"Reality television" and reality

I'm watching Kid Nation.

I cannot get over how spoiled Taylor is. Week after week, her attitude gets worse and worse. I googled Taylor, Kid Nation, and parents, and I see many share the same sentiment--how did her parents raise such a spoiled child? How can they live with her? with themselves? But I think even more disturbing is what must be happening every time it airs. How could she allow herself to behave this way on national television? Didn't she realize that her behavior in that artificial town would have repercussions in the real world? I can't help wonder what her schoolmates think of her or how they behave towards her.

Kid Nation was advertised as a reality show where children, unhampered by adult interference, would build a new society, a grand social experiment. The very structure of the show negates that--adult producers and cameramen follow them around, and they do not choose what to do to create their better society, but do whatever the artificial journal tells them to do, living in artificially color-coded groups, led by an appointed town council (which changes hands when the visiting adult or the journal tells them to have elections) and participating in artificial showdowns. Winning groups are put into different set jobs and their salaries, too, are predetermined. Rewards--when the entire town reaches a specific goal during a showdown--are choices which pit "what's good for you" against "short-lived fun." In short, they have "prompts" for their actions or for each espisode's "theme." I see very little initiative or original thought on the part of the kids.

This week, the council chose the fun reward, and the kids became video gaming addicts, ignoring their job responsibilities (hmmm, that could be like the real world). Taylor, deprived of access to the arcade, due to her prior decision not to pull her share of the work, actually makes up for it, by doing an enormous pile of dishes (in very dirty water).

Anyway, I enjoy the show. Kids can say the darndest things. And it's not that I need this unscripted "reality" show to have anything to do with reality. But all I can think of every time I watch is--what was Taylor thinking when she behaved so horribly? How forgetful or unintelligent she must be. After all, this would be aired on national television after she had left "Bonanza City" and returned to her home and to her school. What must she and her family be going through every time another episode is aired?! (Do the kids at school pick on her? Do the neighbors gossip? Do the relatives now hang their heads?)

I was once at a Sinead O'Connor concert and a girl in the audience had a foul word shaved into her nearly bald head--and all I could think of back then was--how can you visit your grandmother or have a job interview looking like that??

The only lesson I can draw here is similar to the one parents used to say about wearing clean underwear (that is, do it in case you're in an accident and a doctor sees). The lesson is always behave as if you're on tv and the world can scrutinize you! (And in this day and age, the same goes for what you post online--potential employers, spouses, in-laws may see it, you know!