A Difficulty with "Reality"

...TV that is... or social networking... or blogs...

In real reality, there are rules of etiquette that govern daily life. But in reality TV, those rules are thrown out.

In real life, when something "private" goes on, it stays private. A difficulty with this comes when something tragic, but private, happens, such as a miscarriage or finding out about an infidelity in the family.

When something like this happens, people often don't know about it and say something that seems rude, but they had no way of knowing.

Of course, on the other side of things is the attitude that seems all-too-common in blogs, on Facebook, and on reality TV.

What should have been private becomes public. This Jerry Springer method of dealing with private matters has simply caused gossip to go "big screen." And at least Jerry Springer had his "guests" (if you can call them that) confront one another.

Reality TV seems to always come with a camera on a participant, ready to record their private thoughts. Instead of filtering those thoughts through a trusted friend or confidant, the participant is encouraged to "unload" - often the most unpleasant things about other participants.

If you know me, you probably already knew that so-called "reality" TV is one of my frequent targets, but I'm not just picking on the wannabe-pseudo-celebrity in this post. As I point a finger their way, the other three fingers point back at us, the bloggers.

Would we say what we say about someone if we were saying it to their face instead of posting it (often pseudo-anonymously)?