This article is an opinion piece and is solely from my personal view. Exactly as the title sounds, I think the amount of attention and hype on the Kardashian family and their popular reality TV show for the past decade may have potentially influenced one whole generation of people negatively, potentially slowing down an individual’s personal productivity, self-growth, and redirecting people to overly emphasize on outer physical beauty, television drama, normalizing broken relationships in a family, and excessive focus on materialism and wealth.
The life of the Kardashian family is not a typical day in the life for many, and may potentially be partially scripted to have overdramatization of topics and events around them. Although branded as a reality show, it will still be used to capture more viewers by showcasing the drama within the family and showing toned bodies and beautiful girls, of which their beauty may possibly be aided by physical enhancements procedures done discreetly. It is clear these may not be the best role models for the young who are forming their world views during these years.
Let’s talk about the target audience for this long-running reality TV series. Based on some references online, the target audience for this television show are women between the ages of 18 to 49 years olds. This age range is wide but for the younger audiences, these are the years where our youth grows into their own and makes some of the most important decisions in their life, be it to pursue further education, finding long-term partners, choosing their careers, and starting their first jobs. These years are critical for personal growth and support from family and friends is important in this season. At the same time, influences from external sources such as the media may also affect their judgment and views on life.
I admit even I used to be one of those who tuned in on their shows weekly, but I quickly grew out of it after a few episodes. At first, I was intrigued by the sisters and their family dynamics and the absurd lifestyle that they showcased on television. But even as I moved on away from following their series, after their first season premiered their popularity had amassed so wide that it is hard not to hear about them in nearly every social media platform, being marketed excessively in online communities on YouTube and television.
One way to avoid reading about them was to turn off recommendations for their channels and videos on YouTube to prevent clicking on their content. It’s a personal choice, and I choose not to watch as I find no value added from ‘keeping’ up with this show and the characters on it.
This part would be difficult to quantify, but can you imagine how different society may potentially be if we put more attention and emphasis on strong female figures, leaders, athletes, or scientists in media instead? Sure, there is less drama, but we celebrate their achievements and the progress made by their contributions to society. It would be good to divert some interest to other topics involving sciences, music, sports, personal finance, or even give more highlights to topics about the progress on the research on climate change, gender equality, and equal opportunities for young women in the professional workforce.
As it stands, I think that any attention given to the Kardashian drama is deemed as a gain for them, and maybe the best is to be indifferent or actively avoid any news, video, or articles about them, on purpose. When you remove them from your Facebook feed or YouTube page, the spaces will be filled with other recommendations that may give open your opportunity to other topics.
The Kardashians are just an example of the many other popular trends currently in the media space and I acknowledge there are many more other influences of skin-deep beauty and lifestyles with no real consequences showcased out there. If this matters to you, maybe it’s time we try to voice out more of what is preferred to be seen on media before it gets crowded over with content such, as it already is.