So does everyone else. Which is why we don’t get PhDs in psychology, but instead use in-group memes to communicate information about each other.
I’ve absolutely been in conversations—in work, politics and play—where we assigned people we knew to characters in a book, movie or TV show we shared. Ignoring this overlooks a fundamental way people communicate.
Unless you are over 60, I doubt you feel time running out acutely enough to let that feeling guide your daily actions. If you are younger and those feelings do guide you, congratulations, you are doing it right.
> but instead use in-group memes
in-group memes are useless to anyone not in the group, but they are useful to signify that one is in the group. I'm don't believe The Office characters rise to the level of being generally useful for communication. It's like "Friends" which I know is popular and been in the news recently. If you said "Oh she is so blah-blah (Friends character name)" I wouldn't have a clue.