• the217
• Life
• When Realtiy TV Goes Too Far

Related Media

When I was a kid, I used to work quite a bit. It wasn't all the time, like in those third-world countries, but I'd bale hay, or paint stuff, or whatever else was around that no adult cared to do. There was always a lesson I took away from this. It sort of sucks to work hard. You don't make much money, and you better keep your ass in school so you're not doing it from now on. These days, it still seems like quite a few kids are working. It's just that the lesson seems to be a little different. It's glamorous to work; you can make a ton of money and then quite possibly become emotionally unstable! Sweet! Good for them, I suppose. It's too bad that Kid Nation show wasn't around when I was growing up.

You know, it's that new TV show on CBS where they take 40 kids between the ages of eight and 15 and leave them to fend for themselves in the deserts of New Mexico with little or no adult supervision. They make their own rules, they set up their society, they cook, they organize, they clean . essentially they are expected to do things that quite a few adults have an extremely hard time doing. It's sort of like a user friendly Lord of the Flies that just sounds like a grand idea.

If history has taught us anything, it's that kids who become celebrities at an early age become the most charming damned adults you've ever seen. Who wouldn't want to share a meal with the cast of Different Strokes? Lindsay Lohan and Brittney Spears are just the kind of whorelets the future of our country needs. Quickly, let's create as many of them as we can. Those two Cory kids, they seem pretty functional. Danny Bonaduce? He's a sparkling example of all the good fame does people at an early age. Seriously, I could go on forever with successful examples like this.

Okay, so these kids might not get crazy famous from this particular show and they might not end up making much money off of it and many of them might turn out to be fine adults. Either way, I'm just not sure their parents should be pimping them out for such a project. Sure, it's an interesting social experiment. Yep, it is interesting to watch. And fine, I'm sure they were supervised enough that they were never really in any true danger, but geez Louise, they're a bunch of kids and they are being taken advantage of whether they notice it or not.

I didn't watch all of it when it was on, but you could tell some of the kids were really sort of freaking out. Hell, I know some adults that would be scared of such a dilemma. The worst thing I saw happen to a kid was a pulled muscle and I suppose that's understandable, but I'd be surprised if there weren't some worse things happening on the inside. They're away from their parents with a bunch of strangers and whether they show it or not, they're scared shitless. Fine, it may not be much worse than summer camp, but I was never a big fan of that sort of thing either.

It's not even just general trauma, but also competition. They compete for some sort of gold stars that I think are worth $20,000, so I guess it's sort of nice they have a chance to be very well paid for their future trauma. They also compete for kid things like candy and soda pop. Kids go batty for those sorts of things, so it's probably a good incentive to get them to act like Pavlov's dog. If the producers were smart, they'd also offer some therapy lessons somewhere down the road.

Look, I still think they should keep score in Little League games and I know kids are amazing, resilient and smart. It's just that they should be kids as long as they can. Maybe I'm just jealous because I would have been a terrible contestant on such a show. When I was around that age, all I did was play ball, watch TV, play video games, and masturbate. Actually . um, now that I think about it . well, I don't play ball all that much anymore. Anyway, I do remember learning a lot, book stuff and also general stuff. I was pretty good at the learning, but I'll be the first to say I wasn't ready to head out on my own at that time. I'm glad my parents didn't insist I attempt to become an adult before I was ready.

From what I can remember, it was really hard enough being a kid in a somewhat civilized society that wasn't ran by my peers. I was all uncomfortable most of the time, my mind raced; I could feel indestructible and fragile in one 10 second period. Eventually, I managed to become an adult, granted not a very good one, but an adult just the same. I barely made it, and that was without having a camera on me 24/7. I can't believe it would have turned out better for me if others were watching. We should probably let kids get through that part of their lives without all the voyeurism. There will be plenty of time to exploit them later.