My husband and I like to do many things in our spare time. During the summer months we spend very little time in the house. We live on a lake so we like to go fishing and swimming in the evenings and also spend time tending the gardens and working on our yard. We even eat outdoors when the weather permits. During these long summer evenings we rarely turn on the television set except to listen to the news in the evenings before bed.

During the long cold winter we spend more time indoors. We found that there are not very many television shows that we enjoy watching. It seems like the majority of the networks have gone with reality TV shows. These were interesting to watch when they first began, but now that they have become more common place it seems that the contestants are becoming more outlandish. When reality TV shows began there were more run of the mill people that were represented on them. They were average people like those that live in our neighborhoods. Today the contestants seem to be strange and over the top. I suppose that this type of contestant makes for higher ratings for the reality TV shows, but it is a sad commentary on our society. The contestants seem like they are only concerned about having their few minutes of fame, rather than competing fairly.

When the concept of pitting people against each other for money first started it seemed like this would be interesting to watch, but now the reality TV shows are geared more towards people plotting behind each others backs and using psychology to undermine other players. We decided that we would get cable television to give us additional choices to watch in the evenings. We have discovered that several of the cable networks either air old episodes from the networks or they have their own forms of reality TV shows. Some of the shows are so far fetched and ridiculous that they are geared more towards tearing down the human experience rather than building it up. We were discussing this with friends over dinner a few evenings ago. We all agreed that if the average person would behave in the way that the contestants do, they would be shunned by most of their neighbors. I suppose there is a certain amount of entertainment value in watching people embarrass themselves for money, but it does not teach any values to children or adults. It would be entertaining to me to bring back some of the family shows that have a message about life and living it in the best way possible. The networks however have discovered that they can fill hours of air time with contestants rather than having to pay actors to star in a role.