The Early Formation of an Alternate Universe

So I had firmly decided that I wasn't going to date or hook-up with anybody for a while because I needed to focus on myself, my career, get my life in order, make new friends, etc. I know that the only reason I would want a boyfriend right now would be to stave off loneliness and it would be a quick and easy way to have someone to go out with. Then what? I build my entire life around this one person because I don't have anybody else and when it goes south I'm screwed. No, I don't want that. I want a network of friends, acquaintances, going out friends, staying in friends, gossip friends, etc, etc, etc. Then, once I got my life settled and was at a point where I felt like I could share my life with someone other than myself, then I'd think about dating. But then, of course, LIFE HAPPENED!
No, I'm not dating anyone at the moment, nor can I honestly say that what happened was enough to deter me from my plan, but it got me thinking about the plan. Do I want to be single for that long? Wouldn't I want to flirt with someone; maybe even go out with someone, even if it was for just one date? It's not a marriage proposal, nor is it even a long term commitment, or a promise of a future. It's just a date. A date that is not set in stone, a date that has a lot of "ifs" and "maybes" attached to it. A date that is contingent on the stars aligning in just the right way. A way that is so infinitesimally specific that it seems almost certain to fail.
And yet, I still want it.

The Jersey Shore Train-wreck

Let me make one thing clear from the beginning of this post; I am not going to bash the show because I have never seen it.
Jersey Shore. Everyone's talking about it. Everyone is watching it. People can't seem to get enough of it. We are all love to escape our daily trials by living vicariously through the rich and glamorous. Yet the only thing I hear about the show is how bad it is, how absurd it is, how people only watch it to make fun of it. Now I'm willing to accept what I will call "the train-wreck phenomenon" which is rubbernecking to get a better look at some horrible situation simply out of curiosity. Very scientific definition, I know. We've all experienced this at some point. Traffic on one side of the highway has slowed down because there's an accident on the other and people feel the need and the urge to slow down and look at the accident, or whatever is left of it. I get it, Jersey Shore is so bad you can't help but watch it. But the train-wreck phenomenon only lasts for a few moments. After a while, your curiosity is satisfied, you can't really see anything, there is nothing left to see after a time.
If it really as bad as people say it is, shouldn't it have been pulled off the air already? Is Jersey Shore a car wreck where one's curiosity is satisfied after a few moments? Or is it a train wreck where there is so much damage it takes a lot longer for the mind to process it? Where it is so awful that it commands our attention; a sight that you do not want to behold but you find yourself staring and taking in every horrible, twisted detail?