To think that reality tv has had its day?

[AlternativePerspective]

This isn’t directly about Caroline Flack,but about the fact that her’s is just one in a long succession of contestants on a multitude of reality tv shows have ended up resorting to suicide.

While I don’t think it could necessarily be said that reality tv is responsible for people’s mental health, I think it is fairly evident that people with fragile MH are the people these shows attract, and as such it stands to reason that contestants who have appeared on these shows will b affected by both their appearances and the comments of outsiders.

And love island isn’t the first show. The Jeremy Kyle show was axed last year after a guest committed suicide,

Susan Boyle from BGT had a breakdown and had to spend time in a MH facility,

There have been three love island suicides.

Clearly while these shows are a bit of fun to those who watch them, we should be questioning the kinds of people these shows attract, and asking whether this is really an appropriate way to entertain the public, with people who clearly have MH struggles, many of whom will be pushed to the edge and beyond while the “fans” look on and express horror even though many of them will have been avid viewers.

I am old enough to remember when reality TV first started and lots of us thought it was a bad idea then. Bad because it took people who had no training or mental preparation for that level of public scrutiny and put them in a situation where what was being scrutinised was not (as with actors or musicians) the work they did, but their personalities. And where personalities were specifically chosen to stir.

But agree with others that Caroline Flack is a different case; she was to some extent a professional and clearly had quite significant problems not caused by the show.

Nowadays SM plays huge part. It is obviously going to be hurtful to read a lot of the comments on there. But they cant come off of it because of the money involved. Only yesterday I was reading an article that suggested the current lot of contestants on LI could all earn well over £1k for every advertisment/product placement on their Instagram accounts as so many people follow them. Which makes it very easy for them to make a lot of money very quicly, then come crashing back down when they become yesterdays news. If they dont have a good support network around them all of these things can be devastating.

I* think "fame" generally is not good for anyone's mental health because of the intrusive scrutiny it brings.
There are a lot of positives to privacy*

I agree with all of this, Pp are talking about social media where life is all about followers love hearts and thumbs up,young people inflating lips just to look good on insta and the inflated lips were done by #whoever, that isn't healthy yet it is thousands of peoples normal. Then you have the cess pit that is twitter where "people say it as it is" a monster has been created.

Completely agree with you and the previous poster MrsJayy.

I have never been on Twitter or Instagram and never will and don't feel for one moment that my life is lacking anything. Thank God.

Twitter totally depends on who you follow. I've been on for a few years now but as I mainly follow people who share my interests- which do not include pouting- it is a different world to that described above. To me and the kind of people whom I follow/who follow me it's not about acquiring maximum likes but about sharing tips and support and nice pictures.

tbh as far as I am concerned, twitter is a far kinder place than Mumsnet- and I have been on Mumsnet for over a decade and never flounced once.

Worldwide figure yes someone's already posted the link below! I wouldn't make it up 😀

The suicide rate is more like 1 in every 9,900 people therefore the suicide rate of love island is disproportionate. Considering the cohort that went onto Jeremy Kyle though I'm amazed that the rate stayed so low if anything, a lot of those people were already vulnerable due to abuse, trauma, mental health and addictions (not to mention airing their dirty laundry to the nation, which can't have been beneficial). But it is roughly what you'd expect statistically, so I'll trust the numbers there. I do think that a lot of fame seeking people are not the most stable to start with, there are people who are incredibly talented artists and performers, and I think they struggle to come to terms with their fame despite it being well earned. When somebody has quickly earned transient fame based on their youth their looks a reality show and the incredibly fickle popularity of the viewing public, it's not conducive to feeling stable and worthy. Its living on a knife edge. The most secure people would struggle, and that is not who these shows attract. I don't know what the answer is, but the majority of our television is reality in one way or another now. And people have and will always seek fame or commit suicide no matter what level of regulation. I just think it's very very sad.

I think humans as a whole are pretty delicate, and any lifestyle can cause stress to the extent of suicide. Famous or not, people have addiction, mental health issues etc. However, the press will go to town when someone famous is struggling as no one is quite as interested when it's Bob, a middle aged family man.

Maybe a certain type of reality show. If you look at Love Island and the type of values it promotes and then look at Flack and her life, you can see why they chose her to present it.

They are rubbish TV so I hope they do end, but I really doubt it if the media is anything to go by.

The scum tabloids and other media will hide behind 'In the public interest' whenever they hound people.

There's a big difference between 'In the public interest' and 'interesting to the public'.

One is for the good of the country, the other is merely gossip.

If several footballers, say, from a high-profile club go to an orgy on a big yacht in the med somewhere, it shouldn't be anybody's business but their own (and probably their wife/girlfriend). If, however, the orgy is attended by politicians and the yacht is owned by the corporate head of a large international arms company, then perhaps we do need to know.

I hope so cos they are shite. Who the fuck watches crap like this?

^^I totally agree with this sentiment!

The whole reality thing is now a very tired genre and it's getting boring for viewers - that's why the producers of these types of programmes keep ramping them up and introducing more controversial elements in an effort to retain viewers' interest.

It's time that the whole idea was consigned to the TV rubbish bin. These programmes are absolute garbage, so they would then be in their rightful place imo!

Fans of Nigel Kneale (Quatermass) will know the logical culmination of reality TV was predicted in "Year of the Sex Olympics".

So we've a bit further to sink yet.

You'd never be able to make that play again - suggesting pop has eaten itself ...

No disrespect to the 2 contestants that died, but weren't they shown to have combined cocaine and alcohol just prior to taking their lives? A pretty lethal combination? It's not just about the media, other choices come into it.

Hasn't the whole obsession with 'reality' and social media had its day? Who really cares what people eat? Who is thick enough to be 'influenced' by non-entities? How many posts here and elsewhere are about what's been said on social media?

Don’t watch any of it. I have better things to do with my time - and my brain.

They need to stop taking drugs as part of the celebrity lifestyle they covet - mental illness is no surprise when drugs and alcohol abuse are prevalent. They court the media , they make a choice for £‘s - I don’t remember anyone holding a gun to people’s heads forcing them to apply for shows

It's bloody awful. Ever since I watched my one and only episode of big brother I've been hoping this fad would end. Calling it "reality" TV is also a lie, it is all meticulously controlled to sensationalise and titillate at the expense of individuals who are too naïve to realise they are being manipulated half the time.

Famous people are different. I see it as playing with fire and it always has been. Mozart was a celebrity, spent himself into poverty trying to "keep up", suffer with depression and died a tragic death. None of this is new.

Im upset they've got rid of take me out though. Does that count? That had heart. Especailly after reading this

thetab.com/uk/2020/02/12/take-me-out-success-stories-143527