Media has a reasonably profound impact on our lives. For a reasonably large portion of my life, I've been idealizing certain media-based images of how life "ought" to be, in various ways.
For example, as a result of both small-town shows like Doug and Daria; and coast-centric shows like The Weekenders and Rocket Power, I alternated between wanting my middle school and high school years to be played out in the kind of place where everyone knows one-another, there are the wacky neighbors, and the town's economy functions perfectly despite the fact that there's only one of everything, and a really big and diverse experience where there were all manner of cliques and competing groups interested in different things, where a variety of different public places make up the weekly activities.
This affects other things too. My idea of the quintessential American road trip is essentially that which is depicted in A Goofy Movie. The Simpsons and other animated shows and sitcoms have neatly defined what it is to be American, and there are countless examples of these types of things. Generally, media feeds into real life and real life feeds into media. Both Harry Potter and An Extremely Goofy Movie affected what I thought going to college would be like. (Well, that and things like the later Boy Meets World series, plus countless other media that featuring college students.)
To be honest, even my old thought about what my 20s would be like were fueled by the images provided by shows like Friends and almost every American sitcom. I would go to my job and have a middling relationship with my colleagues, then get home to my relatively posh apartment, possibly with my various apartment- or house-mates, and the shenanigans would ensue. This isn't just stuff from my own childhood; modern shows like Big Bang Theory solidify the notion that we should all live together in apartments and pursue shenanigans while having exceedingly cool job functions.
In the sitcom of my own life, of course, I'm generally in perfect health and am the main character (although it could be I'm really a second or third string character in somebody else's sitcom) and I live (again, possibly with buddies) in the second or third floor of a building that has, in no particular order – the restaurant or café where my friends and I hang out, my own photo studio, and my apartment.
I suppose my own obsession with the notion comes from an interest in figuring out which part of the story arc I'm on, possibly in an effort to game the system, as in The Truman Show. It's interesting, while idly chatting with someone or when otherwise unoccupied to let my mind envision what a television show, movie, or book about me would be like. Is it a book about a specific happening, is it a TV show about a particular portion of life or a long-running slice of life web comic?
The sitcom of my life never really materialized, at least how I thought it would. However, a scene out of a Lifetime movie certainly did recently. While conferring with my colleague Julie about what to do for lunch and where to go, it turned out that she had plans with a friend or two and wanted to know if I wanted to go. Being unable to say "no" to food, I went along, especially as these were some of Julie's friends she had mentioned before.
We got there and there was already an extra person we hadn't known about, and immediately the greeting and hugging commenced. I value personal space far too much to exist in the media universe of Lifetime and even some of the sitcoms. The next person or three arrived and it turns out we were supposed to bring flowers for May Day. From there, it was a pretty standard "girlfriends meeting up" scenario, like an extended version of a meeting of the characters from Sex in the City, where everybody talks about what they've been up to, their husbands and kids, jobs if that applies at the moment.
And then, as if some switch was flipped, the leader of the pack declared it was time for "the news" – as though the discussion we'd just had wasn't newsy enough. Everyone went through and talked about one or two recent or upcoming things and agreed that it was good or bad as appropriate. It was suggested that I share a thing or so, so I mentioned something about moving into Julie's house, since that seemed appropriate. Julie, sitting to my right made a point of telling everybody that I was going to Denmark and Sweden for Eurovision. (This all took place before I did that, and I'm writing it on a time delay, as it were.) Immediately everybody was interested, which was hilarious and maybe atypical for a mediaverse where everybody already knows these types of things.
It certainly wasn't a bad lunch, but it's always hilarious when it strikes you (in the moment, even) that what's happening is so very similar to a contrived situation from media. It happens to me on a reasonably frequent basis and I'll have to be sure to take note of it when it does.