There are plenty of people who groan when they think of Big Brother, the TV phenomenon that 10 years ago changed the way we watched TV and more importantly the way we view ourselves as a society.

However being both on the inside and the outside of the roller coaster that put the lives of a few ordinary Australians under a microscope for 100 days each year I look back with a certain pride in what it achieved.

Most notable it got people talking about who we are as a people, real people with their real flaws, virtues and admirable qualities...people who just like us have emotions, thoughts and actions some of which we loved some of which we loathed but it allowed us to view ourselves like never before. We saw what it was like to see intimate relationships from the outside but have front row seats, and realise what it was like to be objective and get a different perspective on how we ourselves acted in similar situations. There were housemates which if we knew them we would not have a bar of , but when we saw them from a new perspective we loved them and understood them. Like me, I'm sure many people have been trulyshocked at how they reacted to housemates on screen compared to in person. Often the most hated people in life can be the most loved from the perspective of a non participant, this in itself is a priceless life lesson for us to take on board and allow us to have a greater understanding and acceptance of those around us. Often we don't understand why someone does what they do, Big Brother allowed us to understand and even to applaud it.

There were times that even the Prime Minister waded into the debate on the high rating show along with swags of commentators, yes they may have been correct in their assertions what ever they were, however what they were commenting on was a mirror, a mirror that shone back what was happening in our society. Young people wanting to be heard, some with a lot to say, some with not much at all. So when they were saying they wanted this mirror taken off the screens they were saying they want to hide what it is to be an ordinary Australian....to be a human. They said that our conversations were improper.... but they were happening across the country, they said when we had a few drinks we were all over the place...well that's fact and that is society, they said our nudity was improper.... but we were showering, they said we were poor role models, bogans, wannabes, bimbos, morons... and any other negative words that could be labeled at ordinary people, but at the end of the day that is what housemates were...just ordinary Australians in an extraordinary situation.

The fact that the lid was blown off our society was something many people didn't like. But what it did do was allow us to talk about all these issues in our own homes in the open. Big Brother started a conversation, amongst ourselves about ourselves and really was that such a bad thing?