Reality TV... Allegory of The Cave

In the dictionary the word allegory is defined as a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another. To my understanding this means a person believes what they are shown. In Plato’s The Allegory of The Cave, the prisoners have never seen outside their cave; but they are shown silhouettes of different objects on the cave walls and they are told that the shadow specifically is that object, the prisoners of course believe this not knowing anything else. I think in today’s society there are many representations of allegory happening right before our eyes. The biggest example that I could think of is reality TV. Every night millions of satisfied people tune their TVs to their favorite reality TV shows; sitting their soaking up every bit of action and drama preformed by the people on the show. One of the most popular reality TV shows I can think of is the Real World. The show consists of seven complete strangers thrown together in a house to live and work together. The show is filled with romances, affairs, fights and of course tons of drama, it keeps the viewers hooked. But why is this allegory? Well it is simple, as the viewers sit there and watch this so called reality TV show, they believe that everything they are seeing is real; I mean it is reality TV. For all we know these people could be professional actors; maybe not even actors, they could be real people, but they could be reading off of a script. And how are we supposed to even know if the show is really taking place where they say it is, one season they were supposedly living in Australia, but we would never have known if it really took place in California. Allegory is convincing us of something we are not completely sure of, like the prisoners in the cave believed what they were being shown was actual, we believe all the drama on reality TV shows is real.