If you use the internet for absolutely anything, you’ll have seen the words “Love Island” scattered anywhere and everywhere. In case you somehow don’t know what I’m talking about, Love Island is a British show on which contestants enter a villa, and have to pair up in order to find love, and win the show by being the best couple.

I can’t lie, I’ve never actually watched a full episode of Love Island. I’ve only seen clips posted around, but I’ve read a lot about it on social media such as Instagram, and Snapchat articles, as well as posts that people I know have shared, as many of them watch and enjoy the show. But I believe that for the issues I’m going to address here, I don’t actually need to have seen lots of the show, as they seem fairly evident from what I have seen.

The most obvious issue is the lack of race diversity on the show. When the show first started in early June, it was obvious yet again that the producers had not taken in the recommendations from viewers in previous seasons, in which people had voiced that they believed there needed to be more non-white contestants in the villa. In the first episode of Love Island 2019, there were three contestants who weren’t white – Sherif Lanre, Yewlande Biala and Michael Griffiths – and viewers were upset when they realised that all of these contestants were chosen last to couple up with, or their partner left them to couple with someone else. Whether this was intentional or not, it shows that even when the producers do put non-white contestants on the show, they are still viewed as less attractive than the white contestants. In 2019, this isn’t the mindset that we should have, and Love Island is not helping to show diversity in the world of TV dating – giving the idea that this isn’t the type of show that we need.

Another evident diversity issue is body diversity on the show. All of the islanders have great bodies that they most likely have worked hard for (which of course there is nothing wrong with), but this again shows that the TV dating world does not show diversity. Many of the viewers and people around the world do not look like the islanders, and it can be very damaging for such a popular show to promote the idea that in order to get a date and be found attractive, you need to be slim and toned, most likely with a six pack too. Anna Vakili is this year’s contestant who is the closest to being considered plus-size, but if you ask me, one contestant who is not quite as slim as the others is not enough. Many viewers have expressed that they wish that the show would recruit a couple of contestants who have more “regular” bodies, which are closer to the bodies that many of the viewers themselves would have. One viewer Tweeted: “Come on @LoveIsland, Let’s see a plus size woman and a normal bloke with body hair and a dad bod… I’m sick of every new contestant being a model and / or a social influencer.”

There are other problems with Love Island, one of which is that it makes people famous for doing nothing more than being attractive and wanting to find love. Should we not be promoting the idea that you should become famous for being hardworking and talented? Especially when a lot of young, impressionable people watch the show. We should be advising them to work hard for what they want, not let them hope that they can just rely on going on a reality TV show in order to get somewhere.

I don’t think that the people on the show are bad people, as such, I just don’t exactly agree with the premise of the show and some of the morals that it seems to present (or not present, in cases of race and body diversity). I don’t believe it is the type of show that we need on TV, however, I understand that reality shows are immensely popular, and I don’t imagine they’ll be coming off of air anytime soon.

You just won’t catch me tuning in.