You plop down on the couch after school and turn on the TV; what do you see? Reality shows starring out-of-control alcoholics or drug addicts, women revealing themselves as much as legally possible, and high school kids getting drunk and/or pregnant. Is this really what people are into these days, or is it society that’s throwing it our way?

Shows on MTV such as 16 and Pregnant, Engaged and Underage, and Sex with Mom and Dad all put the limelight on minors engaging in nearly every illegal activity imaginable without any message of discouraging it. Is this really the kind of exposure our society is encouraging? Or are we encouraging the television industry to produce these kinds of shows? It’s clear to me that the media has changed from what it used to be, but we’re not discouraging it. It’s a joint effort between the viewers and the producers; the more you tune in, the more they’re going to give you.

If you were to go back to television’s early years, you may not even see anything that appeals to you. Popular shows and sitcoms included tight-knit families with G-rated plots such as The Brady Bunch and The Beverly Hillbillies. You wouldn’t turn on the tube to see Playboy models aimlessly running around naked or drug addicts struggling to shoot heroin through callused and collapsed veins, which is featured weekly on E!’s Girls Next Door and A&E’s Intervention.

The new documentary series on MTV, Gone Too Far, features Adam Goldstein, formerly known as "DJ AM," helping drug addicts go to rehab. The show explicitly reveals the addicts using the drugs on television with no censorship. Gone Too Far is designed not only to help people, but also to inspire others with the hope in its success stories. Ironically enough, "DJ AM" died recently after he finished filming the show in late August, from none other than a drug overdose. Specifically, OxyContin, crack-cocaine, hydrocodone, Ativan, Klonapin AND Xanax were all found in his system during the autopsy. How inspiring is that?

Don’t get me wrong; I like a good episode of Desperate Housewives as much as the next guy, but there’s more to life -- or TV -- I should say. I don’t think it’s healthy for our society to become too sucked in to this fad of overexposing sexuality. Do we really want our generation becoming so obsessed with the sex we see on TV that we lose sight of the things in life that actually hold significant value?