I got a text: an exploration of reality TV as a backbone of our society and in grief

a media deep dive all about Love Island and its impact

This is a media deep dive from GRIEF AND MEDIA PROJECT for paid subscribers. For more like this, plus to support my media database, weekly newsletter, essays and podcast, consider upgrading to a paid membership. For a comped membership, you can refer GRIEF AND MEDIA to friends.

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*Ian Sterling voice* Previously on GRIEF AND MEDIA PROJECT, I excessively talked about Love Island USA, and tonight, a hot new bombshell enters the villa—my media deep dives. I’ll be writing these monthly (or more!) for paid subscribers. The media database, weekly newsletters, essays and podcasts will all remain free. Paid subscribers get this as a little treat, plus the knowledge that your support of my work literally means the whole entire world and also I love you so much.

I’ve always been a reality television connoisseur. From telling my mom I had a stomachache so I could stay home and watch an America’s Next Top Model marathon, to sneak-watching A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila when no one was home, to Wednesday Survivor nights with my parents and sister, to Love Island being the only thing keeping me going in the depths of grief. Reality television has certainly been a backbone in my own personal life, touching both my highest of highs and lowest of lows, but I’m particularly excited to explore the ways in which reality television is a staple in our society and culture, as well as grieving spaces, as we know it.

Love Island first came into my life summer 2018, when I worked in entertainment in Los Angeles, and all my coworkers were enthralled by this “wholesome” dating show, though unlike in America, they didn’t blur out cheeky bikini bottoms; with “icks” and “mugged off” and “buzzing” and “banter,” all in varying UK accents, that soon became vernacular of our own. For dating shows, I was used to the American way: 30 women competing for one mediocre man, many of these relationships not lasting more than a few months, producers who cut together contestants’ words to fulfill whatever narrative they wanted. Love Island has its own serious issues too, which I’ll get to, but it felt like a refreshing, new, authentic world.