Reality TV: Celebrity Big Brother, Pop Art, and how we can all be Famous for Fifteen Minutes

Celebrity Big Brother recently announced its last series.  It's fair to say, like The X-Factor, it is way past its peak.  I haven't watched either for years now(and currently don't have a TV), YouTube is my key to catching up on the visual treats everybody is talking about these days.

However, I remember when the first Big Brother -a reference to George Orwell's novel '1984' one of the cleverest books I have ever enjoyed by the way-launched back in the summer of 2000. Me and my friends had finished Sixth Form and were working summer jobs, saving the pennies for starting Uni that autumn, and partying like there was no tomorrow. None of us had real responsibilities, just a long hot summer in front of us, punctuated by this new TV show everybody was talking about, reality TV not at that point even a genre or phrase used in popular culture.

Me and my friends had got our A-level results the day the Nasty Nick episode was aired, some thrilled, some disappointed.  We had been to the pub to celebrate, come back to my Mum and Dad's(my friends would always hang out there as I lived closest to sixth form and town) and within minutes were all gripped in silence by what was unfolding on the screen in front of us.

For those of you that were too young then, or haven't heard the story, one of the housemates had smuggled in a pen and paper-strictly forbidden- and been writing down people's names, trying to influence others in the vote for who would get voted out each week.  It was uncomfortable and yet gripping viewing watching Nick be confronted.  Eventually, he was forced to leave and I still remember, all these years later, his final quip to camera, "you live by the sword, you die by the sword."  He went on to write a book, and has now disappeared from the public eye.  I recently read an article which revealed he now lives in Australia and lives a completely different lifestyle, who could blame him?

For with each series of Big Brother, things changed.  Who could forget Jade Goody, and her very public fall from grace publicly, after racially abusing another housemate, Shilpa Shetty?  Immediately after this she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and used her platform to raise awareness of the disease, and the importance of women regularly going for cervical screening.  This had a huge impact on cervical cancer cases and led, very positively, to the 'Jade Goody Effect' which I feel can only be a good thing.

But it's not just Big Brother which has been prevalent in the public consciousness over the years. Talent shows like The X-Factor have dominated our screens for years now, the early audition shows, where people who clearly are only broadcast for the laughs their inability to sing will get. are as popular if not more so, than the finals.  And it's not just the contestants but the judges too that make headlines. Sharon Osbourne, Cheryl Cole, Mel B.  Reality TV can make someone a star, but it can also smash their dreams to smithereens.

In 2010 a show called TOWIE started, where we all got to view the loves, laughs, and liquid lunches of its 'characters.'  Then came Love Island, a show I only watched for the first time this summer.  There are too many reality shows to keep track of.  The Apprentice, The Great British Bake Off.  If you can separate your soggy bottoms from your Love Island bikini bottoms, good luck to you.

But I for one am tired of reality TV.  As Andy Warhol said, "everyone can be famous for fifteen minutes."  I can be an Instagram influencer, you can be a YouTube star.  But at what cost?  Does it all really make anyone happy?  The fact that 21 US Reality TV stars have committed suicide in recent years suggests the opposite.  Stress, anxiety, depression.  Reality TV is public shaming by another name.

Because in watching strangers on that screen in the corner of our front rooms, we forget sometimes that they are a human being.  They could be our sister, our best friend, our Gran singing show tunes to a panel of judges.  We don't think before we tweet about that person's terrible voice, or how this person's hair looks a mess in the morning.

You have no idea what the people on your screen, or in your coffee shop, or in your office, or at the bar are going through.  They may show a happy face on Instagram, a fuzzy night out snap on Facebook, or regale you with tales of their night out at the water cooler.  But listen to what they don't say.  To the spaces in between the silence. That speaks volumes.  And above all, be kind.

Reading: How Not to be a Boy, Robert Webb

Watching; YouTube videos of iconic women

Beauty: Princess lash mascara(Wilko!)

Food: Sweet Potatoes- slow release, and just sensational!

Drink: Fresh coffee nectar of the Gods!

Travel: The West Country

Current obsession: Fishnets; warm and stylish!