What’s to like? C4 panned for social media reality show
FOR many social media users, the business of gaining hundreds of “likes” already feels like a ceaseless popularity contest – a game in which they have to ruthlessly edit their lives online to filter out the mundane, presenting only a carefully curated highlight reel.
Now, the competition to become the most popular on social media is being turned into a reality TV game show, with the winner pocketing £50,000.
Channel 4 heralds The Circle, which starts on Tuesday, as a “ground-breaking social media popularity contest”.
The show will see contestants living in separate apartments in the same block of flats and they will only have contact through a voice-activated social media network, called The Circle.
The aim is to gain as many “likes” from the other contestants. Those with the least will be “blocked” and removed from the show.
The Circle’s format is already attracting criticism for “glamorising” a side of social media that can have destructive ramifications for young people.
“It seems to glorify being something that you are not to gain likes. I feel that sends the wrong message, especially to young people,” said Danny Bowman, a mental health and body image campaigner who says his own struggle with body dysmorphia was “amplified” by social media.
Mr Bowman, who is director of mental health at the think tank Parliament Street, added: “The show is making entertainment out of a very real issue.”
The Circle’s presenter Maya Jama, the MTV presenter who is in a relationship with grime artist Stormzy, said: “Social media is such a huge part of everyone’s lives – Twitter, Instagram, Facebook – there is no escaping from it nowadays.
“I’m so excited to be a part of the first ever reality show which plays around with this. The Circle will show how each player’s mind works.
“Contestants will start with a fresh social media page and viewers will get to see what really makes people popular and how far players will go to become the most influential in the game.”
Alice Levine, co-presenter and Radio 1 weekend breakfast show presenter, said: “It’s going to be fascinating to see where they start from and where they take their brand new profiles to try and win.
“It’s exciting to be involved in such a timely show, plus, now getting sucked into an Instagram vortex is necessary ‘research’.”
There is nothing new in reality TV turning people’s desire for popularity into a mass viewing. But in recent years channels have utilised more personal dynamics to generate the requisite drama between contestants.
The standout success has been ITV’s Love Island, which transformed the intimate matter of finding a romantic partner into a blood sport. Last month it emerged that Ofcom received more than 4,000 complaints about the most recent series, many over the distress caused to the contestants. Mr Bowman, warned that The Circle is a “worrying” progression of this trend. “We started with shows like Big Brother in the early 2000s,” he said. “We are now at a point where it is getting more personal and hitting low points.
“Love Island was organised around body image and attraction and this show is going further. It is setting a worrying precedent.”
Channel 4 defended The Circle saying it will feature “a broad range of people from all walks of life that will highlight both the positive and negative aspects of how people use social media.”
The summary of the show read: “The Circle will enable them to chat, become friends, argue, compete against each other in physical and mental games and challenges and maybe even fall in love.
“Building their own brand new online profiles, players will only get to
‘It seems to glorify being something that you are not to gain likes. I feel that sends the wrong message’
know each other from what they choose to reveal via The Circle.”
A major study by University College London, Imperial College London, the University of Exeter and the Nuffield Trust released this week found mental health problems among the young have risen six-fold since the advent of social media. This month has been designated Scroll Free September by the Royal Society for Public Health to encourage people to give up social media for 30 days.
The Telegraph is also campaigning for a statutory duty of care on social media companies to better safeguard young people from online harm.