• ⚠️ UK Access Block Notice: Beginning July 1, 2025, this site will no longer be accessible from the United Kingdom. This is a voluntary decision made by the site's administrators. We were not forced or ordered to implement this block. If you're located in the UK, we recommend using a VPN to maintain access.

S

SomedayorNexttime

Member
Jul 13, 2025
6
Have any of you guys been watching reality TV?

I've gotten into TV recently and am doing a Love Island marathon right now. I feel really upset while watching the show.
I know, it's stupid to care so much about reality TV, since so much of the stuff on it is fake anyway. But I feel a sense of deep shame underneath when I see other people around my age on a tropical island going on dates and being incredible people and living life to the fullest.

Imagine being a 6'7 attractive guy who's also an accountant with charisma. Imagine being a gorgeous foreign woman with a difficult degree and endless attention from all the men around. Imagine being all those things in your mid twenties, at that. Some of them are even 21! Amazing!
In the middle of me daydreaming of being like one of them, I just keep wondering what that would be like and imagining what their life problems might be like, if they could possibly be as lame as me, but I know they aren't. I've accomplished nothing at my age and I'm very unattractive and odd. It is genuinely exhausting for me to care for myself, and I don't mean that in a "I refuse to shower" way (I hate germs), it's because I have so many skin issues or bodily issues that have developed throughout my life My hair is infuriatingly terrible and has never improved with any treatment. I have discoloration and have developed rashes I can't get rid of before no matter what I do to help them. Don't get me started on my face and body.

I look at these people in my shows and get sad I have to return to an isolated world without friends, with no one to talk with about the show, and just have pathetic admiration for these random strangers that seem to have everything I never will.

I prob sound like an incel and I really don't want to sound like that, this isn't anger or meant to be aggressive to anyone, and I don't prioritize having a partner. I'm moping that I don't have what they have, and I really don't think anything will make me feel better about being who I am in comparison to them. Because the reality is, it isn't okay to me that I can't live like one of them. I want easy connection, I want to be effortlessly attractive, I want charisma and a cool family and a nice job and good mental health and the whole nine yards. Not a chronically online sack of shit weirdo with a sad life who is met with silence every day and eats cereal for dinner.

Imagine turning heads and being accomplished and having that just be your reality. Not a daydream, but just waking up to a lover and admirers and success and an incredible appearance. Imagine someone wanting to serve food to you just for being good looking and likable. Imagine just dabbing on some makeup or giving yourself a small trim to the beard and dressing up a bit and looking like you're cut from marble. Loneliness makes me forget that some people genuinely just live like that… and for the rest of their life they'll live like that, maybe. And better yet, I won't ever live even close to that. I'll likely just be a janitor somewhere and either CTB or rot in silence.

Makes my stomach turn a bit.

I don't think I like my life being this pointless and unfulfilling and not being able to be entirely different like the people on TV. I will never be anything, and it's difficult coming to terms with it, but it's my reality and I'm accepting it. People say you can be anything you want in life but I don't think that's true at all. I can only be so much, and the most that I am is nothing.

If you read through this ramble, feel free to comment a show you like or tell who you liked the most this season. :D
 
  • Aww..
  • Hugs
Reactions: LetMeOut67 and idk3
katara

katara

tired all the time
Mar 17, 2022
287
Ok first off what you said doesn't sound anything like what incel men say.
I haven't watched that show but I know it's extremely popular and I can't bring myself to watch that. I don't want to see people my age or younger living a life I could can only fantasize about. I'm not sure how real that show is, I think it's somewhat real. People like these dating shows because they like seeing real stuff. it's not a staged show from what I have heard or if it is nobody who's a fan sees it that way.
You could try checking out a different kind of relationship dating show. I remember there was one where they'd set up strangers for marriage. I don't remember hearing about it ever again so maybe it's canceled now, but I thought it sounded interesting. Love island sounds WAY TOO depressing for me I can just tell from the way people talk about it online that I'd never be able to handle it and get through those episodes.
I'm sitting here without any college degree and no chance of getting in a relationship bc I have no money and I live in an area filled with boomers.
 
Raindancer

Raindancer

Specialist
Nov 4, 2023
345
I watched Shark Whisperer on Netflix the other day and just marveled. To be so young and find your purpose and make an actual difference in the world. I can't even imagine. I will never understand how some go on to lead incredible lives and others are left to suffer through no fault of their own.
 
eupdplishlp

eupdplishlp

Make it make sense
Jul 15, 2025
88
Have any of you guys been watching reality TV?

