Has TV changed people's relationship expectations?

Has TV changed people's relationship expectations?

1. Those who grew up wathicng TV may sometimes feel closer to our favorite television characters than we do to our own family members

2. With the growing popularity of DVRs and video-on-demand services that let us pause, shift and rewing prime-time to suit our busy schedules, the time we spend in front of the tube continues to rise.

3. Media scholars have wondered and worried for decades about the effect televsion has on our emotional and intellectual development, debating wheter too much exposure makes us more violent, erodes our attenton spans or even diminishes our capacity to reason for ourselves.

   • Intellectually, we understand that television portrays a decidedly unrealistic version of life as we know it.

4. As Seen on TV

   • Watch even a few dramas or sitcoms, and a familiar patterns emerges: we the viewers become convinced that they are soul mates, and their story arc is what keeps us coming back week after week.

5. Do We Seek Out Shows That Validate Our beliefs?

   • Most of us like to think that we're samrt enough to understand the difference between TV and the reality. The good news is that we're mostly right: participants in more than one study have described television lve stories as "depicting and unrealisic view of relationships based on passion, adventure and exotic situations". But even as we recognize that many TV relationships are romanticized and idealized, we prefer the notion of passion and romance to the rational, "common sense" relationship that we condone in real life.
   • Researchers have even demonstrated a possible link between frequent TV viewing and unrealistic expectations about pay, workplace relationships and other working conditions. It seems that viewers who watch the most TV are nore likely to overestimate the kinds of salaries, perks and benefits that might be extended to a new hire, and underestimate the level of experience of education required for certain professional occupations.
   • One study explored the role of television in shapin viewrs' attitudes toward marriage and found that those who watched the most TV were more likely to have negative views toward marriage. the researchers hyphothesized that because viewers saw so few depictions of happy marriage on TV, they may have begun to question it as a way of life
   • Another study found that college students whi watched the most reality dating programs were more likely to express negative attitudes toward relationships
     • The bottom line? we may never know whether television in fact shapes our relationship expectations or whether we simply gravitate toward those progerams that reinforce our own fantasies about love, work, family and frienship.