You Are What You Watch

By: Jordan C.

All of these shows have a greater impact on the viewers than what may be realized. Recently, a study suggests that one can learn a lot about another person by looking at what television shows they continuously watch. It demonstrates what type of humor that person finds funny, or it can even show what issues a person deals with in their own lives.

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In a recent article, “I Am What I Watch: Voyeurism, Sensation Seeking, and Television Viewing Patterns,” it says that “viewers with low mobility and low levels of inter- personal interaction were more likely to watch” TV that filled their companionship needs (Bagdasarov et al 300). This means that people who watch certain comedies can relate to the characters and the plotlines of their favorite show. This creates a feeling of being able to empathize with what a viewer watches and it makes them more likely to watch the show every week when it airs. In the article it said that the “results reveal the correspondence between the personality traits that media consumers exhibit and content of the shows they watch” because the viewer can relate to the show they watch (Bagdasarov et al 311).

Unfortunately, if a viewer is indeed what they watch, this means that gender stereotypes will continue to be exploited in comedy television shows. Men will continue to be characterized into the burly, providers of a household while women will be relied on to cook, clean, and raise children. These stereotypes cannot be broken until the day when the media stops putting the ideas subconsciously into the public’s mind. Until then, nothing will change.

Works Cited
Bagdasarov, Zhanna, et al. "I Am What I Watch: Voyeurism, Sensation Seeking, and Television Viewing Patterns." Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 54.2 (2010): 299-315. Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. Web. 2 Nov. 2010.