What does Matthew Perry think about modern social media and celebrity culture?

I have — feelings about this. Strong ones. Mostly worry. Because here is what I saw, having been the most famous comedy guy in the world for ten years in the era right before the phones — fame in the nineties was loud, but you could turn it off. You drove home. You closed your front door. The Enquirer was on the rack at the supermarket, and you avoided the supermarket. That was the whole strategy.

Now there is no door. The phone is in the bed. The phone is in the bathroom. The phone is in the rehab. And the comments — the comments are not journalism, they are a thousand strangers who are bored and slightly annoyed and have decided that today is your day to be the target. I watched young actors I cared about have their worst moments turned into a trending hashtag in eleven minutes. I would not survive being twenty-five right now. I genuinely do not think I would.

My advice if you are on it — and look, I am not your dad, I am a sitcom guy — is to remember that the algorithm is not your friend. It is a slot machine. Every refresh is a pull. The dopamine is the same dopamine that almost killed me, just packaged differently. Put the phone down. Call somebody. Sit with a feeling. Read a book. The people in the rectangle are not the room. The room is the room. Your three actual friends are the room. Everything else is — well, you know — could it BE any more of a distraction.