In 2004, VH1 started a block of reality shows that they’ve dubbed “Celebreality.” Finally! I’ve been waiting for this for awhile. I’ve been dying to know who Flava Flav’s new love interest is. And I can’t wait to see the fat guy from The Sopranos lose weight.

Now most of you probably got a chuckle out of the absurdity of watching D-List celebrities involved in bizarre competitions. But VH1 is laughing all the way to the bank. When they started “Celebreality,” the ratings on the entire channel went up by 20 percent, a channel record, according to a USA Today article. How can this be so?

We live in a world dominated by Hollywood and “the media.” But what, exactly is “the media?” We hear about it all the time, as in the media is corrupting our youth, controlling our information and influencing our thoughts and actions. However, the term itself is ambiguous. Is it simply the news media? To an extent yes, but I think the media is a multifaceted organism that extends itself all across America, and the nucleus of that organism is Hollywood.

If you went up to your parents today and asked them to name all four of your professors, could they do it? Many of you would say no. But ask them some useless piece of trivia, like the cast of Ocean’s Eleven, or who played Fonzie on “Happy Days” and suddenly they’re rattling names off like they were born with the knowledge.

At an early age, we’re conditioned to respond to the images on the television and in the movies. Something as innocent as “Sesame Street” or “Teletubbies” is actually the root of our cultural indoctrination. Sure, “Sesame Street” helps kids learn … to go out and buy Tickle-Me Elmo dolls and DVDs of the Muppets. And the Teletubbies? Creatures with televisions implanted in their bodies. What kind of message does this send?

By the time we’re six, we’ve graduated to cartoons and it’s all over from there. We’re consumers of the Hollywood product our entire lives, and there’s no escaping it unless you’re Amish. We’re Pavlov’s dogs, and Hollywood holds the bell. Except we pay money to salivate, and we don’t care about what we pay for.

Case in point? Star Wars: Episode III was the highest grossing movie of last year, and it was a piece of trash. But because it had the Star Wars name, it beat out the competition by nearly $90 million dollars. And that’s just on tickets, not to mention the merchandising. You couldn’t open a bag of potato chips without Hayden Christensen’s ugly mug staring back at you. And yet we continue to buy into it.

Even on the 24-hour “news” networks, you’ll see issues such as the Israel-Hezbollah conflict competing with the pictures of Tom Cruise’s new baby.

Some of you might say, “Well, who cares about Tom Cruise’s baby?” The answer? We do. Our society is obsessed with celebrities. I used the example before of your parents naming celebrities, but not professors, and you may have thought, “Well, that’s not me, that’s my parents.”

Yet I bet any one of us could name more celebrities than politicians. And, contrary to what Alec Baldwin will try to tell you, celebrities don’t have any more of a say in our government than we do.

I use “Hollywood” as a loose term to reflect the entire entertainment industry — one of the largest industries in the world. It really encompasses movies, TV, music, sports, books, fashion and the Internet. Or basically, what we now define as our culture. Since when did culture become a product? It was probably around the same time that they began to bottle water and sell it to us, and we bought it.

You can’t go and buy pieces of culture in Africa or Europe. These countries have histories and traditions. Customs are passed down from generation to generation. America, being the melting pot of the world, doesn’t have a distinct culture yet. And the culture that we are generating is not one we should be proud of.

I’ll concede the point that much of the culture is harmless. I’m not saying it’s not okay to go watch movies, buy music you like or watch the Red Sox game. All I’m saying is that we have to watch where we get our information, or we may no longer be able to distinguish between what is real and what is not. For example, when did Oprah’s opinion become more valued than anyone else’s? Or Michael Moore’s for that matter? Or Bill O’Reilly’s? Just because it’s on TV, in a book or in a movie doesn’t mean it’s any less comprised of crap than anything else.

We live in a world where the media tells us what to think. We live in a society that cares more about reality television than actual reality. We live in a country where culture can be bought on iTunes.

We live in Celebreality.