Reality TV is uglier than ever
Can we justify reality TV in a social media world?
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For the past 15 years, reality TV and social media have been in a kind of cold war. Twitter, Reddit, and other platforms aren’t companions to reality shows as much as they are underminers, exposing behind-the-scenes producer antics and digging up spoilers. They’re also a direct line of communication between contestant and audience. Stars who run afoul of viewers are subjected to abuse that lands directly in their DMs. In the case of Love Island, this has had tragic consequences.
Winter Love Island (U.K.—the only Love Island I recognize) premiered last night, and for the first time, the show has ordered the contestants to go dark on social media during their time in the villa. In past seasons, they handed over their accounts to family or friends, who used the platforms to root for the respective contestants and, inevitably, battle audience reactions. By forcing the accounts to go dormant, ITV execs are likely hoping to discourage superfans from dumping their abuse (of which, this season, there is already plenty) directly on contestants, and encourage them instead to just talk shit in group chats like normal viewers.
Social media has been the elephant in the villa for a while. In 2019, when season five contestant Molly Mae presented herself as an influencer, the reactions were mixed. There were the inevitable “that’s not a real job” accusations. But she exposed something contestants still struggle to admit: Reality TV is useful for getting followers. Indeed, Molly Mae is now one of the most successful Islanders, with close to seven million followers on Instagram and a job as the Creative Director of the women’s clothing retailer Pretty Little Thing.
In recent seasons, according to former contestants, one of the first things Islanders want to find out from new contestants is how many followers each of them have gained on social media so far. The more followers they have to come back to at the end of their run, the better they’re set up for success—but also, the more potential abuse they have waiting for them.
According to a Love Island U.K. deep dive in Vanity Fair (essential reading for any Love Island fan, by the way), before they leave the villa, Islanders sit down with a publicity team to be briefed on what the public thinks of them. This ostensibly steels them for what may be lurking in comments or plastered across the Daily Mail in headlines. It’s the kind of stuff the moderators of the Love Island subreddit have to navigate in real time.
“Some of the content we have removed is really vile and upsetting,” they told me in a group interview over the summer. “We see the worst of the worst that the internet has to offer.”
This season, the subreddit has made some changes. The moderators turned on Crowd Control, a feature that limits what kinds of users can interact with posts. Moderators hope that now, when content from the subreddit is pushed into r/All, people who are not fans of the show can no longer brigade them. (Brigading is when one subreddit invades another to harass its users.)
The efforts from ITV and the subreddit are valiant, but they’re essentially plugging small holes in an already sinking ship. If fan accounts fill the void left by the dormant contestant accounts, the harassment just moves to a less personal—but still public—location. r/LoveIslandTV turned on Crowd Control, but those who wish to be vitriolic can just take their venom elsewhere.
There is no single, surefire solution to social media’s sometimes toxic role in reality TV. It’s not just Love Island—The Bachelor, Big Brother, Survivor, Love Is Blind, and pretty much every other reality show, regardless of its format or policies, runs up against the same issues. It’s time for a much bigger reckoning. Ethically, can we justify making reality TV in a social media world?