September 17, 2026

I recently found myself wondering why we are so interested in watching other people's lives fall apart. Not just one particular reality show, but the entire category of entertainment built around relationships, arguments, cheating, breakups, family conflicts and personal problems.

Millions of people watch these stories, discuss them, follow the people involved on social media and then spend even more time consuming opinions about what they have watched. We watch an episode, then watch clips from the episode, read comments, look for updates and discuss who was right or wrong.

It made me think that perhaps the more interesting question isn't why these shows are popular. It is what our interest in them says about the way we consume things today.

We are always consuming something

We are constantly consuming content. When we are eating, we watch something. When we are travelling, we scroll. When we have a few minutes free, we open social media. When one piece of content ends, another one immediately replaces it. There is almost no empty space left in our day.

And most of the time, we don't even think about what we are consuming.

We pay attention to what we eat because we know it affects our physical health. We think about how much water we drink, how much we exercise and how much we sleep. But when it comes to what we allow into our minds for hours every day, we rarely apply the same level of awareness.

When we repeatedly consume other people's arguments, relationship problems, controversies and personal chaos, we are not simply watching something and forgetting it. We are giving our attention to it. We are allowing those conversations to occupy a part of our mental space.

That doesn't mean watching a reality show is harmful. It doesn't mean every piece of entertainment needs to be educational or productive. Sometimes we simply want to switch off and be entertained, and there is nothing wrong with that.

The question is about balance.

When entertainment becomes distraction

What happens when entertainment becomes one of the main ways we spend our free time? What happens when we know more about the relationships of people we have never met than we know about what is happening in the lives of the people around us?

We can spend an hour discussing someone else's relationship without noticing that we haven't spoken properly to our own partner that day. We can spend time following a stranger's personal problems while postponing something important in our own lives. We can become emotionally invested in a situation that has absolutely nothing to do with us while being mentally unavailable for things that actually do.

That is where I think the idea of distraction becomes important.

Distraction doesn't always look like wasting time. Sometimes it looks like entertainment. Sometimes it looks like staying updated. Sometimes it looks like knowing what everyone is talking about.

And because these things are so easily available, it becomes difficult to recognise how much of our attention they are taking.

Interesting doesn't always mean valuable

There is also something interesting about the type of content that gets our attention. Conflict is naturally engaging. We want to know what happened next. We want to know who lied, who cheated, who was exposed and how the situation ended. The more complicated the situation becomes, the more reasons we have to keep watching.

The problem is that our minds don't necessarily distinguish between what is important to our lives and what is simply interesting.

Something can be interesting without being valuable.

We can spend hours consuming information that gives us an emotional reaction without giving us anything meaningful in return. We feel angry, shocked, entertained or curious, but after we close the app or turn off the television, what have we actually gained?

Sometimes the answer is simply entertainment, and that is enough.

But if most of our free time is being spent consuming other people's lives, other people's opinions and other people's problems, then perhaps we need to ask ourselves what we are not doing with that time.

What is our time replacing?

Time is not just something we spend. It is where our life actually happens.

Every hour spent scrolling is an hour that cannot be spent somewhere else. It could have been spent talking to someone, learning something, creating something, resting properly, going outside, working towards a goal or simply being present in our own lives.

This doesn't mean every minute needs to be productive. I don't believe in turning life into a productivity exercise where even watching television has to be justified.

But there is a difference between consciously choosing entertainment and automatically reaching for content whenever we have a moment of silence.

Maybe that is the bigger issue.

We have become so used to filling every empty moment that we rarely experience being mentally undistracted. We move from one notification to another, one video to another, one story to another. Someone else's life is always available to occupy our attention.

And eventually, we can become very familiar with other people's lives while becoming less present in our own.

What is it doing to us mentally?

I also think this affects us emotionally. Constantly consuming conflict and negativity can leave us mentally tired even when we are not personally involved in any of it. We may not notice the effect immediately, but after spending hours absorbing arguments, outrage and other people's problems, we can find ourselves feeling irritated, anxious, cynical or simply mentally exhausted.

Again, the answer isn't to avoid everything negative.

Life itself is not positive all the time. Neither should entertainment be.

The point is to become aware of what we are consuming and how we feel afterwards.

Does it make us happy? Does it help us relax? Does it make us curious? Does it teach us something? Or does it simply keep us distracted for another hour?

And perhaps the most important question is: what did that hour replace?

Where are we investing our attention?

Because our attention is limited. Every time we give it to something, we are choosing not to give it to something else.

We often talk about protecting our time from other people, but perhaps we also need to protect it from the things that constantly compete for it.

The reality is that there will always be another show to watch, another controversy to follow, another relationship to analyse and another piece of content waiting for us.

But our own lives are happening at the same time.

Our relationships are happening. Our friendships are happening. Our careers are happening. Our families are getting older. Our goals are waiting. And time is moving whether we are paying attention to our lives or someone else's.

So, what are we choosing to consume?

I don't think the question is whether we should stop watching reality television, stop scrolling or stop consuming entertainment.

The question is whether we are conscious of what we are consuming and what it is doing to us.

Are we watching because we genuinely enjoy it, or because we don't know what else to do with our attention?

Are we taking a break, or are we avoiding something?

Are we entertained, or simply distracted?

And most importantly, where are we investing the attention that could otherwise be spent living our own lives?

Maybe we don't need to consume less of everything.

Maybe we simply need to become more selective about what deserves a place in our minds, and more aware of what deserves our time in real life.

Thank you for taking a moment to read this. I hope you could see where I was coming from, not as an argument against entertainment, but simply as a thought worth sitting with.

We all consume differently, and I’m sure there are many ways to look at this. I’d genuinely love to know how you see it. What do you think?