The Style Channel Ain't Got Style Anymore!

I have something to admit ... I have an addiction and I'm pretty sure it's getting serious: I'm overdosing on fashion (and let me tell you, snorting the pages of fashion magazines is not an easy task).

The worst part is that, despite my efforts, I don't think I'm fooling any of my friends anymore; I wear my addiction on my sleeves, in the patterns on my legs, written all over my fabulous shoe collection, and occasionally on my head in the form of delicious woolen confections. It even materialized in a dream last night - in which I won a chance to walk the new Michael Khors runway. I woke up feeling fabulous until I realized it was a dream and immediately crashed from my euphoric fashion-high.

 My obsession became glaringly obvious to me, fellow historian Alicia, and dozens of innocent bystanders at Barnes and Nobles recently - I sat (a perfect cliche') in an adorable outfit (if I do say so myself) with a pile as tall as my torso (which isn't actually that tall unless measured in paper) of fashion magazines. In fact, that pile was so tall that it took me more than three hours to barely get through them (which means I had to set up another date with fellow fashionista Mekialaya - whose blog link is in the side bar).

Recently it's gotten a lot worse because, much to my chagrin, I noticed that I have entirely too few outlets for my 'use.' The Style Channel has forsaken one of its most avid fans by selling out - not to some big, unfashionable corporation - to the reality show craze; reality shows that have nothing to do with fashion or the latest fashion runways (see, Clean House and Supernanny). I mean, I remember sneaking peaks at  runway footage in-between commercials when I was in high school. Back then, I was style-restricted by a boyfriend who had no patience for hours of stick-thin models showing off gorgeous creations. Recently, having blown through all of my favorite (and distracting) TV series (see, TruBlood, Dexter, Diary of a Call Girl, The Tudors, and Six Feet Under) - I'm starting to get the fashion twitch again ...

So my question is what's with the reality freak obsession recently? I mean, for someone like me, there are only a handful of shows on different networks to satisfy my craving (Project Runway, What Not to Wear, Launch my Line, etc) - but for the most part, all of these channels are chalked full of useless reality  tv shows that have nothing to do with the network's who air them. Why is our society becoming obsessed with what other normal people do? I mean MTV, the music video network, doesn't show music videos anymore, just endless re-runs of reality shows filled with random (and useless) people.

Fashion obsessions aside: what does it mean for the next generation when everything boils down to text messages, myspace/facebook connections, IM conversations, and that immediate satisfaction addiction we're all plagued with?

With yet another decade gone, it's clear we all keep growing up ... and besides budding fashionistas ... I'm starting to wonder what most of us are growing up to be.