Big Brother - questionable entertainment
I have a problem with this show, I have twin daughters at age 10, and all of their friends are watching it.
At least that's what they say ;)
Last month started a new season on Croatian television, I think it is already the tenth edition, and yes, I admit that I watched the first season because was something new, I was curious about the format and what is all about. At that time I was still working on television as a journalist and many of my colleagues worked on the project as cameramen, directors and all kind of production jobs.
I made myself "aliby" why it is good to watch it :)analysis of the psychological profile of the candidates, how they behave locked 3 months indoors and stuff like that.
Since I found "good reasons" I watched the whole season and I admit it made me somehow addicted to the series. In this first season, even the candidates were somewhat decent and normal.
Each of the following season candidates was more decadent, weirder, more problematic and troubled.
Included sex, arguing and swearing all the time, and it was too much for me!
Please do not think I'm a Puritan or backward, I simply did not find the reason why I should lose my precious time on such stupidity.
Ok, let's get back to the present time, I am now a parent of the underage children for which I want to become good and happy people when they grow up.
I am not a supporter of methods forbidding, denying, and being strict in the upbringing of children but I also think that such shows are not for them, that does not contribute to their healthy growth, that they do not teach any life values in short nothing good out of this.
As a parent, I do not want to be overprotective towards them and I am aware of that they will be faced with various situations in their life. My role here is to teach them to think for themselves.
But, in this case, I think I still have to forbid them watching such a show.
I would appreciate hearing your thoughts about how to behave in this situation, what I should do? and how would you react if you're in my shoes?
Thank you for reading.
Let me tell you a little about entertainment and how such a show is guaranteed to catch on to the public.
Many candidates are screened and are analyzed by professional psychologists. The people are specifically chosen to NOT form a healthy community, and very independent and self centered people are chosen based on a recipe the franchise has. This franchise costs a lot, just because of this success recipe. The ability to make drama. If in the first week any participant wants to put on a nice mask, after a few weeks, the lack of group cohesion and lack of structure makes the whole group degenerate.
Education is another element of the show, since it would be interesting to see what the target audience is. I can already tell you that it is not the educated 18-34.
I would try to explain and motivate my findings to them. I don't have kids yet so I don't know if that is the thing to do but I wouldn't ban them from anything. The phrase "Television makes you dumb" can also be used in conjunction with an explanation that the things you see on TV must polish something in your own character or it is useless. They don't learn about behavior there, no neurons are being fired while watching the show, its just cheap entertainment.
I would appeal to their common sense and logic. Since it is a form of social event, they might feel conditioned or even have the fear of being excluded from talks at school if they don't see it. This must be countered with a well thought plan in advance.
How to actively raise your children as independent and non conforming to bad behavior around them is an essential lesson in their life.
Maybe I don't have the enough cohesion, I am after a hard day of work :)
This doesn't mean that you and I can't enjoy it (especially the early parts when you give them the benefit of the doubt).
It just means that we (the viewers) are the product in a franchise made to attract masses of people to present them commercials :D
Cheers!
I hope I made some sense!
Woow what a comment :) Thank you!
Yes, you made sense :) and you pointed out few more angels to my story.
there is nothing to add, it is a just great addition to the post and I am grateful for that!
Thanx once again.
I will post more on it. I just had to leave home from work and had a limited amount of time but I wanted to share it. More people need to understand these things and it's why I am here on steemit.
While I know some things, I like to read about others I do not. In the end we all get smarter :P
Thanks for sharing story with me. I also agree with you. Our role as a parent to a child, only teaches and directs our child to positive things. If they were children, maybe we should protect and teach them how to distinguish what is right or good and what is wrong or bad. But when they are teenagers, our role as parents is to just direct them and watch them from afar, so they do not feel watched. Let them make us as friends so that we can know all the problems they face in socializing with others.
Yes, the people never say to me how hard is to be a parent, sometimes I feel so unprepared for all challenges:)
Thank you for your great reply.
I'm a father of 2 unschooled, unvaccinated, freerange girls ages 7 and 5. I do not believe in restriction or censorship all that much. However, my wife and I do not watch TV at all. Sure we like a lot of shows that are available on the internet; there are no commercials and we almost never make time to watch them. So our kids aren't really exposed to much of the mainstream. They don't even know most products or the names of celebrities. And when it comes to music, I've been an underground DJ for over 30 years so they are only exposed to quality electronic, hip hop or rock music, very rarely garbage pop or rap. Don't worry about people judging you. Your children are precious and deserve not to have their minds filled with shit. Thanks for a good post. Keep it up.
Looks like you're a caring parent, which dedicates your attention to your children. We as parents should only guide and support them all the way. I'm sure one day your children will grow into beautiful and quality people, I can just say - Thank you for that. Cheers and thank you for your comment!
Yeah, if adults want to watch this fine, it is their choice, but I am definitely AGAINST this being showed to children, especially as young as your sweet girls are. They are not ready for something like this.
Thank you for sharing your opinion, sometimes I feel that I am doing it as a parent all wrong, sometimes I am proud of myself. All I know I try to do my best to help them grow up as healthy adults one day:)
Completely agree. Do they show Big Brother in the evening only, like after the kids' bedtimes? I also used to watch BB in the states, but quit after a few seasons. It just got gross and not something that I wanted to be putting in my mind. It was on 3-4 nights a week in the evening. I don't think it is a bad thing to tell kids that something is not good for them to watch or participate in. Kids would sit and play video games and eat tons of candy (only) and drink cokes all day long if we let them, but since we are the parent and know that stuff is bad for them, we have to guide them. Our children are not introduced to shows like this or poor language. We, as parents, try to do the best that we can with what we have with our kids.
Parenthood is sometimes so difficult ;) we always try to do best for our children but we meet with
a lot of doubts and challenges every day :)
And to answer your question, the show is at evening but we have the possibility to play back everything that was on tv 72 h, so they can watch it whenever they want.
Thank you for your comment, agree 100 % with you on every word:)
I think we are all voyeuristic. Maybe it is more fun to watch others mistakes than solve our own.