The Real World.

Today is Wednesday and that means Real World on MTV. Yes, I know the show is like 20 years old and is very overrated but my roommates and i have really bonded over watching other roommates make living hell for each other. Tonight was a very important episode that we've all been anticipated for some time. The commercials for the episode include someone breaking a glass coffee table and someone ripping a phone out of the wall in anger. Needless to say it was going to be tense.

Well, I wouldn't even of thought of Family Science during the show if J.D. (one of the roommates) didn't mention how he thought they were a "family." So with family science in mind, I was able to see the structure as well as the function of this so called family. It is clear each person in the house is a strong individual with a even stronger personality. The Function works according to their own self philosophies, which gets them by for awhile until a conflict arises.

The boys in the 'family' notice that they are doing all the work and the girls seem to think everything will magically get clean if they let it sit long enough. The also seem to be very disrespectful to the boys by leaving hair in the sink, not filling the car up with gas and basically not picking up after themselves.

The boys first try to calmly approach them and ask them nicely to do what seems like normal daily chores. The Girls at first challenge the boys by accusing them of trying to control their lives but eventually agree in order to make the boys go away. This happens a few more times until one of the boys decides to give the girls a taste of their own medicine. When the girls try to leave the house they can't find the correct key for the car. Turns out the boys hid the key in an attempt to make them clean up. This does not work and only makes the situation worse.

Finally the boys realize that all they do is fight with the girls about respecting them. They see that the context changes but the function of the process of confronting the girls is always the same.

To change the function the boys decided to stop respecting the girls (only in nonviolent ways such as yelling and breaking things) although all the girls thought it was really unnecessary (which it was) it caught their attention. They felt as if the boys are really overacting and the request they have are simple. By the end of the episode tension in the house is lifted and the girls begin taking out the trash and washing their own dishes.

I find it so interesting that I can find family science and its theory on tv constantly. I was really interesting to see the type of family that is not bloodrelated. Your thoughts?