They come from all over. Random people are thrown together for the common task of winning extravagant prizes. They are whisked away to some exotic location or a fancy home where they compete to win the parents’ affection or to stay standing the longest.

Is this reality? Well, it’s the reality the television industry has established. It all started 10 years ago with MTV’s “Road Rules” and “The Real World.” It was further cemented into people’s lives with the first “Survivor.” Since then, such shows as “Big Brother,” “Fear Factor,” “Meet My Folks,” “American Idol” and “The Osbournes” have infiltrated the airwaves and become the obsession of many.

But how is this reality? It may look that way from the outside, but it is impossible to capture reality on television when it involves shoving a TV camera into people’s private lives.

On “Survivor,” participants have to live in a primitive setting and complete various tasks to avoid being voted off the island. Yeah, that’s real. In reality, people get stranded on a desert island by chance, not by choice, and they don’t get voted off. And in reality, they don’t have a camera following them around.

Reality shows do not show a real sector of society. Take “Meet My Folks” for example. Three guys or three girls go to the home of a member of the opposite sex and stay for the weekend, competing to win the parents’ approval, and in turn, a trip to Hawaii with the bachelor/bachelorette.

These shows take place in large resort homes where people never have to leave and they have fax machines in all of the rooms. Only the rich and good looking will do. So why do these people need help finding a mate?

Segments throughout the show reveal dirty little secrets of the competitors and the parents choose to eliminate one and put the other two through a lie detector test.

Reality doesn’t work that way.

In reality, a guy meets a girl, and they date for a while. Maybe the couple breaks up, or perhaps they get married, but they don’t go on a show where three prospective mates are intensely interviewed by their parents for a weekend. Parents rarely have any input these days.

What about “Fear Factor?” Participants in this show are asked to perform horrific tasks that may harm them or at least test their bravery.

How can a television show really ask a contestant to do something that might seriously harm them?

And in reality, people don’t do horrific and death-defying stunts on a regular basis, if at all.

Cameras do a nice job of editing and making it look like something is happening that in reality is not.

The people who participate in these shows also are not reality. They are typically people in their mid to late 20s, who are good looking and physically fit. That is not very representative of the vast majority of society.

Maybe the only one with a more diverse age group is “Survivor” because they have to get the token older and younger competitors.

Maybe they are interesting shows, maybe they are fun and people like them, but why are they dubbed “reality” shows?

And of course, another new fad is “The Osbournes,” which peeks into the messed up lives of an old rock star’s family. Who comes up with these shows? How about peeking into the lives of a normal middle-class family? That would be reality.

And it doesn’t end there. Reality TV Web sites have links to dozens and dozens of various reality shows.

What is really hard to understand is how television of this nature has become all the rage.

But for whatever reason, reality television has found an audience, and new “reality” shows keep coming at a sickening rate. And America’s TV-loving population is biting.