When Friends premiered in 1994, it was a simpler time. Apps weren’t a thing. Texting wasn’t a thing. Smartphones, had they existed at the time, would’ve been newfangled robots from the future.
“If Friends was created today, you would have a coffee shop full of people that were just staring into iPhones,” Aniston told Arianna Huffington on Wednesday’s (May 10) episode of iHeartRadio’s Thrive Global Podcast. “There would be no actual episodes or conversations.”
Think about how many laughs were had on Central Perk’s iconic orange couch. If all the characters had been buried in their phones, people would’ve been too busy scrolling to pay attention to Phoebe’s “Smelly Cat” performance. Blasphemy!
NBCAniston famously avoids social media, keeping her life as private and low-key as possible. Though she’s guilty of sleeping next to her phone just as much as the next person, she never gets lost in an Instagram or Twitter feed.
“For me, it’s self-preservation not to be on social media. There’s enough written about me out there and enough that’s not true,” she explained. “The mystery of who you are as an actor has already been taken from [me]. … This is the one place I actually have that is protected and mine, this little sanctuary.”
It would be very rude for Joey to ruin that sanctuary with an unsolicited “how you doin’?” DM, wouldn’t it? He’d probably have a blast on Tinder.
