"Most recently I’ve been watching 'Love Island,' I just finished that one," Weis said. "I also like 'Too Hot To Handle,' 'Perfect Match’ and 'Love is Blind.'"

Even though she knows it’s not like real life and that it can seem very scripted at times, Weis can’t help but keep up with them. She can’t help but watch for one reason: the drama.

These shows end up hooking viewers by showing contestants fighting and letting them weigh in with online voting and picking favorite couples. Viewers become emotionally invested in the outcome of the show. They see each contestant as more of a character, rather than an actual person. Journalism sophomore Murphy McIntyre has picked up on this particular trend.

"People just really like drama," McIntyre said. "By watching reality TV shows they can observe drama with being completely detached from it."

Could consuming all this content be dangerous to how we perceive our real-life relationships?

McIntyre elaborated on people enjoying being "detached" from the drama. She thinks that these shows end up being more of an escape. Instead of having to face tuning into the drama of your own love life, you can simply log in to Netflix and watch someone else’s fall apart.

There can be some good out of the thick cloud of drama, however, it has made advertising management senior Hannah Ullmann more cautious.

"I think with me (reality TV) made me more wary," Ullmann said. "It’s made me more wary about who I’m going out with and who my friends are going out with."

Ullmann and her friends enjoy watching the shows together. They see the ways people can praise you in person and undermine you behind your back. Weis agrees that this makes viewers more cautious in their own lives, and thinks it’s much harder to find people in college with genuine intentions.

"I think that these reality TV shows, especially ones where you’re switching partners and talking to everyone on the show, it kind of just makes (hookup culture) more okay," Weis said. "When in reality I think hookup culture is not that great. I think it can definitely be very toxic and definitely takes tolls on your morals and self-interest."

McIntyre had similar thoughts to Weis, and this reminded her of the resurgence of romantic comedies, often dubbed as "rom coms." Recently the romcom genre has seemed to make a huge comeback, in both film and print. McIntyre sees this as natural result of the normalization short term relationships in media.

"People that want serious relationships may go to those forms of media to find a kind of replacement for that feeling," McIntyre said. "They kind of use these romcom and forms of media to project themselves onto the characters and imagine themselves in this maybe more serious relationship that they wish they had, but they can’t find."

It's important to keep in mind that actual relationships vary greatly from your favorite reality TV show. 

"I feel like it’s definitely more for the popularity than actually finding love," Weis said. "They all say 'Oh, I’m here for a genuine connection.' Like, no one’s going to be honest. No one’s going to be like 'I’m just here for a good time and to get famous.'"