The average American spends 4-5 hours every day plopped in front of the television. This averages out to about 34 hours of television per week.

What are Americans watching for 34 hours each week?

Reality television has been one of the most popular genres among television users since it really began to take off in the year 2000. Seemingly extraordinary peoples’ privacy is infiltrated in order to get an exclusive look at their every move in their apparently fascinating lives. It seems like every year a new reality television show is introduced. And every year, it seems like the people featured on these shows get stupider and more immature.

Reality television reached an all-time low for it is now lowering the standards of entertainment in Americans.

“It’s people doing stupid things just to get on television,” commented Jayne Hughes, an eleventh grader at North Penn.

Honey Boo Boo and her self-proclaimed “redneck” family have taken the reality TV world by storm on their hit television series Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. The family has drawn an audience in to their little home in Georgia not because of their interesting lives, but rather their immature and idiotic behavior.

This eccentric, southern family is known for their lack of manners and wacky antics. One episode featured them failing an etiquette class, while another highlighted their favorite game, “Guess Whose Breath.”

Is this really entertaining to Americans?

Dance Moms is another hit reality TV show that portrays the struggles between five young dancers, their mothers, and their belittling dance instructor, Abby Lee Miller. Back in 2011, the show featured the kids’ dancing, but today in 2014 it focuses on the numerous brawls that go down between Miller and the moms about ridiculous topics.

Abby Lee Miller is portrayed as the mother of all bullies from week to week. The show is like a broken record featuring the same plotline over and over again; Miller criticizes one of the children, the child gets upset, and the mother retaliates.

“From an artistic aspect, [reality television] makes it seem like America is surely running out of creativity,” said North Penn junior, Elizabeth Jebran, who also said that these shows seem nothing but trashy to her.

One may blame the staff behind the production of the show for the decline in entertainment value on TV because they have allowed this nonsense to be aired on television. However, the finger should not be pointed at the production crew, but rather at the viewers. Americans have allowed themselves to become mindless because they are entertained by anything that is put on the screen in front of them.

Reality television has reached a point where Americans are taking the behavior they see on the shows way too seriously. It is “monkey see, monkey do” as viewers are imitating the behaviors and lifestyles of the people whom they watch constantly. The behavior on these shows is not in any way positive or smart; therefore, it is having a damaging effect throughout society.

If this decision to watch reality television isn’t changed soon, Americans could be facing a much larger issue than just a simple decrease in entertainment value, for they could be looking at an American society when we no longer understand what “reality” actually is.