The Faux World

Remember when the very first Real World came out on MTV? It really was seven strangers picked to live in a house and we got to watch the fallout. They all had their own goals and aspirations and were pursuing their own separate identities. That is what made it such a compelling show. The first three seasons of the Real World were so groundbreaking. We saw people from all different walks of life come to together and try to get along. Unless your name was Puck and you liked to piss people off by sticking your booger encrusted hand into their jar of peanut butter. People fought because they knew who they were and what they believed in. There were dancers, actors, writers, artists, med students, political activists, Christians, and comics. They made us laugh and they made us cry. They changed the way that people of my generation thought and gave us a face for AIDS.

Now the show seems to be the same cookie cutter script from year to year. The only thing that changes is the venue. Gone are the days of 20-somethings making their way in the world. Here are the days of drunken frat boys and slutty sorority girls working at a job no one gives a shit about and getting drunk every night in the "hottest" club in town. These are the people that I avoid like the plague in my own town (and sadly enough they very recently completed a season in my town). Now they are glorified on television for every preteen to want to be. How sad is that? MTV went from being the voice of my generation, to the embarrassment of the next. Pathetic.