One of my early internet obsessions, inspired by a fascination with shows like Total Drama Island and Survivor , was participating in “camps.” People who weren’t old enough to go on Survivor would host their own reality shows on YouTube. They’d mostly play out over YouTube DMs: we’d scheme in private-messages and essentially role-play Survivor ; the host would make a video announcing who was voted out, as if it was a TV episode. I eventually started hosting my own—a simulacra of a simulacra—