Reality television seems like a ghost from the early 2000s, but it never actually left. It just traded the television screen for your smartphone. We thought the era of watching strangers argue over who forgot to wash the dishes was behind us, but we were wrong. It just mutated into something far more persistent.
Television is officially the dinosaur of the media world. Back in 2010, nearly 90 percent of households paid for subscriptions. Today, that number sits around 50 percent. Nobody wants to pay to watch adverts when they can watch content creators for free on the internet.
Enter the new kings of unscripted chaos. Take Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast. He is essentially a game show host with over 430 million YouTube subscribers. He does not need a TV network because he has the entire internet. YouTube now takes up nearly 13 percent of all viewing time in the US.
Then we have the livestreaming world. Twitch has over 21 million active streamers. It is the ultimate form of being a voyeur. Celebrities and athletes are jumping on the trend, with their streams up by nearly 20 percent year on year. We used to watch people find love or lose weight in an hour. Now, we watch people play video games or eat dinner on Instagram for five minutes. It is strange, but we cannot seem to look away.
Even politics has caught the bug. Lawmakers now act like influencers, starting podcasts and posting fiery clips to grab attention. It is the political version of a reality show, complete with drama and over the top performances. One former world leader even treated his daily schedule like an episode of a television programme. It seems our politicians have fully embraced the Jersey Shore style of communication.
We are all living in a giant, never ending reality show now. You do not need to hunt for drama because your social media feed serves it up daily. We hope you enjoy the show, because there is no remote control to turn it off.
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Related topics: Entertainment
PS: is it me or is Jimmy really cute
