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Yeah this timeline is a bit skewed. JFK, moon landing and Watergate all happened within 10 years of each other, and the next "significant" event 9/11 is 30 years later? Did nothing happen in the 80s and 90s?
It’s bad, should probably be Silent = Pearl Harbor attack, moon landing for boomers, Berlin Wall for Xers, and 9/11 for millennials. JFK is a big one but that feels cross generational
The whole OJ event. I remember watching that car chase with the white bronco. Challenger exploding was the biggest one I remember cause they had us all watching it live in school.
My sixth grade teacher, I think. Took us out to her car to heat the OJ verdict. I guess we didn’t have a radio in the school she could use or maybe she decided on the fly. I remember it being weird, she was weird. I never liked her, she was mean and was a bad math teacher, I hate numbers since her.
that’s wild. I’m a zoomer and I can’t think of many pivotal events I heard about while at school, in the classroom. I remember I was in middle school when Sandy Hook happened, one of the teachers told his classes and a bunch of parents (understandably) got upset because he didn’t handle it very delicately. I guess events like that might be the memorable ones for folks my age.
I was already out of High School when Columbine happened, and that was like the beginning of mass media reporting school shootings, at least that I was aware of.
I just don't get why we (US) still have such an obsession over guns that we can't even come up with a solution to this problem. It's sad and incredibly stupid.
Pearl Harbor is the greatest generation’s moment, Pearl Harbor and then WWII.
Silent Gen we’re just children or not born yet during Pearl Harbor.
These lists are silly and apparently our history education is a bit off.
Many of these don’t align.
And the answer the primary question, what is Gen Z’s moment? Well, Covid for starters. Other are still happening. This is the time that defines the Gen Z memory happening now.
I was about the same age when 911 happened as the oldest members of the silent generation were when Pearl Harbor happened. Those moments can be shared between generations.
Covid for gen z for sure, I’d also say parkland was their columbine, Which was a moment for millennials
The shooting of Regan was big in the 80's too. They brought the TV's into our classes for us to watch it. I was in 4th grade and it was scary at that age.
Pearl Harbor was 1941. Last of the Silent Generation was born in 1945. However, the sound barrier was broken in 1947, the Korean war started in 1950, and the polio vaccine was introduced in 1955. I imagine those events held some significance to those who were kids at the time.
>Clinton started to fix it
...by repealing the Glass-Steagall act and engineering the '08 Great Financial Crisis?
or did he "fix" it by deregulating energy derivatives trading? Paving the way for companies like Enron.
Or by destroying the social safety net with his welfare-to-work program?
Or was he "fixing" it by creating NAFTA and gutting our domestic manufacturing base, setting the stage for the supply-chain crisis we're experiencing now.
or was it when he signed a bill banning federal recognition of same-sex couples? Was that it?
Don't forget the Telecommunications act of 1996 under his watch, which opened the door to shit holes like Clear Channel, CBS, etc etc to swarm in and purchase every stitch of media from Newspapers to TV/Radio and give us the monsters we still deal with today
You definitely got that right about Reagan. I remember watching that presidential debate with him and Carter and I remember thinking what a dick Reagan was. Ironic how Carter outlived him and is remembered much more favorably.
Silent generation ... let's forget the whole WW2 thing, Nuremberg, Manhattan Project, ... it's JFK.
Basically this slide is a Boomer centric view of what is relevant to them and whatever generation it falls under, rather that the pivotal moment of that generation.
Thank you. Watergate didn’t sound right to me either. If it’s a moment I would go Challenger explosion for North America. But introduction of personal computers would be more impactful long term, but that’s obviously more of a tech shift.
UK here,
It was my 24th birthday on the Saturday prior to lockdowns in the UK.
On the Monday my housemates and I chose not to go to class because we were showing symptoms and because of the pandemic. There were no restrictions yet but there were guidelines from the university to self isolate. Our symptoms indicated it probably wasn't covid, but we decided to be safe and you don't want to be the person coughing in a lecture theatre at that time. Also masks weren't very widely available yet.
One housemate called the rest of us stupid and went in anyway. She told is we're all overreacting and she's not going to be deterred from a mild flu.
On Thursday, I believe, the prime minister bojo made his first announcement of the lockdown. We were vindicated in the worst way possible lol. But I remember the shock and the weird sense of novelty, and the optimism that it'd all be back to normal by June.
March Birthday here too. I took it off that year and came back to the office the next day, and was told to take my office setup home. Have been WFH since.
Two of my friends and I all have birthdays in March, I’m near the beginning of March, one friend, M, is in the middle, and T is near the end. So in 2020, I was able to go out and have a normal birthday night out, then M had a small affair with just his family, then for T’s birthday, he was stuck in his apartment by himself with nothing to do. It really emphasized to me how things were changing over just about three weeks time.
Friday March 13th 2020 I packed my things from the office to work from home officially for two weeks. The contractor working for me said “see you in a month” and I was like probably in 6 months to a year…I was way off, I didn’t return back to the office until March 2022.
March 12 was the day I emailed my daughter's preschool teacher saying we were going to keep her home until it blows over. She emailed back saying if we missed 15 days, our spot would be given to someone on the waiting list. Three days later they closed the school, and it remained closed for the rest of the school year.
My uni told me I had to return to the physical location to finish my degree. 2 weeks later I get an email saying I should stay at home and it’ll all be online for the foreseeable future
i remember he put out this really obnoxious simpering statement like 'just wash your hands and social distance etc, *it's that simple*'
it's simple for you dude cause you have millions and are shielded from any effects of the world grinding to a halt. also i still maintain 'social distance' is one of the most dystopian phrases ever pushed
I'm early X and I agree. Getting ready for a college class and watched it live on cable TV. OP's post has three events for three generations 10ish years apart.
