by Athena Brady

Created on: November 20, 2009   Last Updated: November 21, 2009

Lots of people love to watch soap operas; they spend hours every week tuning into different ones. So what is the attraction that draws people again and again, to watch their favourite soap? I would suspect, that there are many reasons people love to watch these programmes.

As human beings we are curious creatures we enjoy to watching and observing others. After all, this is familiar to us, as it is how we learnt as children. Sometimes people get sick of the day to day drudgery and boredom of every day life. Tuning into their favourite TV soap, may bring some much needed excitement to our lives. There is always some exciting cliffhanger that will grasp our attention and this often guarantees, we watch the next episode. If we happen to miss an episode we may ask a friend/neighbour/work colleague what happened.

In this way, our viewing becomes not only pleasurable but social too. Most have all seen and participated in office talk surrounding popular soaps. This may also keep us interested as it gives us something that helps us, to connect with others. Other people may watch because they really connect with the characters themselves. Who may have been through similar problems as them. For the lonely and isolated the actors and actresses may become their only connection with the outside world. Elderly or disabled people may be housebound, so television may become their lifeline to the outside world.

Most soaps are very forward thinking in their portrayal of issues that affect many members of society. They often take the lead in taboo subjects. Things we would not normally talk about in public, but in the safety and privacy of our own home can explore. This may provide us with alternative view points or solutions we may have missed ourselves.

Sometimes people watch soap opera's to see what the writer/s comes up with next. For example, how a supposed dead character can be resurrected. Most of us remember the many twists and turns of the Dallas plots. There are often characters that we love to hate like JR Ewing. We may wonder now how are they going to get away with that.

Soap operas allow us for the time we watch them, to live a fantasy life. To see how the other half live, the rich, the famous. To live their lives with them, watching their children being born, crying with them, being happy for their successes, sad for their losses, watching them/willing them to fall in love. In short, every aspect of their lives, we fall in love with them, hate them, root for them. As we experience the full spectrum of emotions, in the safe secure environment of our own home.

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