Dr. Danielle Lindemann

as reality TV persona, as Real Housewives, because most of the conflicts now that they have are about things that happened because of the show, like happened at BravoCon or someone tweeted something about the show. And so that's been really fascinating to see as well.

So that's a good question, right? Again, it's a super messy construct. I would consider like YouTube and TikTok to be forms of reality TV. And there are people who study those genres specifically, but that's just an arbitrary guardrail. I consider those things to be reality TV as well.

So that's a good question, right? Again, it's a super messy construct. I would consider like YouTube and TikTok to be forms of reality TV. And there are people who study those genres specifically, but that's just an arbitrary guardrail. I consider those things to be reality TV as well.

So that's a good question, right? Again, it's a super messy construct. I would consider like YouTube and TikTok to be forms of reality TV. And there are people who study those genres specifically, but that's just an arbitrary guardrail. I consider those things to be reality TV as well.

Yeah, I mean, so there's literature on this, right? So again, there is that voyeurism, right, where we want to watch the train wreck to feel superior to the train wreck. There are a lot of different subgenres of reality TV and people might tune into different shows for a different reason. Like probably we're not watching Top Chef for the train wreck.

Yeah, I mean, so there's literature on this, right? So again, there is that voyeurism, right, where we want to watch the train wreck to feel superior to the train wreck. There are a lot of different subgenres of reality TV and people might tune into different shows for a different reason. Like probably we're not watching Top Chef for the train wreck.

Yeah, I mean, so there's literature on this, right? So again, there is that voyeurism, right, where we want to watch the train wreck to feel superior to the train wreck. There are a lot of different subgenres of reality TV and people might tune into different shows for a different reason. Like probably we're not watching Top Chef for the train wreck.

We might be watching it because we feel that it's educational in some ways. We're enjoying the conflicts that we're watching. And again, there is that paradox where at the same time that we're watching to feel smugly superior, we're also making connections with the people on the show, right? Saying like, oh, I'm more of a Bethany or I'm more of a Carol.

We might be watching it because we feel that it's educational in some ways. We're enjoying the conflicts that we're watching. And again, there is that paradox where at the same time that we're watching to feel smugly superior, we're also making connections with the people on the show, right? Saying like, oh, I'm more of a Bethany or I'm more of a Carol.

We might be watching it because we feel that it's educational in some ways. We're enjoying the conflicts that we're watching. And again, there is that paradox where at the same time that we're watching to feel smugly superior, we're also making connections with the people on the show, right? Saying like, oh, I'm more of a Bethany or I'm more of a Carol.

And we all kind of have one character that we can kind of grab onto, even if we don't support everything they do or we're unlike them in a lot of ways and say, you know, that's my character.

And we all kind of have one character that we can kind of grab onto, even if we don't support everything they do or we're unlike them in a lot of ways and say, you know, that's my character.

And we all kind of have one character that we can kind of grab onto, even if we don't support everything they do or we're unlike them in a lot of ways and say, you know, that's my character.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think part of the time is people trying to convince themselves that what they watch is not reality TV. It's almost like challenging. Well, I watch House Hunters. That's not reality TV. Is it? Is it? Because they want to feel superior to the people who watch reality TV.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think part of the time is people trying to convince themselves that what they watch is not reality TV. It's almost like challenging. Well, I watch House Hunters. That's not reality TV. Is it? Is it? Because they want to feel superior to the people who watch reality TV.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I think part of the time is people trying to convince themselves that what they watch is not reality TV. It's almost like challenging. Well, I watch House Hunters. That's not reality TV. Is it? Is it? Because they want to feel superior to the people who watch reality TV.

Is that true? That's what I've heard. Yeah. Yeah.

Is that true? That's what I've heard. Yeah. Yeah.

Is that true? That's what I've heard. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I guess the sociology answer is we are all playing ourselves all of the time. Right. We are like all performing for audiences of others. So, yeah, my criteria is not are they acting because that's I mean, how do you parse that? Right. Are they acting or are they not? But are they basically playing themselves? whether or not there's any scripting involved.