"Mind Over Media"

FEEDING FRENZY
So, for those of you who are unaware, this past weekend, Charlotte hosted the CIAA tournament.  It brought numerous celebrities to the city to host parties and partake in other festivities.  Being that this is my first post on this blog, it must come with a caveat: I do not have anything against celebrities themselves.  They are a product of their environment, that being the media in which they appear to live.  In all actuality, they live in reality just like you and I.  They have real blood in their veins and they pay real taxes (and if not, they end up like Wesley.)  But I digress.  The issue at hand is the facade that we feed into.
On Friday night, I got together with some of my college friends and we went out for a night on the town, VIP tickets and all*.  My fraternity brother was sleeping at my apartment for the night so after we left (around 2 AM) we went down the street to the Marriott hotel that he and his parents were staying in so he could get his car.  As we were getting in the elevator, he said that one of the women from the Basketball Wives show was getting in the elevator across from us.  I'm not a fan of the show but my girlfriend is so I recognized her face.
The thing is, we were in the Marriott.  Not to belittle that hotel because I love it.  But the way these women act on the show, I would think a "regular person's hotel" would be beneath her.  I would expect to see her at the Ritz or at least the Westin based on how she acts.  But I actually was not surprised.  Most of these people on these shows do the shows because they don't have enough assets that they can liquidate to maintain the lifestyles that their friends/husbands/baby's fathers/sugar daddies have gotten them accustomed to.
The damage does not come from us watching these shows.  It comes from us believing in them.  Just because something has been branded as reality TV does not make it real.  One of my friends from college who was on a reality television show told me that out of the 60ish days that the shows are filmed, only the most exciting 13 hours are aired.  That is not even 10% of the time.  So why do we go into a frenzy over what we see on the shows, trying to keep up with the Kardashians?  And I'm not saying that everyone who watches these shows does that but most do.  And then we sit at school or work discussing someone else's life and flaws as opposed to bettering our own situations.  How backwards is that?  T.I. and Tiny aren't going to pay your bills.  Know that for a fact.  They're doing this show to pay their own.

Written By: Deryle A. Daniels Jr.
View Deryle's Personal Blog: http://d3in3d.blogspot.com/view/mosaic