Violation of privacy at its best

The other night out of sheer boredom and in order to stay awake for my nocturnal husband, I was surfing on the television. I cam across star world which used to be my favourite channel during the days of frasier Crane, Friends, Whose line is it anyways etc.. A sense of curiosity on what was currently happening on this channel made my stop and watch. There was a reality show going on and I decided to give it a dekho since there was no concern about continutiy. There was a suited man sitting opposite a lady dressed in a severely low necked dress looking rather ill at ease. The crowd was hooting at something she had just said that had supposedly won her a considerable amount of money. I then gathered the name of the show - "Moment of Truth" which supposedly tested how honest you were and how far you would go to win a 100 thousand dollars.

The questions asked were as intrusive as they could get and all desired to produce one effect - salacious pleasure for the audience to sate the voyeur that lurks in most of us. That a channel should try to pander to the peeping top- gossip monger in people stunned me. How far would they go for TRPs, i thought. They had interspersed the show with "highlights" of other shows where people were being asked if they had cheated on their girlfrieds, slept with people and every possible outrageously personal question you could think of. And undoubtedly the answer was scandalous. Yes people had cheated, yes they had slept around.. So we get to peek into the fetid underbelly of society. But to make an open confession out of it and in the presence of the very near and dear ones who the confession will devastate the most is ridiculous. There were actually live reactions of these people reacting to these "truths". You had a heart broken father listen to his daughter dosowning him, a sister who had to listen to her sister refusing to have her as her bridesmaid should she get married and that was supposed to be worth a hundred thousand dollars

What are getting to? Are we saying that emotions are calculable, can be valued with money and that breaking people's hearts is actually a sign of strength that requires rewarding? I think the entire thing is just a sign of how materialistic and self centered we have become as a society and how instant gratification and salacious fun is now justified by any violation - be it one of privacy or values