I've gotten into TV recently and am doing a Love Island marathon right now. I feel really upset while watching the show.
I know, it's stupid to care so much about reality TV, since so much of the stuff on it is fake anyway. But I feel a sense of deep shame underneath when I see other people around my age on a tropical island going on dates and being incredible people and living life to the fullest.

Imagine being a 6'7 attractive guy who's also an accountant with charisma. Imagine being a gorgeous foreign woman with a difficult degree and endless attention from all the men around. Imagine being all those things in your mid twenties, at that. Some of them are even 21! Amazing!
In the middle of me daydreaming of being like one of them, I just keep wondering what that would be like and imagining what their life problems might be like, if they could possibly be as lame as me, but I know they aren't. I've accomplished nothing at my age and I'm very unattractive and odd. It is genuinely exhausting for me to care for myself, and I don't mean that in a "I refuse to shower" way (I hate germs), it's because I have so many skin issues or bodily issues that have developed throughout my life My hair is infuriatingly terrible and has never improved with any treatment. I have discoloration and have developed rashes I can't get rid of before no matter what I do to help them. Don't get me started on my face and body.

I look at these people in my shows and get sad I have to return to an isolated world without friends, with no one to talk with about the show, and just have pathetic admiration for these random strangers that seem to have everything I never will.

I prob sound like an incel and I really don't want to sound like that, this isn't anger or meant to be aggressive to anyone, and I don't prioritize having a partner. I'm moping that I don't have what they have, and I really don't think anything will make me feel better about being who I am in comparison to them. Because the reality is, it isn't okay to me that I can't live like one of them. I want easy connection, I want to be effortlessly attractive, I want charisma and a cool family and a nice job and good mental health and the whole nine yards. Not a chronically online sack of shit weirdo with a sad life who is met with silence every day and eats cereal for dinner.

Imagine turning heads and being accomplished and having that just be your reality. Not a daydream, but just waking up to a lover and admirers and success and an incredible appearance. Imagine someone wanting to serve food to you just for being good looking and likable. Imagine just dabbing on some makeup or giving yourself a small trim to the beard and dressing up a bit and looking like you're cut from marble. Loneliness makes me forget that some people genuinely just live like that… and for the rest of their life they'll live like that, maybe. And better yet, I won't ever live even close to that. I'll likely just be a janitor somewhere and either CTB or rot in silence.

Makes my stomach turn a bit.

I don't think I like my life being this pointless and unfulfilling and not being able to be entirely different like the people on TV. I will never be anything, and it's difficult coming to terms with it, but it's my reality and I'm accepting it. People say you can be anything you want in life but I don't think that's true at all. I can only be so much, and the most that I am is nothing.

If you read through this ramble, feel free to comment a show you like or tell who you liked the most this season. :D
I avoid Love island I watched a 30 second clip and it got me derpessed. They are living the most furtherst thing from reality, big brother civilian is much closer to reality in terms of how people actually interact with eachother on a socphisticated level. Love island flaunt the top 1% like it's normal and personally for me that is toxic. (also why is everything all sexual based it's very odd) everyones body is creating unrealistic expectations for what people should be expecting same as the villa. it made me think anywhere I go without a pool is rubbish but I realised that's just unrealistic expectations.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LetMeOut67
LetMeOut67

LetMeOut67

Experienced
May 7, 2025
236
I call it Death Island
Reality TV is very much worth avoiding
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: eupdplishlp and lifecanbecruel!
T

Thunderstorm

Member
Jun 18, 2025
46
Reality tv is just depressing garbage in general
 
  • Like
Reactions: lifecanbecruel! and LetMeOut67
bankai

bankai

Visionary
Mar 16, 2025
2,029
I prefer reality shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Alone. I did try a few episodes of Love Island but I found it unbearable. There are a lot of good reality shows, but These matchmaking ones are just garbage mostly.

Another one I have really started to enjoy recently is the Traitors.
 
