Love Thy Neighbour

The phenomenon Reality TV has grown tremendously since the nineties. Today we're obsessed with the fact that we can watch people, who are placed in certain situations, on our TV. Many people, especially teenagers, are in fact obsessed with reality TV and spend many of their evenings watching reality shows such as Big Brother and Paradise Hotel. The short story Love Thy Neighbour written by Jennifer Moore in 2005 showcases a couple who becomes obsessed with watching their neighbours through a porthole as if they were a live reality show.

We have all tried it, being curious about our neighbours. However, the husband and wife are so curious about what is going on, that they start peeking through the hole, which makes them fanatic. They are so curious about what is going on next door, that they start to observe the neighbours everyday life. They seem to shut everything else out, just to watch their neighbours everyday life. The husband is staying home from work to watch them, they do not watch TV anymore, and all their life is about is watching their neighbours through the hole. When the little boy in the story is being abducted the couple does not seem to care about the boy in the start, but they soon realize how stupid it is, and they start the search after the little boy. after the boy is found, they go back to peeking through the hole, and their level of fanaticism is just increasing. again they are just watching how their neighbours and the police gets involved. The hole gets a whole new meaning for them, instead of just being a hole it gets a place in their life, it becomes the reality TV they used to watch, and they are getting all fanatic about it. They cannot stop looking through the hole it becomes their lives. They are so fanatic about this hole and what the neighbours are doing that it takes control of their lives; their level of fanaticism is above the scale. This couple is so obsessed with their neighbours everyday life, that they don’t care about their neighbours dying but that they didn’t see them dieing through the whole, which just makes them even more unrealistic and fanatic.

In the story, the main characters live for the entertainment given to them by the hole in the wall, and they feel as if they have missed something when they are away. This is much the same as reality-TV, in which the audience doesn’t skip an episode in fear of being left in the dark in regards to the inner workings of the groups the reality stars often appear in. It is simply not an option to watch every other episode. This is reflected in the story when the main characters leave their homemade entertainment system for a short while, only to come home to nasty surprise. People obsess over the lives of others, as a means to escape their own. It’s far easier to deal with the problems of a character on TV which are partly real but partly fake as well. There is no need to think through the different scenarios, you would be able to just watch the problem and resolution of it unfold in front of you. Reality-shows in turn fulfill some social needs in the viewers’ lives, it grants the sense of community and shared experiences between friends. There is a relationship between the viewer and the star of the show. This is a contrast to the story of the neighbours, in which the main couple feels no grief for the deceased, but rather a sense of emptiness from not knowing why they ended up as they did.

Some people have a need to keep an eye on others. This includes things like monitoring your neighbour making sure nothing illegal is being done, even if it's just petty crimes. Monitoring your neighbours and friends goes back many years. An example would be Germany in the 1930's with the nazi ideology progressing through the political system. People would report their neighbours and best friends for not following the nazi ideology or the nazi rules, even kids would report their own parents to the nazi police. Of course with nazies no longer having an influence on politics, the whole monitoring your neighbour thing toned down a bit. But it is still happening though and people still report their neighbours for doing petty crimes. It's almost like people need a sense of control over others or maybe they just like a feeling of being a better citizen, which relates back to reality TV and the feeling of being smarter than the average reality personality. Being in control is a very often used term when it talking politics and government. Surveillance is a very controversial topic in the modern world. The governments using a lot of surveillance says it's to protect the citizens from crimes, others say it's to keep the population under control and avoid riots from happening. Sure it helps prevent crime but isn't it a breach on privacy?

In conclusion, Reality TV is a huge part of many teenagers’ daily life. The concept of Reality TV is showcased in a sad way in the short story, due to the fact that the author, Jennifer Moore, creates two main characters who becomes so obsessed with their neighbors life that they don’t care about them dying but rather that they missed the scenario when it happened. In addition, they see them as objects because they show no feelings towards them, but instead they focus on, in their mind, the exciting things they do in their living room. Finally, the act of spectating, which is one of the themes in the story, is an old term which has been seen all the way back in the 1930’s, maybe even further back, with the Nazi ideology.