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One could argue that The Real World New York, back in 1992, was the first major reality TV success story of the current reality TV era. One could also argue that it was the only Real World season, that even came close to portraying reality. Nearly twenty years later, The Real World is about as contrived and scripted as a so-called reality television show can be. Cast members have figured out how to parlay a role on the show into a few good years of E-list celebrity, and as such, all remnants of reality have gone completely out the window in favor of manufactured drama and plot-lines nudged along by savvy producers.

Now that’s not to say that the show in its current form is not entertaining (it clearly is), but there is no question that any realism contained within, has almost fully degraded. However, it seems to me that at some point along the way, the promised “reality” actually degraded so much, that entertainment value began to actually improve.

If I were to graph this out, it might look as follows (though the entertainment value line may come back up sooner and sharper):

And this doesn’t just apply to The Real World. Any show where one season’s viewers can be next season’s contestants, is subject to this same phenomenon. Some that jump to mind are Survivor, Big Brother, The Bachelor (um, “Bachelor Pad” anybody?), and American Idol (the tryouts mostly). Currently Jersey Shore is right on track with one season of semi-real “reality” and solid entertainment value, followed by a nice sharp degradation of each.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Matt over at CustomMade this morning for a coffee and chat about our respective companies, the internet, and randomly related things. On my way out, I was reminded how much I love doing this sort of thing; meeting and connecting with interesting people and just sharing ideas and thoughts on all sorts of things.

As such, I want to do this more frequently, and am thinking of trying to do a one-on-one coffee with someone new, every week. It doesn’t much matter who you are or what your background is (though online/product/marketing/digital/advertising types are preferred), but mainly that you are interesting and passionate about whatever it is you do.

So if you are up for grabbing a coffee (Espresso Royale on Newbury Street is my go-to spot), get in touch.

This past week, I upgraded my Motorola Cliq (stuck on Android 1.5) to a shiny new Samsung Vibrant (thanks Brendan for the nudge towards this phone). Of course step one with this new phone, was grabbing all of the appropriate apps. Some apps I had on my Cliq but didn’t use, got left behind; and some apps that didn’t run on 1.5 (but do on 2.1), I picked up brand new for this phone.

Here are my immediate download/installs. In no particular order:

• Advanced Task Killer – Crap runs in the background all of the time. This kills that crap.
• Shazam – Awesome, and awesomely useful app for tagging music you hear while out IRL (in real life). I use this a lot when I hear a song and want to remember to download it later.
• Foursquare – I am bullish on Foursquare. Anyone who knows me, knows that. You can even stalk me here.
• Twitter – My old phone didn’t run the native Twitter Android app. This one does. I am going to try this over Twidroid for a bit.
• Google Voice – I use my Google Voice number to handle all of my voicemail. Nice little app.
• OpenTable – I love the OpenTable app. I use this frequently when I am out somewhere already and want to make a quick reservation for later in the day/evening. So simple and so useful.
• Phone Flicks – Netflix doesn’t have a good native Android app. This is the next best thing for simple queue management.
• StickyBits- Just grabbed this. Haven’t used it yet, but I LOVE the idea of this and the possibilities.
• Delicious- I use this mainly for quickly bookmarking things I see on my phone, that I’d rather read on a regular monitor later.
• Yelp – Crossed up with OpenTable, I can find a place, and book a place, on the move.
• Pandora – Best streaming music app there is. I used to be a Last.fm guy, but I love plugging my phone into my audio jack in the car, and streaming Pandora.
• Bank of America – BOA’s Android app is fantastically simple. Check balances, make transfers, pay bills, all on the move.
• Facebook – Obviously. They just redesigned their app this week as well. Looks sharp.
• Starbucks Card Balance – This is a unitasker app, but I love it. One tap and I know my SBUX card balance before going into grab a coffee.

Anyone have any more suggestions?