Before we had 411 flash-flood alerts or New York Times banner pop-ups, we had Gossip Girl. Yes, the Greatest Show of Our Time presaged our current technological moment in which we’re tethered to our phones, waiting for the next piece of news to edge us closer to the maw of despair. Gossip Girl regularly featured the latest gadgets, from flip phones to, at last, smartphones, because the writers room got previews of what was to come. “We would have companies like Verizon come in and show us prototypes of new models coming up in the future,” said executive producer Joshua Safran. “We would come up with plotlines based on what we knew would be tech coming out in the future.” Basically, Gossip Girl was always ahead of the game.
For the tenth anniversary of the show, we’ve put together a slideshow of every text, email blast, and photo that Gossip Girl ever sent. Just sit back, imagine Kristen Bell’s voice in your head, and let the text blasts wash over you.
Intrepid screenshotting work by Ethan Sapienza
