People get sucked into soap opera's for one main reason. It's a fantasy escape from the trials of our every day lives. It's fun to be able to follow your favorite "people" every day to see what kind of malicious devilry they can conjure up.

Most soap characters are people with money. More money than they know what to do with. Along with that comes certain benefits and certain troubles. They live their luxurious life without having to work most of the time. They can be any place they want to be at any time of the day or night.

This leads to our fantasies about wanting money. Lots and lots of money to be exact. I wouldn't mind if my man could come sweep me off my feet in the middle of the day. I also wouldn't mind if he could be there to rescue me twenty four hours a day.

People are so much into their soaps that they won't answer their phones if someone calls during their soap time. My grandmother was like that. You could call her any other time, but if you called during her soaps, you best not expect an answer. If you miss one soap you have missed it forever. You won't soon be seeing them available for rental on Blockbuster or Netflix. It's a one time shot.

It's not likely that you will gain a wealth of knowledge watching these stories. They aren't based on anything that could really happen in real life. Women do not fall in love with and marry their rapists. People don't kidnap other people on a daily basis as happens in soaps. There is nothing realistic about them. That is what makes them so wonderful. Who wants reality? If I want reality, I turn off the television and live my life.

Soaps started completely different than what they are today. There wasn't the action packed drama that we see on the screens now. They were more sob stories back then and who's the daddy type drama. Now you get everything. You get mobsters and murder, teen angst and adult action and you will probably see one or two explosions a week.

People get hooked on drama of any type. For those that stay home during the day, that's what is one television. That's why they get started. They get hooked because they want to see what is going to happen next. It's a never ending story that goes on for years and years.

You can expect to turn on a soap three years later and pick up on the story line almost immediately. Characters change very little over the years. Therefore, you get very attached to them and their "not so real" lives. You come to feel they are a part of your family and when something bad happens to your favorites it just tears you up inside.

The "not so dead" line is also a great catch to the suspecting audience. Just think how wonderful it would be if the people we lost in our lives really did come back from the dead. It happens all the time in soaps. It gives a little more to the thought process in real life. It gives us a little hope that things could happen like that. After all, it made sense in General Hospital when Laura came back from years of being dead. Okay, so it didn't really make that much sense. I never bought the fact that the Cassidines had held her captive all those years. However, it was fun to think that something like that could happen.

Soaps are an escape just as all television shows or movies are. We can escape for a little while into a world of troubles that we don't have to do anything about. Honestly, if I still stayed at home, I would easily find myself hooked into the same soaps that I watched years ago.

Long live the soap world. We need a little bit of fantasy to go along with our world of reality!

Learn more about this author, Dawn Hawkins.
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