  • Love
Reactions: psp3000
legoshi

legoshi

.
Sep 3, 2024
115
I don't watch reality tv. But I'm familiar with some reality tv people and a lot of them once the show ends…that's the end for them. They never reach that level again and end up doing everything they can to be relevant again. Don't be so hard on yourself over a fabricated show.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lifecanbecruel! and LetMeOut67
stoiccactus

stoiccactus

somehow still here
Mar 24, 2022
279
Imagine being a 6'7 attractive guy who's also an accountant with charisma. Imagine being a gorgeous foreign woman with a difficult degree and endless attention from all the men around. Imagine being all those things in your mid twenties, at that. Some of them are even 21! Amazing!
I'm older now but I had much the same experience watching this stupid show called Laguna Beach circa 2004 or so. It was like, look at all these beautiful and rich people and I'm just a loser schlub. In the immortal words of Weezer:

Where I come from isn't all that great
My automobile is a piece of crap
My fashion sense is a little wack
And my friends are just as screwy as me
I didn't go to boarding schools
Preppy girls never looked at me
Why should they? I ain't nobody
Got nothing in my pocket

The truth is
I don't stand a chance
It's something that you're born into
And I just don't belong
 
T

tulero

Member
Mar 20, 2025
84
i dont watch tv anymore, everything that offers is either pure shit or political manipulation
 
  • Like
Reactions: lifecanbecruel! and LetMeOut67
psp3000

psp3000

Enlightened
May 20, 2023
1,604
I watch it and it makes me feel better about myself rather than depressed but it makes me feel bad because I am judging others/strangers actions but also I guess it isn't that bad since it's all scripted most of the time

it could only be depressing for or to me if it's something like Intervention, Hoarders, or some episodes of True Life

wow I sure do want to kill myself but at least I am not/ I didn't:

-have a child at a young age and become a statistic (Teen Mom)

-have explosive diarrhea on someone's floor in mansion (Flavor of Love)

-go on a reality television show after my partner cheated on me to see if they would do it again because I can't let them go and endure psychological damage along the way (I think that one is called The Ultimatum or something or Temptation Island)

-get a bad haircut/makeover and get my teeth shaved/damaged (America's Next Top Model)

-get multiple plastic surgeries rendering myself unrecognizable with little aftercare or help especially from a professional and then get kicked off for refusing certain plastic surgeries or either winning and then regretting my decisions (The Swan)

I think it would be better to watch documentaries about the dark seedly underbelly of reality TV rather than actually watching reality TV (I think Vice did a few episodes about various shows in one of their The Dark Side of *insert theme* series also there's a few good iceberg charts out there on YouTube I recommend the one that talks about the game show where someone is trying to win a kidney transplant, and the one about the guy who murdered someone after a Joe Millionaire-esque show ended)
 
Last edited:
Worndown

Worndown

Illuminated
Mar 21, 2019
3,735
Evidence that Reality TV (not real by the way) is bad for us.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lifecanbecruel!
LetMeOut67

LetMeOut67

Experienced
May 7, 2025
236
It's not really Reality TV but I quite liked the Jeremy Kyle Show
I know it got a lot of heat but it was effective at exposing people and their lies and narcissism and sheer awfulness
Unfortunately someone who was on it committed suicide after being exposed as a liar via a lie detector test
I know those aren't foolproof but no one made him go on the fuckin' show
 
L

lifecanbecruel!

Member
Apr 22, 2025
14
This is the world that we live in. These times are just different! Like never before in our known history we are constantly bombarded with stuff that can make you feel shit. There is always something better, something more that we want. We are constantly comparing ourselves to others and being told 'you should have this' and 'you should look like that'. Mobile phones, tablets, television, social media! There are more options than ever before and we can't avoid being shown what is better, what we should be like, what we could have etc.

Sooo easy to look at others and feel shit about yourself, feel like you are not enough and that you don't have enough!

Reality TV like love island really isn't reality though. It's all so fake. But this world can be very fake, so it makes sense that the show is so popular.

It's sad and wrong, and its a massive factor in why soo many people struggle with their mental health, identity, self worth etc etc.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LetMeOut67

Similar threads

lifelover0037
Replies
7
Views
368
Suicide Discussion
lifelover0037
lifelover0037
prettyclam
Replies
0
Views
104
Suicide Discussion
prettyclam
prettyclam
claracatchingthebus
Replies
0
Views
64
Suicide Discussion
claracatchingthebus
claracatchingthebus
plast1c_sk1n
Replies
17
Views
482
Suicide Discussion
zardoz
Z