<p>Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.</p>
<p>Reality television programs, which feature real people engaged in real activities rather than professional actors performing scripted scenes, are increasingly popular. These shows depict ordinary people competing in everything from singing and dancing to losing weight, or just living their everyday lives. Most people believe that the reality these shows portray is authentic, but they are being misled. How authentic can these shows be when producers design challenges for the participants and then editors alter filmed scenes?</p>
<p>Assignment: Do people benefit from forms of entertainment that show so-called reality, or are such forms of entertainment harmful? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.</p>
<p>Entertainment, in all its various forms, can be beneficial, even if it seems irrelevant or fake. As Jack Welch, Guy Montag, and the ancient Greeks can all attest, entertainment, whether scripted or "reality", is incontrovertibly beneficial to society.</p>
<p>As Jack Welch demonstrates, the influence of entertainment is an important factor in creativity and leadership skills. As a young boy, Jack truly enjoyed watching plays, reading books, and watching movies. From this experience, he learned to develop his own creativity while acquiring better leadership skills. Without a doubt, these qualities aided him in bringing a moribund company - General Electric - back to life. In an interview, Jack Welch once credited entertainment with teaching him important lessons about human interactions. Later, he would utilize these lessons to help him succeed.</p>
<p>Furthermore, in the book Fahrenheit 451, the protagonist Guy Montag also reveals the power of scripted entertainment. In his supposedly utopic world, Montag realized, to his horror, that society was becoming increasingly shallow. In his eyes, individuals were losing their individuality. Fortunately, he also discovered that books, although a scripted form of entertainment, might act as a catalyst in bringing back individuality. Books might also teach lessons from the past, even if they were fictional. Thus, Montag risks his life to attempt to salvage the precious books from disappearing forever. As Montag knows, entertainment in all its forms may actually prove beneficial to society by teaching important moral lessons.</p>
<p>Moreover, the ancient Greeks were also cognizant of the fact that entertainment is crucial to a healthy, flourishing society, even if that entertainment did not depict real life situations. As such, great Greek works of art, such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as the plays of Oedipus, were produced and enjoyed. These works of art ensured that the Greeks would not inhibit their creativity. Consequently, the Greeks attained reknowned advancements in many aspects, from architecture to political ideals. However, without entertainment to stimulate this creativity, the Greeks certainly would not have been capable of such feats.</p>
<p>Indeed, as Jack Welch, Guy Montag, and the ancient Greeks understand, entertainment is critical to society, even if it isn't so-called "reality".</p>