Experiencing Pictures that are not in my Head

My primetime viewing experience (since I normally do not sit down and watch TV for 3 hours) involved, of course, Grey’s Anatomy. The shows which surround it are Ugly Betty and October Road. These shows are all very current – the characters are portrayed in settings that look as if I could be there with them. Although I am not familiar with the layout of a hospital, the doctors are showed relaxing at a bar, or cooking in their kitchen. I know about these places, I can almost relate! Ugly Betty, to me, is not as relatable. Although Betty is appealing to a wider audience of viewers than say, the desperate housewives, I cannot relate to her lifestyle. However, it is cute to watch and think of what it would be like to be hip in the fashion realm and wear cool clothes. I mean, I can still daydream. October Road…well I don’t particularly care for this show, so I didn’t spend that much time watching it. It seems a little too hokey and drawn out for me. Although the setting is a middle-class neighborhood – it does not show a lifestyle that is too far out of reach for many people.

Although the shows I watched have characters that I can relate to and take place in towns that I can envision, I do not think I can relate to all the events they experience. Of course primetime television is extremely dramatized; this is the part that does not fit with my life. The plot line of Grey’s Anatomy is very involved. If one of my roommates misses a week or two, I usually spend more time catching them up then I would telling them how my day was. I just do not have as much drama in my life. I also get to be in on the major surgeries that occur. In real life, there is no way I would be near an operating table when someone is coming off of bypass. (Now I really know what that means, I didn’t before Grey’s)

Certainly this creates a sense of hyper reality. This hyper reality is even stronger when I watch the show with my roommates because we get into it, talk about it during the commercials, decide which characters we like and which ones are acting like jerks. We make judgments on people and pull for other characters. It is like real life sometimes! When I student-taught I saw how large this hyper reality can become. On Friday morning, many of the teachers and aides would gather and talk about the episode of Grey’s that was aired the night before – just like it was real!

There is a factor of hyper reality, but I do not feel as if the shows I watched are creating pictures in my head that are totally bogus and monitored by gatekeepers. If I stayed interested enough in TV to watch the 11 o’clock news I am sure that I would feel differently.

I would like to comment on Joshua’s article. I like what he says. Being involved in school and in the lives of young children has really opened my eyes to what children learn from TV. In one school the things they learned were not positive. These children loved to watch MTV and they certainly learned more about Beyonce and Shakira than I could ever teach them. Because they were unmonitored at home, they had free choice over what to watch. Giving fourth graders this choice will not always lead to a positive television pick. It will lead them to a hyper reality which will then influence them to try and dress a certain way, say certain things or treat people differently.