I’m glad I’m already in college, because some of this year’s SATs have a prompt that could have caused me (and anyone else who doesn’t watch reality TV) to get low scores on the test’s writing portion.
This prompt references reality TV, asking how authentic reality shows are, and asking if “people benefit from forms of entertainment that show so-called reality, or are such forms of entertainment harmful?”
The question itself isn’t a bad question; college-bound students should be able to critically analyze the media and entertainment they are shown on a consistent basis.
What concerns me is that they would even ask whether reality shows are either real or helpful.
Anyone taking the SAT should already have the common sense to know “American Idol,” “The Biggest Loser,” “Jersey Shore” and the rest of the vast wasteland just wastes peoples’ time and rots their brains.
Not all television is bad, but these shows and their impact on popular culture is absurd.
The fact that karaoke singers, fat people on diets and sexually active orange meatheads from New Jersey are all considered culturally relevant enough to be on a college-entrance exam makes me worry about how things will be in the U.S. 20 years from now.
I hope most of the people who got the prompt in question understood the question and were able to show how useless these shows are.
However, there is the grim possibility that, as Conan O’Brien joked in a monologue, “China has won.”
— AJ Lansdale, professional writing senior
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ihmb 1 year, 1 month ago
wow. regardless of whether or not you like reality T.V., obviously some people do, or it would not be on the air. I am so sorry that the SAT has chosen a culturally relevant topic. It makes more sense than asking about some of the other nonsense prompts I saw in my day. Quit being such a Debbie Downer.