What girl in this day and age hasn’t watched, or at least heard of, the HBO hit show “Sex and the City?” None I bet, and I’d also wager that every group of girlfriends on the planet has had the “who are you most like?” conversation. (I’m Miranda, in case you were wondering.)

Yes, “Sex and the City” has come to play a tremendous role in all of our lives, and has become a huge icon for female life — hell, it’s what inspires me to write this column.

When Carrie wears something ridiculous, like, let’s say, a giant flower pin or gold name plate, it is on the racks in weeks and suddenly becomes a huge fashion trend. Girls surround themselves not only with Carrie’s clothes, but with box sets of the DVDs, posters and quotes they find online (which in turn can be found all over their Facebook profiles).

Many girls also use the show to influence their decisions about their own relationships … which is not an entirely bad thing. It gives them relatable and positive role models: powerful upper-class women whose friendships with each other are more important than their latest boy toys. This is all well and good, but I wonder: when does this TV show start to influence a girl’s entire reality?

“Sex and the City” is presented pretty realistically, but don’t be fooled: it is contrived, scripted and always tends to conveniently wrap itself up in the end. Many girls get together and watch the show several hours at a time; they rationalize and comment on the characters’ relationships and compare them to their own relationships, all within the scope of how the show interprets them. Important decisions about their love lives or lives with their friends are driven by the way they feel that the character they identify with would act.

Overall, the show is harmless and pretty entertaining, but I still think that people should be more cautious with what they allow to influence their actions. Not every guy in the world comes in the form of a Steve, an Aidan or a Mr. Big, so you shouldn’t be caught up in looking for one. These guys are cartoonish, and any great guy you meet will probably have characteristics of all three.

Pertaining to the women themselves, Samantha is a rich and pretty influential businesswoman who sleeps with hundreds of men per day (OK, maybe I’m exaggerating; hundreds per week). If you want to be sexually free and open, more power to you, but for a college girl in her teens and 20s to use Samantha as a justification for her own actions is both ridiculous and a little weird.

My unrequested and unwanted advice is simple: don’t look at your relationships in the context of a TV show, and don’t model your life after the ever-so-slutty, but very fashionable, women of “Sex and the City” … and if you do, use a condom.