the man who works and runs everywhere has recently became the man who honestly doesn’t love the same women but every other woman he meets. http://watching-tv.ew.com/2009/09/08/jon-gosselin-family-secrets-kate/. The publicity exposed the real person of how each of them was when the perks of life were just handed to them. The couple who everyone wanted to be like and looked up to with high expectations is now another statistic of a typical divorce story.

The family was only a typical family with usual problems and stress form the real world until the harms of television bit them and turned their lives around for the bad. Reality shows corrupt families and their ways of life when handed them an opportunity without weighing the negatives into the picture. It wasn’t something they could have predicted but it was something they could have prevented. If only they didn’t have the whole nation watching their every move.

Britni Armstrong