I am not an avid watcher of television, or at least my life doesn’t revolve around an electromagnetic box, but in the time that I find myself absorbing rasterized flashing images I can often be seduced by the ever-popular reality shows.

In the few hours I tune in to view a few sitcoms and documentaries, the reality TV shows I stumble onto I inadvertently watch for the longest period of time.

It’s not that I think that reality shows are examples of stylish and groundbreaking programming, but I’ve found I’ll watch a simple-minded dogtrotting socialite, a fumbling bounty-hunter with a mullet and a female marathon-runner senselessly stuffing hundreds of hissing cockroaches into her mouth.

I watch because, like many young Americans, I find the absurdity of human nature engaging. However, I am aware that there are a percentage of prime-time vegetables who take in reality shows such as Laguna Beach to become absorbed in the real-life characters of feigned reality.

I have to lay into these drones for glorifying the losers of reality TV, and for trading the events of their humdrum lives at the end of the day with chronicles of sensualized head cases.

Even at the risk of losing all credibility, I have been guilty of becoming immersed in the outrages lives of the “real people” on TV, however, not to the degree as some devoted fans. While I might not have barricaded myself indoors and lived like a recluse to watch a marathon of “Survivor,” or carried on aimlessly to my best friend about every compelling episode of “The Apprentice,” and at one time I allowed myself to be sucked into MTV’s “Real World.”

As a “Real World” drone, I watched the unfolding broken lives of Lars, Sharon, Mike, Neil, Jacinda, Kat and Jay.

There have been several seasons of this gripping and pointless show, which take place in glamorous metropolitan locations documenting seven strangers living and interacting in an avant-garde estate.

After viewing my first dose of reality TV, I didn’t get the enveloping and meaningful private lives of ordinary people as I had anticipated, but I continued to watch the show much like the nonsense I stumble upon today just to be amused by the inane antics of people who exist in their own class of stupidity.

It may come across as tasteless to admit to watching something because it exploits idiocy, but there’s really not much else on.