On "Friends"

Over Spring Break, I utilized my free month of Netflix to watch "Friends." I didn't necessarily binge-watch it; I got to about halfway through the second season by the time I came back to school.

"Friends" is sort of interesting as a culture study to me; I am only five months older than the show is (My birthday is in April, and the show aired in September), but it was cancelled in 2004, when I was in 4th grade. Scattered through middle school are vague memories that yes, "Friends" is a thing that happened. I never saw an episode until my senior year of high school, when it was on while my friends and I were hanging out in our hotel room during the music trip. I didn't know the context of the episodes, but it's a sitcom that can be understood out of context. (Having seen episodes back-to-back, however, I think it can be understood out of context, but enjoyed as a marathon, when everything is still linear.) It was one of those shows that everyone knew about, but I doubt I'm the only one my age who is only just discovering the show properly.

The culture study is interesting because of how much has changed since the show aired. In "The One Where No One's Ready" (aired at the start of Season 3), Monica repeatedly checks the answering machine for her ex-boyfriend to call, and hacks into his answering machine to make sure she doesn't sound stupid when she leaves a message. Most kids these days probably won't have landlines to do this, so they probably have less of a clue what's going on. t's also a much bigger breach of privacy if someone can remotely hack into someone's answering machine, mostly because "answering machine" is now "voicemail" and "voicemail" is probably just "texting." Personally, I had no idea that you could remotely access answering machines if you knew the right codes.

There are also more subtle things that can still be considered issues, but hopefully less so. In the first season, Ross's ex-wife Carol is pregnant with his child; Carol wants the baby's last name to be hyphenated between hers and her (female) partner's, while Ross wants the baby to have his last name (or triple-hyphenate). Though this involves a funny exchange, it also raises a few questions: what should be the father's role in the naming process, if he and the baby's mother are no longer in a committed relationship?