Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Many Facets of our Personality.

In an effort to set the tone for this blog, I thought I'd begin with a rather casual thought I had while trying to fall asleep the other night. I had just finished watching " The Soup" a show on the E channel that is mainly devoted to making fun of all the idiots on television, (particularly the idiots on popular reality shows) when I began wondering how accurately the characters/people on those shows are represented. I mean, they are subject to the mercy of the editors, right? And the editors job is to create a storyline (or a conflict) AND to create recognizable character types (archetypes). So then I begin to wonder, if I were the member of a cast in a reality show, which facets of my personality would end up getting the most air time? Obviously, I'm a multi-dimensional person, but the editors of the show aren't getting paid to portray me with any depth. They'd most likely choose a role for me and only use the material that was most in sync with that role. Suddenly, I was fearful of what role would be assigned to me. Would I be the token diva? (Doubtful) The bookworm? (Possibly) The prodigal daughter (Hmmm?) So my question is this: If you were a cast member of a reality show, how would your personality determine the role you would play? In other words, do you have an aspect of your personality that is dominant over all others? What is it? Do you think the role would be flattering?

5 comments:

  1. The fact is reality shows aren’t always based on our reality. I watch shows that have people play high school students, but they're really in their 20's and no one in high school looks like that nor always acts the way people do on tv. Fact is, if I were cast as a member of a reality show, I would be portrayed as the girl with a bad attitude. My attitude is very dominant and I know it’s not flattering. If I have an opinion about something I will state it, but most people don’t take well to someone being blunt. I don’t sugar coat anything, but I do stop myself when things just shouldn’t be said. I’m not just a girl with an attitude. I am nice, sweet, funny, and caring. People judge because I’m so protective of myself, so they never really see that side of me unless we're close friends. It’s sad, but true.

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  2. Sometimes reality shows are not the best way to get to know about a person. Watching this person seems as if they’re playing a role because you sometimes only get to see part of their personality. You could see a complete party animal, when actually this person is extremely smart and graduated top of their class in high school. If I were to be on a reality show, they would probably mostly see the mother role come out of me. Out of a group I would probably be the one making sure everyone gets home safe after a long night out on the town or even just a party. You would even see me assisting someone if they were sick. On the other hand, there are some things that people will never know about me because of the fact that only one trait of my personality was being focused on.

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  3. So this is weird to think about- taking an admirable quality about yourself that you are proud of and morphing it into a terrible stereotypical version that makes everyone- the whole nation for that matter- hate you. I think I would be portrayed as the artsy busy body on the show; always getting into people’s business and telling them how I can do it so much better. I like to make things look appealing to the eye- is it a crime? To the lavish world of Hollywood-of course it is. They would probably make me seem like an OCD crazy woman who creeped behind everyone and perfected each project they did. Kind of like a crazed Martha Stewart.

    So for now, I think I’ll stay off of reality television.

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  5. First off there’s barley any truth to reality shows in the first place. It’s all about entertainment and what would get more viewers watching. But it being a “reality” and all about entertainment people’s worst sides to them would be shown. Like the real world you always have the hot head that’s always getting into a fight, the slut who’s always going to be shown with a different boy/girl as well as the partier who always seem to look as if they belong in an AA meeting for their addiction to alcohol and who are always passed out or throwing up every ten seconds. So with me I would probably be portrayed as “the mean girl” and that’s putting it nicely. To people that don’t know me I naturally look that way as is and when I do get mad it’s never good. Although once people get to know me and I actually open up (which takes time) I’m really a fun loving out going random person. But reality shows today aren’t based on people’s good side like it used to be. Shows the Brady bunches aren’t going to make money. Today it’s cool to be a so called “bad ass” and personally I also find people like that very entertaining to watch as well.

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