Why do we like trash TV (even if we don’t admit it)?

TV content of the poorest quality, and yet we continue to watch it. Why?

For a long time now there has been a strong complaint about the contents and formats of some of what television offers.

The concept of "trash TV" refers to those morbid contents, usually centered on exaggeration, which seek to entertain by showing offThe concept of trash television refers to those lurid contents, usually centered on exaggeration, that seek to entertain by showing situations that are supposedly not fictitious and that are painful or humiliating. Programs that do not reflect positive values, but quite the opposite.

However, and although it may seem strange, trash TV is very popular.. Many television channels program this type of content in prime time because they want to capture as many viewers as possible.

In other words, we know that trash TV is not desirable, but our actions are not congruent with these thoughts. Why does this happen? Why do we like trash TV? Here are some possible answers.

TV trash TV: offering forbidden content

If we had to highlight a defining characteristic of trash TV, it would probably be the use of morbid content that, from certain moral parameters, we should not be watching. The TV trash offers us the forbidden in the comfort of our own home, and we can enjoy it alone.and we can enjoy it alone or surrounded by people we trust.

This means that, compared to other entertainment, it competes with an advantage, sacrificing good image and journalistic ethics in favor of the possibility of offering what no one else offers.

The promise that with each program we will see something that will surprise us makes us think about it even during the time we spend away from the screen, and the parallel narrations about what is going to happen that we make up in our imagination make us want to see the real development of the story, for which we must return to the program.

Viewers addicted to morbidity

The content of trash TV may be bad and it may be evident that it is largely fictitious, but that does not stop it from surprising us and attracting our attention. And it is our attention, always in search of novel stimuli that can lead us to a high state of activation, which makes us return to these programs, as if it were a kind of drug dependency.

What we become addicted to with trash TV, however, is not to a drug, but to certain substances that our own body secretes every time a narrative line is resolved as we wanted and every time we see something that amuses us, such as a celebrity making a fool of himself.

The more we associate this state of well-being produced by these substances with the fact of watching trash TV, the more interest we have in continuing to watch these programs. This is an impulse that goes beyond reason: even if we believe that the program does not deserve our attention because its characteristics match those of trash TV (and neither trash TV nor people who regularly watch trash TV tend to have a good image), the fact is that the body asks us to continue watching these programs, the fact is that the body asks us to turn on the TV..

False sense of sociability

One of the characteristics of many trash TV programs is that in their development there are recurrent people who express their opinions and beliefs in a totally direct way and, apparently, without filters. It is this supposedly honest attitude that leads to the conflict and the spectacle that is so much sought after..

However, another consequence of this kind of format is that it is very much like a meeting of friends. The jokes and the low moral filter make the program easily comparable to what happens at an informal dinner party where jokes are told and rumors are spread.

In this way, watching certain trash TV programs can trick the brain into behaving as it would in a real social context, even though it is really just watching the TV. This can satiate the need to relate to real people without exposing oneself to the annoying situations that can arise when leaving home to relate to real people.

Improved self-esteem

Paradoxically, trash TV may make us feel better about ourselves.Why? Because it makes us believe that our imperfections are quite normal and that most people have more to hide.

This idea is based on what is known as Cultivation Theory, according to which exposure to television (or other similar media) makes us believe that reality resembles what can be seen on those channels. TV trash normalizes lurid events and displays of ridicule.and comparing oneself with the people who appear there and who are either playing a role or only show their most tragic, lurid or comical side, is comfortable. Something that makes us feel comfortable and that makes us repeat.