📱 Reality show contestants get way too much hate

I started watching a reality show a few weeks ago, just to pass the time after dinner. The show is fine. What I can't get over is the comment section after each episode. One contestant said something rude in one scene, and the edit made it look worse than it was. A friend sent me the full clip, and in the full clip she was clearly joking. She's been getting messages for weeks now. People are posting her photos with nasty words on them. I scrolled through some replies and felt a bit sick. These are strangers who will never meet her. Somebody wrote that she should leave the country. Over one joke that wasn't even funny. I closed the app and washed the dishes, which I never do voluntarily. I know the edit is on purpose. They want you to pick a side and talk about it. A cousin who works in a TV office told me contestants get a briefing, but nobody warns them about the comments. I don't know how true that is. If it is, it's like handing someone a sparkler without saying it burns. Maybe they sign up knowing the risk. Still, a 22 year old doesn't know what a million strangers feels like. I've stopped reading the comments under episode posts. It was ruining the show for me. Now I only watch and talk about it with my brother on the phone. We disagree and it's fine. Maybe that's the only healthy way to do it. Two people, one opinion each, nobody gets hurt. Has anybody else stopped reading comments? Do you think the channels should step in?

My neighbour's daughter was on a small talent show last year and the comments hit her hard. She stopped going out for about a month. Her mother kept her phone away at dinner. Nobody on the show called to check on her afterwards, which bothered her family more than the comments. So I'd say the hate is one thing, and the silence after is another thing.

The channels know exactly what the edit does. That's how they keep us watching and posting. I just wish someone told the contestants before they sign up, in plain words, what the comments can be like. It's easy to say they chose to be there, but a 22 year old doesn't imagine a million strangers. I mute every show's tag on my phone now and my evenings are calmer for it.

I stopped watching a few months ago, and it wasn't the show. It was what everyone was writing about it. Staying subscribed started to feel like standing in a crowd that's shouting at one person. I never posted anything mean myself, but I read all of it, and reading is a kind of clapping. Now I watch old cooking videos before bed and my phone has gone very quiet.