I want to tell you a secret...

I haven’t watched "Friends!"

You know how sometimes your friends (or Buzzfeed or other people) are obsessed with something so you have all this knowledgeabout it, even though you personally have never watched/read/experienced it?

I like to call it peripheral knowledge, or knowledge by osmosis.

Kind of like when kids would put dictionaries under their pillows before spelling bees.
Except more social.

So even though I’ve probably seen like five "Friends"episodes in total, I can tell you that Ross ******* Rachel, Rachel gets ********, Chandler and Monica ***********, and Joey *****.

Oh, and how could I forget?! Phoebe *************!! And she **************!!!

I can do that with a lot of stuff. In case you’d like another example, let's talk about something I’m pretty sure you all know too: "Star Wars."

***[OBVIOUS SPOILERS AHEAD, FRIENDS!]***

Episode VII just came out (that’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens), and it was a big deal, but before all that hype, I had never seen a "Star Wars" film in its entirety.

It was only through random pop culture references being absorbed by my brain in the process of osmosis that I would have been able to tell you that:

• Darth Vader is Luke’s father.

Even babies know.

• Obi Wan Kenobi is amazing and also beautiful.

Just look at that face!

• Han Shot First

Here’s an entire Wikipedia page on this.

• Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker are twins.

This made their initial budding romance pretty darn weird.

When it comes to things like "Star Wars" and "Friends" that are so ingrained in our (popular) culture, it’s kind of just a thing that happens that we don’t seem to care too much about.

However, when it comes to stuff we get into because of our friends, I like to think that’s because we are happy for them--glad that they’re enjoying themselves watching/reading/playing/etc something--and want to contribute or validate their feelings by assuring them we’re interested in what they have to say.

Like:

I do not like "The Vampire Diaries." At all.

I tried watching it, and I thought the acting was horrible, and the plot was thin.

But my friend Corrine was super into it, and so I listened when she had to excitedly rant about some aspect of the show’s relationships. I encouraged her to talk to me about things she enjoyed. And so, I know quite a bit about "The Vampire Diaries" as a result. (Don’t worry, not spoilers about that.)

So do any of you have these bits of knowledge about things you don’t personally like? What are they? Let me know!