Why I will never be invited to a party thrown by Lindsay, Brittney, Paris, or Snooky -

Last week I went to a teacher workshop about public speaking in the classroom.  Our presenter, Karen De Mauro (who was fantastic, by the way), who lives in NYC, commented that everyone in Utah was talking about how they never have enough time and never enough money.  One of the participants asked her what people talk about where she lives.

Before I say what her response was, let me skip to a lot of cable reality television shows from channels like MTV, VH1, and Bravo.  I've watched an episode here and there of some of these shows:  Real Housewives of (fill in major city here),  Keeping Up With the Kardashians, The Hills, Cut Off, America's Next Top Model (to some extent), and  Jersey Shores, among others.   These shows all seem to be the same, and I wonder why people care so much about Snookie (whoever she is), the Kardashians, or the various plasticized wives of the rich and obscure.  The plot lines involve the same elements - shallow conversations always, at least one loud fight with a lot of words bleeped out, fancy restaurants for lunch and/or dinner, going to parties and clubs, and a breakup OR the exchange of meaningful looks as one of the lead stars gets her feelings hurt and questions if she should break up with the receiver of the meaningful look.  Throw in fancy clothes, scripted conversations, and women gathered in front of the bathroom mirror putting on mascara, and you've got yourself an hour's worth of mindless fluff.  Again, why do so many viewers care, and more importantly, why do there seem to be so many of these shows?  These casts may have money, but they their relationships have no depth and are plagued with betrayal.  If they are educated, they do their very best to keep it a secret.  Do most people watch these shows for the same reason I've made it through a few episodes myself - because the lives of these "celebrities" are a train wreck? 

To answer these questions, I turn back to Ms. De Mauro, our New York actress/public speaking trainer.  What do people in the most populated city in this great nation talk about?  Fame.  Celebrity.  Fashion.  And how fashion is attached to celebrity.  How to achieve celebrity.  I have wondered what the draw to these reality television shows has been.  How they even got started, where they came from, and why viewers turn in religiously.  The answers aren't far from the beaches on either coast.  In fact, the reasons might be having a beach party  this very moment that we are all missing as I am writing this.  These shows are, in essence, a Cliff's Notes on how to live the party life, and the youth of America are taking notes.

So is life imitating art, or art imitating life?  There is a crisis in the American public education system, but these kinds of students are the material teachers are increasingly getting to work with.  I am reminded of the Scott Westerfield Uglies series about a futuristic society where, when the inhabitants turn 16, they can become beautiful by getting surgery.  Before then, they must live on the outside in compounds with other young people who are still "ugly", merely looking on from a distance at the parties and glamorous lifestyles of the Pretties, and anticipating the day when they no longer have to be ugly.  The catch?  Not only does the surgery make a person physically beautiful, but it also makes them stupid and easy to control.  Most of the kids don't realize or care what the trade off is because the party-filled life of no responsibility is so intoxicatingly appealing to them.  They have the choice, but if  they choose to remain "ugly," they are shunned from society altogether.  And who in their right mind would want to choose that?

In our reality-based society that is increasingly focused on looks, fame, money, lack-of-personal-disciplined-induced debt, fun culture, and school sports taking precedence over academics, is this where we are headed?   I hope not because I sure can't afford a boob-job, and the last party I was invited to was only so I could be a chaperon at a school dance  where I watched everyone else getting their groove on while I sat alone by the door.  I would be voted off the island after round one if the fullness of my social calendar was the factor in my standing in society!  How pathetic.  ;)