Why Love Island is 100% our type on paper

If you had asked me, two months ago, to watch Love Island, I probably would have questioned whether you knew me at all, but now here I am, almost a week after the final, still tagging my friends in those hilarious polar bear Chris memes. Some 3 million viewers watched Kem and Amber being crowned the ultimate couple on Monday night’s finale alone and most of us have no shame in turning down plans to instead turn on the TV at 9pm, but what exactly made the hit series, that even Stormzy loves, so addictive?

One of the main things that play into the nation’s addiction for the show is simply the fact that we’re so incredibly nosy. It almost becomes a thrill to watch others in their most personal and embarrassing moments and this way, with all the cameras, there’s no one to tell us were being absolute gossip queens.

‘On paper’ (prepare for a lot of puns in this one), all the contestants are doing is tanning out on sun loungers in one of the most stunning villas in the Balearic Islands whilst being treated to luxury dates.  What could be easier than that? However, being enclosed in the same provinces with the same people and little to no contact with the outside world can definitely lead to a build-up of strong emotions in such an intense atmosphere. As we saw with Camilla’s journey, in particular, the format of the show forced contestants to tackle their emotions and issues head on with nowhere to escape and this definitely pulled on our heart strings as viewers. A large majority of the audience were made up of teens ranging from 15-18 years and I believe part of the reason for this demographic was due to the mirroring between the villa life and school life. By being shown how contestants faced up to their dramas in a very restricted environment the way we, as students, sometimes are in the confines of our classrooms and common rooms, it’s very clear that teens across the country were able to relate to the various issues surrounding the villa, whether it be Gabby’s confidence knock or shocking amount of drama unearthed in those challenges. The cliques formed, the screaming matches, and even the secret text conversations all added up to form some sort of high school environment, barring the sex and smoking of course.

Along with relating to the situations that the islanders found themselves in, viewers often subconsciously identified with one or more of the contestants. By doing this it allows us to become all the more excited for the highs, such as Montana finally being attracted to someone, as well as causing us to be particularly angry when someone ‘pies off’ our favourite islander. This all draws us further into the show and leaves us wondering what we would have done if we were in their shoes. Not only are we relating to them, we’re also comparing ourselves to them. We get the chance to measure ourselves against the islanders thinking, “I’d never say that about someone on camera”, “I’m glad my boyfriend doesn’t act like that”, or even “I could do a much better rap than that Chris and Kem”. From all of this alone, it’s fair to say that Love Island stimulates far more topics than love alone.

And finally, perhaps my most favourite part of the show, the islanders of 2017 have gone a step further in including their viewers and truly giving us the Love Island experience with their incredibly amusing vocabulary. Like the rest of us, I’ve made countless jokes about someone being totally “muggy” or having someone’s “eggs in my basket” over the last seven weeks. Not only does this allow us to incorporate the Majorca villa lifestyle into our own, it displays a certain type of togetherness between the contestants. They have quickly developed a shared language, accepted by all, indicating a degree of likeness in their thinking and making them all the more lovable for it. I don’t know about you, but I've fallen for Love Island and I’m certainly going to miss hearing the islanders shout “I’ve got a text” across the garden.

So don’t be a ‘melt’ and go catch up on Love Island. You won’t be disappointed.

Thank you for reading!
Aman

(Thanks Niku for the very creative title)