Interesting — though not exactly shocking — report from The Wrap which says that 11 reality show participants have committed suicide, and another two have tried.
As the report says, right up front, someone who voluntarily appears on a reality-TV show might have some issues. But I think there’s something to the idea that reality TV might be inherently sickening, on more than the obvious level:
Certainly, many of these people had pre-existing problems, which may have been why they were looking for such instant TV fame in the first place. But mental-health workers have discovered that many contestants on shows like “Survivor” and “Big Brother” – even those who win — suffer severe and often long-lasting psychological trauma.
Today’s story features the horror stories of the former participants. Tomorrow’s installment gets into the bigger issues.
Maybe, in the future, we’ll need to have public service messages: “Stay off the TV, kids. Sure, it looks like fun and games, but it might kill you.”
