While I agree that the "X units ago" can be useful, it starts to get silly in the "X weeks" to "X years" area, because it stops the granular explanation of time

While I agree that the "X units ago" can be useful, it starts to get silly in the "X weeks" to "X years" area, because it stops the granular explanation of time. It also reminds me of transmetropolitan, where no-one knows the actual date, and everything is referred to by the time since an event.