2 ms·

I understand where you are coming from but something about it doesn't seem quite right. I remember watching footage of 9/11 on the news while the event was happ

I understand where you are coming from but something about it doesn't seem quite right. I remember watching footage of 9/11 on the news while the event was happening. A Gen Z-er watching the same footage on YouTube could be said to have shared the same experience under your stance, but I feel like most people would disagree. I picked a significant world event as my example, but I could also see this applied to culturally relevant memes from the past.

bee_rider 4y ago
I think live news events aren't a great example for this sort of thing. The experience of watching 9/11 live was that we didn't know what the hell was going on or what the aftermath would look like (a big terrorist in America was sort of unthinkable, after all). Knowing what the outcomes would be totally changes the experience.
- BitwiseFool 4y ago
  For a more cultural example, I don't think today's teenagers would captivated by watching the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show in the same way as those who did back when it aired. Not just because they have already heard the songs, but because what it means to listen to music as an adolescent has changed so much. Watching people perform rock music on television isn't special, and songs about wanting to kiss and hold hands aren't considered risqué.
  - standyro 4y ago
    Not to offend, but there are plenty of these sorts of live cultural experiences for Gen Z that maybe you aren’t aware of and captivate millions of young audiences. Kissing and holding hands in the 60s seems like an artifact of a decade of undoing centuries of Christian religious repression in the west. You’re right that rock and roll is not novel anymore. Things change. Twitch live streamers share experiences with tens or hundreds of thousands of folks. For example, I can guarantee any millions of young kids who played Fortnite learned about the musician Travis Scott through that. Perhaps the era of mass media where 10-50+ million all tuned in at once is over, but there’s plenty of music and media that captivates many millions for live events.
    - BitwiseFool 4y ago
      Certainly, I wasn't trying to imply that kids these days don't or can't have such experiences.
- lamontcg 4y ago
  A big terrorist attack wasn't particularly unthinkable. The WTC had been attacked before. We had the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people. There were the 1998 Embassy bombings in Africa and Clinton's 1998 bombing of the Al-Shifa plant in Sudan because of Al Qaida ties (and lots of comparisons to "Wag the Dog" due to the Lewinsky scandal, it was all over the news). The fact that the WTC just wasn't there any more and someone had ran a plane into the Pentagon was the actual definition of shocking (as opposed to the Millennial definition of shocking which gets used for everything down to stubbing your toe on the coffee table). It wasn't all that surprising that we'd been attacked though and it was pretty obvious who did it, in real time. It was also obvious that we'd dive into bloodthirsty wars in the Middle East, and plenty of us protested the 2003 Iraq War on the streets, to no effect. The country wasn't really all that "unified". A bunch of people in the middle who didn't pay any attention to events did suddenly have one rammed into their face and they all jumped in the same direction and mindlessly rallied behind the flag in a way that led to disastrous wars in the Middle East. That isn't something to look back on with fond remembrance. We were predictably fucking idiots and ignored the people who bothered to point out the hazards of our actions. Stop being nostalgic about that.
  - couchand 4y ago
    Not only had the WTC previously been bombed, it was the same group who did it! Their goal to destroy that particular symbol of American commerce wasn't exactly secret. The success of the plan is what's shocking. The visual symbol had a jarring effect that allowed the narrative of unity to prevail temporarily. The parallels to Pearl Harbor are deep.

bee_rider 4y ago

I think live news events aren't a great example for this sort of thing. The experience of watching 9/11 live was that we didn't know what the hell was going on or what the aftermath would look like (a big terrorist in America was sort of unthinkable, after all). Knowing what the outcomes would be totally changes the experience.

BitwiseFool 4y ago
For a more cultural example, I don't think today's teenagers would captivated by watching the Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show in the same way as those who did back when it aired. Not just because they have already heard the songs, but because what it means to listen to music as an adolescent has changed so much. Watching people perform rock music on television isn't special, and songs about wanting to kiss and hold hands aren't considered risqué.
- standyro 4y ago
  Not to offend, but there are plenty of these sorts of live cultural experiences for Gen Z that maybe you aren’t aware of and captivate millions of young audiences. Kissing and holding hands in the 60s seems like an artifact of a decade of undoing centuries of Christian religious repression in the west. You’re right that rock and roll is not novel anymore. Things change. Twitch live streamers share experiences with tens or hundreds of thousands of folks. For example, I can guarantee any millions of young kids who played Fortnite learned about the musician Travis Scott through that. Perhaps the era of mass media where 10-50+ million all tuned in at once is over, but there’s plenty of music and media that captivates many millions for live events.
  - BitwiseFool 4y ago
    Certainly, I wasn't trying to imply that kids these days don't or can't have such experiences.
lamontcg 4y ago
A big terrorist attack wasn't particularly unthinkable. The WTC had been attacked before. We had the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed 168 people. There were the 1998 Embassy bombings in Africa and Clinton's 1998 bombing of the Al-Shifa plant in Sudan because of Al Qaida ties (and lots of comparisons to "Wag the Dog" due to the Lewinsky scandal, it was all over the news). The fact that the WTC just wasn't there any more and someone had ran a plane into the Pentagon was the actual definition of shocking (as opposed to the Millennial definition of shocking which gets used for everything down to stubbing your toe on the coffee table). It wasn't all that surprising that we'd been attacked though and it was pretty obvious who did it, in real time. It was also obvious that we'd dive into bloodthirsty wars in the Middle East, and plenty of us protested the 2003 Iraq War on the streets, to no effect. The country wasn't really all that "unified". A bunch of people in the middle who didn't pay any attention to events did suddenly have one rammed into their face and they all jumped in the same direction and mindlessly rallied behind the flag in a way that led to disastrous wars in the Middle East. That isn't something to look back on with fond remembrance. We were predictably fucking idiots and ignored the people who bothered to point out the hazards of our actions. Stop being nostalgic about that.
- couchand 4y ago
  Not only had the WTC previously been bombed, it was the same group who did it! Their goal to destroy that particular symbol of American commerce wasn't exactly secret. The success of the plan is what's shocking. The visual symbol had a jarring effect that allowed the narrative of unity to prevail temporarily. The parallels to Pearl Harbor are deep.