[ WP ] Your life is a sitcom , and it seems everything you do is funny for some unknown audience . One day , the laugh track disappears .

It ’ s funny, really, being raised into this. When my mother was a child, they had Keeping up with the Kardashians, one of many television shows that showcased the lives of some of America ’ s most popular celebrities. These shows were advertised as windows into the real, daily lives of the rich and famous, though they were often light on reality and heavy on manufactured drama. My mother was absolutely enamored with these types of shows.All well and good, of course, because the audience really just wanted to be entertained. Also on television were fictional representations of other lives, such as firefighters and police officers, doctors and nurses ( Fifty Shades of Grey ’ s Anatomy was a particularly confusing and racy depiction of life in a hospital ), lawyers, professors, and even presidents. That was 30 years ago, though. Today is quite different. 
 
 My mother went to school to study film and television production. She just couldn ’ t get enough. She turned her degree into an internship with one of the most cutting edge broadcast and production entities out there, Home Box Office ( or HBO ). Her first job was as an associate producer on the set of the first Game of Thrones series, which was an incredibly popular fantasy show filled with violence, gore, nudity, and sometimes violently-gory-nudity. Of course, we now have Game of Thrones VI: Space Dragons on VR-TV, which allows us to immerse ourselves in each episode, as Khaldrick, the son of Khaleesi and Podrick from the original series, traverses the universe on his Space Dragon. If you ask me, the show should ’ ve ended in 2017 when Podrick finally claimed his rightful seat on the Iron Throne, but here we are. 
 
 After bouncing around on a few different production teams, my mother found a home on the set of The Truman Show: The Show, a spin-off of The Truman Show, a movie about a man who is unaware that his life is a sitcom. He goes about his life, just like nearly all of you, except his life is made up. Everyone he interacts with is an actor, and his entire world is a fictionalized representation of reality. The show, in the movie, is a world-wide phenomenon, as people religiously tune into to watch Truman go about his day. One day, Truman finds out the truth of his situation, and the results are about as you ’ d expect. 
 
 Anyway, the idea of The Truman Show: The Show is essentially the same, just in a series format. The show wasn ’ t nearly as successful as its classic predecessor, but it lasted for three seasons. During the final week of shooting for the show, my mother ( driven by her love for “ reality ” television ) came to the producers with an idea: What if HBO produced the real version of The Truman Show, with one caveat: the subject of the production would be fully aware that he or she was being broadcast. 
 
 At first, HBO rejected the idea. However, as ratings for the network began to dwindle due to shorter audience attention spans and the merger of Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram, HBO realized they were falling behind. The consumption of media was changing, and there was growing interest in the consensual voyeurism that allows people to be a viewer of every aspect of a person ’ s day. They green-lit my mother ’ s idea, albeit with a few exceptions. One, they would choose the subject. And two, the subject would be a child. They got this idea from a controversial, but cutting-edge film that came out around the same time called Boyhood. The premise of this film was to follow the growth of a cast of actors over the course of many years, resulting in a fairly good exploration of what it ’ s like to grow up. 
 
 The difference, though, with HBO ’ s version, is that the cameras would always be on. No part of the subject ’ s life would be private, and no part of his or her life would be fictionalized. It would be a live-feed, always on, indefinitely. My mother, wanting to finally realize her vision, agreed without much hesitation. Over the next few months, “ auditions ” were conducted all over the country to find the right child for this role. Many pageant moms paraded their children into auditoriums and studios with the hopes that their child would be selected for the opportunity. The problem with this, though, is that there would always be interference from the subject ’ s family. See, the parents who wanted this life for their child almost always wanted this life for themselves, as well. That ’ s not conducive to creating a truly real experience, as these families are prone to the same kind of manufactured drama that audiences were used to from the Kardashians. 
 
 That ’ s when they shifted focus. That ’ s when they found me. Knowing that a child attached to a family would create a situation in which the family could get in the way of the network ’ s vision, my mother shifted her focus to children without families. Wards of the state. I was one of those children. When I was two years old, my birth mother and father were taken from me in a car accident ( this was before self-driving cars eliminated the danger of driving ). Both of my birth parents were only children. Both of them had already lost their parents years earlier. So, when they died, I was all alone with nobody to take guardianship of me. I don ’ t remember much of foster care, but I know that my mother rescued me from a much worse life than I have now. 
 
 I was officially adopted by my mother when I was 3 years old. She deemed me the perfect age to be the show ’ s subject because I was just learning how to speak in fairly complete sentences. This would ensure the audience wouldn ’ t get bored by a babbling baby, while also getting the opportunity to watch someone truly go through every stage of life. 
 
 After a few minor legal battles with religious and parental organizations that thought the show was immoral, my life went live. It started quite simply, with a three person crew consisting of my mother, a cameraman, and a network lawyer ( to be certain nothing illegal was happening, as to protect HBO from more lawsuits ). They just filmed me - in my crib, crawling, learning to speak, learning to walk ( and failing repeatedly ), even being potty-trained. It was all so... average. But it was real, and people went nuts for it. The show, titled Grow with Me, dominated all the trending topics on all social networks ( especially Twitchatagram ). I was an overnight sensation, and I didn ’ t even know it - yet. 
 
 One of the things that my mother and the rest of the show ’ s team wanted to do from the outset, was avoid any potential problems that my fictional counterpart, Truman, had. That means they wanted me to be fully aware that I was part of a production. I was to live my life, just the same way you would, except I had the full knowledge that everyone would be watching me grow. 
 
 And I absolutely loved it. 
 
 As I aged, and the show evolved, the network introduced new features and created a fully-interactive experience for the audience - and for me! I was made to wear Apple Glasses so the audience could view my life through my eyes. I was also always followed around by three drones, rather than a camera crew. This allowed me to function without having to deal with a production team. It was necessary, however, for an ever-growing security team to join me whenever I went out in public. The success of the show meant that every time I left my protected residence, I would be met with a large crowd of non-virtual onlookers. This didn ’ t bother me at all, but it did bother the network. My security team was to create a safe perimeter of 75 yards in all directions. They did so, astonishingly successfully, because most people were not interested in actually meeting me. I was a spectacle, after all. 
 
 Installed on my new drones were speakers which emitted different sounds for how the audience was reacting to my actions. This was coupled with the stats that were given to me on my glasses, which showed an Approval Rating, the Number of Viewers, Private Messages, and Suggested Actions. 
 
 All of these stats are simple to understand, really. The Approval Rating is a running meter from 1-100 that shows what percentage of the audience approves of what I ’ m doing with my time. The Number of Viewers is, of course, the total number of people tuned in to my life. Private Messages was a functionality that was supposed to let me talk with individual fans, but my inbox was flooded so quickly that I just muted all incoming communication from fans. Suggested Actions is the newest feature I ’ ve been given. 
 
 Basically, the audience could submit a request for what I should do next. Requests that grow in popularity ( based on interactions on various social networks ) are shown to me on my Suggested Actions feed. I can choose to ignore them, which I do for most actions, or I can choose to complete the action. As I walk through whatever city I ’ m in, people can offer mundane suggestions like “ pet the dog, ” if they see me approaching a dog on the sidewalk. I like that suggestion, and it ’ s usually met with a resounding “ awww ” from the drone ’ s speakers, as well as a near 100 % Approval Rating. 

