Reality shows are taking over TV.

Shows like American Idol, America’s Next Top Model, Jersey Shore, and The Bad Girls Club are just a few of the top reality shows that Americans frequently watch.

But what do people really get from watching these kinds of shows? Is it the idea that they can fulfill their dreams? Is it something to laugh at? Or is it something they can relate to?

The genre “reality show” is, in reality, misleading. In the real world, people do not go to a show, sing a little, get signed and become famous. They work their way up to the music industry until they get their big break. You are not judged by has-been artists and producers, nor do you sing every type of genre to win challenges, as to how it is on American Idol.

So where does the reality come in? Reality television gives people mixed interpretations of morals and values that make people lose their grasp on reality.

To gain insight into this, I interviewed an expert on the topic: Mark Andrejevic, associate professor of the department of communications at the University of Iowa.

“Reality TV has been awarding certain extreme forms of behavior sending the message that, this is the way and that this behavior should be understood as not something that is staged or acted but something totally real, then people feel they can relate,” he said.

For example, consider Keeping Up With the Kardashians. It centers around a family who has gained fame in the entertainment business because of a famous sex scandal involving Kim Kardashian. The family has it arguments, relationships and partying and that’s it. The only real adversity in the show is the relationship between Kourtney Kardashian and her boyfriend Scott.

People can now become famous for doing just about anything. Kim did model a little bit, but still many people did not know who she was. Now she has a reality show that ranks No. 1 on the E! Network. She has gained fame through reality TV almost overnight.

Another reality show favorite is where a group of strangers live together. Jersey Shore, Big Brother and The Bad Girls Club are aired to help people learn about and relate to the lives of regular, non-famous people. Shows like these are the biggest culprits in misleading people. For example, The Bad Girls Club is about several proclaimed bad girls living in a house. These are not your ideal women.

When the show first aired, it was about troubled women living together to become better people. Now the show has fights in almost every episode, partying frequently and homosexuality.

Nothing against homosexuality, but when heterosexual women kiss each other for the fun of it, there’s a problem. Young girls are going to begin to think it is OK to kiss other girls for fun. The way these women live is not realistic, but it’s still called reality TV.

Where are the women that go to work every day? Or who are going to college? Where are the women that respect themselves and each other? Not only do these women make themselves look bad, but they make women in general look bad. They are also influencing the younger generation with values that can be harmful to themselves in the future. People will begin to believe this is the way to live.

After family, people look to television as a way to mold themselves into who they want to be. Some may deny this, but that’s how certain clothing styles, music, slang terms and ideas have become popular.

But values can become distorted if people base their perceptions and morals off of reality TV.

“There are ways that TV values certain types of public behavior that were previously sanctioned or considered to be inappropriate,” Andrejevic said.

Unfortunately, people want so badly to live like famous people that they tend to forget reality TV is not reality.