Ever feel like you’re the star of your own television show? Not a good one or the most watched one, but a show on the bubble, always teetering on cancellation?

You wake up, think about things, then go about your life. There are recurring supporting characters, the occasional guest star, and those who are written out because their contract’s up.

If you were the outside observer — a mere viewer tuning in for a bit of escapism — how many stars would you give your own program?

There’s a movie called The Truman Show about a man (Jim Carrey) whose life being broadcast live 24/7, only he’s blissfully unaware that his existence is scripted — entertainment for the masses. All of his successes and failures are orchestrated under the control of a director and a writer’s room.

I don’t know about you, but I feel like that from time to time.

I’ve updated all of my social media profiles now to include the description “fictional character.” I’ve done this for a couple of reasons — one of which was covering my backside after being warned a few of my private posts were bleeding over into public viewing — but the best excuse is that it seems correct. After some of the most horrible things I’ve endured or seen, I still ask myself too often, “Did that really happen?”

So my question is, how about you? With online media and cameras everywhere, every word recorded and every image archived, doesn’t it feel nowadays like we’re all on television? On display for the entire world to judge or sympathize with? The only control feels like whatever you put into your profile, a sentence or two to sum up your full existence into an easily digestible bite for any potential audience.

Here’s mine:

Bleeding-heart Millennial w/tragic backstory & fangs. Stargazer. Whedonite. Phlebotomist. Fictional character. Hugger.

On half of my profiles, there wasn’t enough room to squeeze even one additional word in, so I changed them all to match the smallest allowed description (turns out that’s Google+ with 140 words or less) and I like the consistency.

But I would be remiss if I didn’t confess a few folks I’ve spoken to don’t believe what I’ve been through in my short thirty years on this earth. I’m obviously disillusioned, a liar, and/or starving for attention… blah blah blah and yada yada yada. So for them and for me, there it is: fictional character — a made-up or imaginary person… because we all present the image of ourselves we want others to accept.

Maybe I should have someone mock-up a few fake book covers and slap my face on them. Timothy?

Keep each other safe.

~ Janiss

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