[quote]
the effect of television on society; the desire for fame and celebrity on the part of ordinary people; and the authenticity and value of various realistic representations
<p>People are blowing this out of proportion. I see no need to have watched any reality TV shows to answer this question at least passably, if not well.</p>
<p>Plus, the essay itself is blown entirely out of the proportion. Colleges are still trying to decide the merit of the SAT and ACT essay sections, and thus most are taking the results with a grain of salt (or are still collecting data on them and aren’t using them for admissions decisions).</p>
<p>I’m convinced (based on the fact that an essay prompt – or any SAT question – has never grabbed the attention of the media before) that most media outlets see this as a cheap way to get some pageviews. Most of the stories I’ve seen name Kim Kardashian, Snooki, or some other hot google-search property right in the title. That’s not an accident. That’s opportunistic manipulation of a pretty minor news event. It’s an excuse to write a story about people they’ve been dying to write a story about anyway.</p>
<p>I don’t see what the problem really is. Anyone with an IQ higher than that of a brain dead autistic monkey probably doesn’t watch Jersey Shore. Therefore, the people aiming to score high probably don’t watch it. All they need to do is talk about why they don’t watch it, and personal examples such as how it has effected their mentally vulnerable peers can be used. This is really a non-issue, if the prompt was “Is murder good or bad?” the student need not have murdered anyone in order to express their opinion.</p>