November 10: NaOnka

One of the things that really bothers me about reality television is not knowing if the people/contestants/performers/castaways really behave in real life the way they do on the show they're on. I don't see how they can. I haven't been on any reality shows and I've never had a conversation with someone that has, so I don't know for certain.

I do know, however, that when I was in grade school and someone would tell me that a girl liked me, I immediately started acting differently around the girl. How does this relate to people behaving differently on reality shows? Think about it. These people have cameras filming them twenty-four hours a day. They know they're being watched when they have that conversation in the bushes. They know every action of theirs is at the disposal of the editing room. Like a child on a playground, it has to be natural to act differently.

Here's another example for you. Breathing is completely involuntary. Your body does it on its own and you don't have to think about doing it. Once you consciously think about the act of inhaling and exhaling, the rhythm is thrown off until you think of something else. Go ahead! Try it. See. Now that I have you thinking about breathing, you're probably taking longer inhales and exhaling a tad slower than you would normally.

My point here is that if you subconsciously know someone is watching you, you're going to act differently; even when you've been eating small portions of flavorless rice for thirty days and not getting an adequate amount of sleep. Even when paranoia runs thick, I don't know how these people could really behave the same way as they do in real life.

With that being said, why do the producers of Survivor find NaOnka entertaining in the least? She's obviously running her mouth to extend and exaggerate her fifteen minutes of fame. "Look at me! Look what a bitch I can be for no reason at all!" There are some castaways from the show that are universally disliked, but they make for great TV. NaOnka is just an obnoxious waste of a space on the show when true entertainers like myself are overlooked.