Dr. Drew on the pitfalls of TV shows like Survivor: Spare us from this “reality”
I’ve not watched any of the reality shows but I’ve read plenty about them, especially criticism. But this is the first piece I’ve read that points out that these shows succeed in part because of the prevalence of a lack of emotional attachment and empathy in our culture… and that they may help to make things worse.
I wonder how much my sons find these shows attractive. And I wonder how empathetic they are as young men. I think they’re probably more empathetic than I was at their age, but I sort of have this uneasy feeling that I’ve come up way short in the way of modeling empathy for others as they were growing up.
If only Hollywood would out itself
“Right now, there’s a teenager somewhere in this country standing in his parents’ basement holding a homemade noose. He has tied it to one of the rafters, and he’s working up the courage to hang himself. Somewhere else, maybe a mile away, maybe 1,000 miles away, another kid is sitting in a closed garage in the driver’s seat of her parents’ SUV with the windows down and the engine running. Waiting to die.”
I never thought about it, but I other than Ellen DeGeneres, I can’t name any current, big name movie stars or sports stars who are gay or lesbian. If one of my kids were gay or lesbian, I would think it would help them a lot if it was more culturally acceptable for celebrities to be out of the closet.