During midterm season, our brains as students go into overdrive trying to make sure we do well on our exams. This leads to putting a lot of stress and pressure on ourselves in a short amount of time. No one can keep going on like that for a long period of time, which is why taking time to relax during the day by doing activities that require less brain power is essential. One of these activities is watching reality television shows. The escapism that comes from reality TV takes on many forms because there is so much variety in shows.
When my friends and I think about reality shows, we all tend to mention “The Bachelor”. However, one reality show about love that doesn’t get as much attention in the United States is “Love Island.” “Love Island” is about a group of young hot single people who live in a villa where they compete to make it to the finale of the show by trying to find a connection. The show tracks their journey across the episodes through couplings — where they decide who they want to be with — and public voting. “Love Island” also has different versions in different countries such as Australia and the U.S., although “Love Island” is most known for its United Kingdom version. What makes this show work is that it takes you on a vacation far away from midterms and endears you to the islanders as they laugh, cry and fall in love.
If reality shows about love are not your thing and you want to get the blood pumping, another option is a more active reality show such as “The Challenge” and “Survivor” (a classic). “The Challenge” is about a group of contestants who compete through daily challenges and eliminations to win a million dollars. This show came from “The Real World,” a ‘90s reality show about strangers living together in the same house. Some of the contestants from “The Real World” came onto “The Challenge,” which makes it all the more enticing because those players have known each other for years as they compete on more seasons of “The Challenge.” “The Challenge” will take your mind away from quizzing yourself and will make you cheer when someone wins a daily.
Though “The Challenge” has a lot of seasons to watch, one of the classics of competition reality shows is “Survivor.” “Survivor” has been around for more than 40 seasons with only one host, Jeff Probst. It straddles the line between physical challenges mixed with mental games, because the show is about outwitting your competition. If you are looking to always have a reality show at your disposal and don’t want to have to find a new one for a long time, then this one’s for you. Plus, with it being one of the classics of reality TV, it has a huge audience. So, when you finally come out of your midterm studying cave and go out to dinner with your friends, you have another topic to talk about to help you relax even more.
The first reality show that many of us ever heard about was “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” Being a celebrity is out of reach for many and so watching a show like The Kardashians is not about looking for relatability but about seeing into a mysterious world. This is a show where you don’t need to know anything about it or to learn anything to understand what is happening. The viewer is simply along for the ride. With The Kardashians being around for a long time in recent pop culture memory, it was only a matter of time until the next generation of celebrity shows came around. One of these shows is “The D’Amelio Show,” which is perhaps more relatable to a college student since both of the kids, Dixie and Charli D’Amelio – famous for originally being TikTokers – are closer to the age of a typical college student. “The D’Amelio Show” speaks to a younger generation that grew up in the shadow of social media. It takes viewers behind the scenes, while also perhaps unintentionally painting a damning portrait of how social media can harm a young adult. This is especially seen with the digital add-in of social media comments that range from supportive to cruel. However, “The D’Amelio Show” will still help you relax during midterms because the life this family leads is unusual.
Midterms require a lot of effort each and every time, no matter how familiar you are with a subject. Within that effort, we as students most also contend with the fact that we are not machines. Our minds need to be productive but not usually in only one way. Though watching a reality show may not seem productive in the ways that many of us have been told to be productive, it is still useful in this case by providing some self-care. And you don’t even have to go far to find a way to relax. It’s all just a matter of a couple clicks of a keyboard or a remote.