…By Mary
It was a completely different era when I first starting watching soaps in my teens.
We have all heard the stories from our parents/grandparents of walking to school, both ways, uphill, barefoot, in the snow, etc. But how different was our childhood versus the childhood of today? Granted, I don’t think any of us ever walked to school in the snow, but how many of us had the option of choosing one show from 250 channels of television. Most of us had maybe 5 or 6 channels to choose from, and if you were one of the lucky ones, your television had color. Heaven forbid, the kids of today would go insane if they had to survive a night when the president was speaking on every single channel.
With the recent news of two more soaps being cancelled, I’m left to wonder how long will it be until the world of soap operas become a thing of the past. Soaps were not only known for their outstanding romance but for their adventures, angst, heartbreak, and weddings, blended with just enough real life issues to make them believable. They took the pain staking time to carefully construct characters and history and made sure their future storylines reflected that history. This is no longer the case.
I have asked myself, who is really to blame for the decline of the soap world? We tend to blame the writers with everything that is wrong in soaps today and I do agree to a certain extent. Without excellent storylines, build-ups, cliff-hangers, and pay-offs, there is no way that soaps of today are going to survive. A perfect example of this being just recently. I watched part of an episode of Days to see Adrienne talking to Jennifer, encouraging a relationship between Jennifer and “some new doctor”. Somehow I think the writers have forgotten that Adrienne is Jack’s sister, whom she fought so hard to find and reunite with the Johnson family. Jack is married to Jennifer and now Adrienne is encouraging her sister-in-law into a new relationship. WTH? So much for history.
So why aren’t today’s teens watching soaps? Have any of TPTB considered the fact that not one single soap opera airs during the time frame that teenagers are at home? At least not in my time zone. They are consistently trying to target an age group that does NOT exist. The teenagers of today are in school with most being involved in extracurricular activities well into early evening hours. The ones that are out of school are at the mall, have their heads glued to a computer, a phone permanently attached to their hand, or they are working! In the time that is being spent at home, with over 250 channels airing in the average American household, the competition against the soap opera is becoming insurmountable.
So has our ever changing world of technology doomed the next generation to where there is no longer a sense of anticipation in a world where “now” technology is all they are accustomed to? Teenagers, especially, have been so impacted by the “now” factor that they do not understand the concept of romance much less want to take the time or effort to build a lasting relationship. Then I would have to ask if any of the kids today know the meaning of romance in the same context as we know it? My answer would be, “Probably not.”
Then we have the “reality TV” factor. Reality TV so impacted our lives that we can no longer see the beauty in romance but only the often times vulgar and shock effect drama that is so blatantly forced upon us today. Shows where every third or fourth word is bleeped out due to excess language and black bars across the screen to hide offense exposure and/or hand gestures. Shows where common human decency and compassion are never given a second thought.
Men/boys no longer feel the need to protect the one they love. Women/girls make it a point to reinforce the idea that they are independent and do not need to rely on a man for protection. I am convinced that romance is dying very rapidly in a generation that is no longer willing to take the time or the effort to write a simple love note to one another. For example, I opened my laptop one morning to find a little note laid on the keyboard from my hubby. It simply said, “I’m proud of you. I love you.” My kids thought it was nothing special; to me, it meant the world.
So what is really killing off the world of soaps? Is it the writers, the execs, the world of technology, reality TV, or dying romance? I, personally, believe it is a culminating effort of all of these and it will truly be a sad day when the wonderful world of soaps come to an end.
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