If diagnosed with reality-TV disorder, could one claim from medical aid, asks Sue de Groot If everything is relative, why do we bother telling every shopkeeper how cold/hot/ windy it is outside? Their perception of the weather might be the polar opposite of ours.Einstein, by the way, did not say "everything is relative". His theory of relativity stated that there are no absolute positions on the space-time continuum. The sloppy way we now use "relative" for everything from heat to hedgehogs was an unintended consequence.story_article_left1The law of unintended consequences was articulated by American sociologist Robert K Merton, who published an article in 1936 entitled "The Unanticipated Consequences of Purposive Social Action". Merton said the most common causes of unintended consequences were ignorance and error - both relative concepts, if the excuses of the ignorant and erroneous are anything to go by.The most relative word in today's lexicon must surely be "reality". It is also one of the most abused words in circulation, particularly since it has been painfully handcuffed to "television".This accident occurred in about 1991, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. It may have been an unintended consequence of the term "reality-based", which became popular in the 1960s. Before that, reality meant "that which is real".The unintended (or perhaps intended) consequence of so-called reality TV is the mental handcuffing of legions of fans to the idea that these ignorami (people with brains made of folded paper) are heroes whose actions are to be admired and emulated. That is my relative opinion. Others might see the Kardashians as solid pillars of society.block_quotes_start It's like an arranged marriage, except in this case every moment of newlywed bliss/hell is filmed block_quotes_endIt can, I suppose, be argued that the shiny-haired family members are in fact real, regardless of whether their lives are played to camera or not.But what, I ask with my hands raised to the relatively grey and chilly sky, is real about throwing a bunch of unrealistically attractive strangers together on an island and making them play silly games and form alliances against each other so that they can stay on the island for longer and do more of the same? What is real about billeting a bevy of beauties in a house so that they can compete for the hand of a man none of them has ever met before?Oh wait, I forgot. There's money involved.story_article_right2The problem is not the shows. The problem is trying to pretend they are part of reality. Survivor, Big Brother, The Bachelor and their myriad spin-offs are nothing but games played on a more elaborate scale than, say, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? There is nothing wrong with game shows. They are entertaining and someone gets to win a pile of money at the end. But why pretend they are real?Do the creators of so-called reality TV really think that we might be bamboozled into believing their shows are "real" and not manipulated, edited antics? Do any real people really suffer from such a delusion? If diagnosed with reality-TV disorder, could one claim from medical aid?A recent addition to the ranks of the unreal is a show called Married at First Sight, in which couples meet at the registry desk after being paired off by a team of "experts". It's like an arranged marriage, except in this case every moment of newlywed bliss/hell is filmed, and at the end of the show they decide whether to stay together or get divorced."Human kind cannot bear very much reality" wrote TS Eliot in Four Quartets. If Eliot had lived in the age of Married at First Sight, he might have changed this to "no kind of human should have to bear so much reality TV".E-mail your observations on words and language to Sue de Groot on degroots@sundaytimes.co.za or follow her on Twitter @deGrootS1...