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"Summer Break" Is Betting the Future of TV Won't Include a Television

It was only a matter of time.

Our virtual lives and "real" lives are morphing into a real-time, self-documented, rose-colored version of reality. It was only a matter of time until Hollywood decided to take this cyber-reality, wrap it up in a bow and market it to a national audience as entertainment.

Enter Summer Break, the new reality TV series sans TV, which will air exclusively on social media channels for eight weeks this summer. As the Wall Street Journal reported, the experimental series is the brainchild of big-time Hollywood producer Peter Chernin, who hopes it will disrupt the industry as we know it.

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The premise of the “show” is following nine Los Angeles teenagers that just graduated high school and set out to have “the summer of their lives.” That’s it. Viewers will follow the teens through updates, photos and videos in real-time, as they post to Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. (Facebook notably did not make the cut.) The idea is viewers will be keeping up on mobile devices, the primary platform for consuming content for Summer Break’s target audience: teens and tweens.

Paradoxical as it may seem, a TV-less TV show is the natural next step in the evolving relationship between television and social media. Hollywood has wisely embraced the power of Twitter and the like to generate buzz for their programs, and boost engagement.

Shows splash hashtags across the screen to encouraging second screen conversation, and incorporate interactive social features into popular shows. Trending Twitter handles have even been adapted into TV shows, and the industry eventually began airing shows exclusively online—on Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube—recognizing channel-surfing and scheduled showtimes as a thing of the past.

So a social media series makes sense, right? TV mirrors real-life and social media is a window into real life. Well, sort of.

I’m wary of Summer Break and, if it's a success, the others that will follow in its path. The self-involved aspect of social media is already bordering on nauseating. What makes television enjoyable is narrative—expert-written plot lines, character development and drama. While it's a safe bet nine good looking teens freely traipsing around southern California will produce some drama, there's no guaranteeing anything interesting will happen. The show isn't scripted and the producers will have minimal influence in what the cast chooses to do. If anything, the reaction of fans on social media will influence how the series unfolds.

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It's risky—if no suspenseful storylines unfolds, or none of the characters are compelling enough for you to care what happens to them (so far Zaq, Connor, Trevis, Ray and Kostas seem pretty unbearable—but maybe I’m just old), then you're just checking in on a bunch of people you don't know, living an enviable life you’d rather ignore. Why bother?

Granted, Summer Break won’t be a total free-for-all. A professional film crew will follow the teens around and produce minute-long "episodes" that will air on YouTube each day, and 3 to 5 minute clips each week, all designed to recap and supplement the real-time stream of photos, Vines, and updates.

But keeping up with social media already can feel like more work than fun. Summer Break has profiles on Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram and YouTube, which all point back to the profiles on the other platforms—an infinite loop. Do you pick your favorite social network to follow along?  Check in on all four? Some combination of them? Seems like a lot of effort for a pastime beloved for its laziness.

It’ll be interesting to see if this works. If Summer Break is a hit, mobile as a distribution platform will prove itself a force to be reckoned with, opening up the industry to independent producers or really anyone with an iPhone. Chernin's company, Chernin Group, still has traditional media partners, WSJ reports, but “is seeking to forge its own future online" by exploring partnerships with the likes of YouTube and Hulu. I don't think we'll be seeing "@mylife" or "#friends" win Emmy's anytime soon, but still, this is the future.