It is 8 p.m. on a Tuesday night and a recap of last week’s Dance Moms episode is playing on the TV. A flurry of images showing screaming middle aged women and crying children stare back at loyal viewers, eager for their weekly dose of meaningless drama.

People love reality TV, be it for its humorous nature or its magnetic scenes of scandal. Recently this form of entertainment has seen a surge in viewership with the emergence of new shows such as Love Island and Too Hot to Handle. Something about seeing people do dumb things and act in irrational ways has people obsessed. But this obsession brings along negative consequences to its stars and viewers alike.

The unfavorable behaviors and actions displayed by the stars of these shows can make their way into our own daily actions.

According to psychologist Bryan Gibson in a 2014 article for NPR, “Watching reality shows with lots of what’s called relational aggression can make people more aggressive in their real lives.”

Relational aggressions include but are not limited to bullying, manipulation, and betrayal. When we repeatedly observe these actions on our big screens, we unconsciously adopt them into our own behaviors. The obsession with watching reality TV not only has a hold on how we treat others, but also on our time.

“When I was in middle school I was really obsessed with Dance Moms,” junior Kate Ortiz said. “I would watch it while doing homework which distracted me every second.”

Instead of writing that paper we have due tomorrow, we diligently observe when Kim announces she is divorcing Kanye or when the Bachelor is about to make his final pick from an anything but realistic array of pretty girls.

Many of the reality TV programs centered around dating and relationships lack diversity, especially in body types. This fuels young viewers’ anxiety about their own appearance.

According to a 2019 article for The Guardian, “There have been calls for Love Island to feature more plus sized participants to properly reflect society, as scrutiny grows of the effect reality TV has on contestants and viewers.”

When young people only see conventionally attractive participants in shows that are supposed to reflect “reality”, they begin to question their own worth as they fail to meet those unrealistic standards.

Some people may choose to overlook these negative consequences of reality TV to focus on how watching bad behavior may help them better themselves, or how these programs offer jobs to many people, but the positives of reality TV are not enough to ignore its substantial amount of negative effects. It’s time to really examine how far we are willing to risk our own sanity for those few hours of amusement.