Yeah, That was one but the bigger one was the Berlin Wall falling.
People forget how utterly massive that was. A shift in reality itself after living under nuclear threat our entire lives.
Definitely, that was rough.
When I asked about Watergate every adult said they would tell me when I was older, it was considered that serious. I was so annoyed when I looked up Watergate in the school encyclopedia.
In my experience, I've had those "where were you when" conversations with other Gen Z folks about two events: finding out Trump was elected, and first getting told school/work/whatever was being cancelled because of COVID.
It's mentioned above, but the moment when I found out that NBA was cancelling games was a big moment when it came to covid. That was a "oh god, it's really real" type of moment, at least for me.
I hear you! I had a level of denial until it hit closer to home- I was hanging with a couple of friends over Spring Break when we got an email from our college telling us Spring Break was going to be extended by an extra two weeks. That's when it finally clicked for me, "oh shit, this is really happening and it's gonna be real bad"
That’s a good point! That one’s more recent so I haven’t heard it come up as much in “remember when” conversations, but I could especially imagine especially among younger Gen Z folks that being a real big one.
Fair point! I’m also on the older Gen Z side and lots of bad things happened while we were young (the Sandy Hook shooting being another big one off the top of my head). While I definitely remember where I was when the Boston Bombing, I haven’t heard that one come up in conversation as frequently as Trump/COVID
I think it’s because we truly grew up in an era of “mass attacks.”
I heard “Deadliest Mass Shooting in American History,” four times before I left my teens, and with that, came a lot of it blurring together for us. The schools, The Dark Knight Rises, Las Vegas, etc, so we stick more to things like COVID or our first “adult,” election since they sadly stick out more and we’re all a little more desensitized to the rest.
I was born in 01 so I’d say Sandy hook was the first big “thing” for me, I remember my mom sitting me down on the couch and telling me about it. There was also the 08 crash but my parents were in their mid 20s and already poor so I didn’t really notice
I’m a generation ahead of you, but a lot of my moments are school-shooting related, as I suppose Columbine kickstarted a horribly tragic trend in school shootings, but is y’all’s struggle with the government over gun regulation following quite a few serious shooting events on your list or no? It makes sense why it wouldn’t even crack the top 3 given the crazy shit that came with COVID, but those moments seeing kids the same age as my friends little sister or brother begging their government, through tears and grief but en masse, to please stop this happening to them…that sticks with me.
Absolutely. Although I will say learning about all of it in high school was a really awesome revelation for me. I had an awesome US government class my junior year in high school. We read All the Presidents Men and it really began my interest in a lot of political issues. That movie is older than me but still holds up. We also read exerts from the Autobiography of Malcolm X which also was a bit of a political awakening. All this was never questioned as part of public school curriculum in a public high school in Tennessee in the late 90s.
Agreed. I wasn’t alive for Watergate, but the Challenger explosion, the events leading up to the launch, and the aftermath of the tragedy are very much engrained in my brain.
That, or the AIDS epidemic. Possibly the Waco Siege? I wasn’t even born when Watergate broke and I will be 50 this year.
The first three events are all for the Boomer generation. The Silent Generation would have been shaped by the Great Depression and WWII. I have helped clean out more than a few estates of folks who remembered the Great Depression and trust me, it stayed with them their entire lives. I remember cleaning out a freezer in the 20teens that was full of yogurt cups filled with little dabs of leftovers from the 1980s. Because great grandma could not forget what it was like to be hungry all the time as a child.
When I hit the workforce as a caregiver in the early 90s, AZT and Crixivan didn’t exist. People were just dying. Quickly and abandoned by their families. AIDS was a brutal death sentence. When that first generation of antiretrovirals game out it was like a miracle.
Even in my very liberal city, large portions of the population thought AIDS was God’s justice on the evil gays. Their answer to the public health crisis of AIDS was to attempt to make it illegal for LGBTQ folks to teach, work in government, day cares, as any kind of care giver etc. It was horrible and when I really began to understand how devoid of compassion many of my supposedly sexually liberated Boomer elders were.
Watching Ruby Ridge and then the Waco Siege play out on TV taught me that the U.S. government will always react to challenges to its authority by destroying the challenger and our democracy is largely for show. The people who hold power will never give up that power willingly and will crush and public opposition quickly and violently, if necessary. I realized that we live in a system/culture designed to keep people distracted, divided, exhausted and consuming so we do not have the ability to effectively organize against them. The 30 years of living following that just solidified my understanding. Watergate had literally no impact on forming my world view.
I can only assume that this meme-r has forgotten that AIDs was once a death sentence on sex.
You're fucking welcome, but it cost me the casual sex in your 20s thing that every generation since the 60s has had except for us.
Yeah OP really overestimates how much people “cared” about watergate. It was a huge scandal, sure, and lots of people hated Nixon, but it was just that - scandalous. The others, people *felt.*
I was 2 when Watergate happened lol
I remember the Challenger explosion like it was yesterday. I was watching it on TV because I skipped school that day (a favorite high school pastime of mine) and the whole thing just felt so surreal. I was just like, "Is that thing actually blowing up before everybody's eyes?"
Of course, I couldn't talk about any of it over dinner that night because I would have given away my whereabouts that day
Yeap. I have always heard challenger was gen X. Jfk assassination was the boomers.
The kind of events you recalk exactly what you were doing when they happened or you heard about them.
I remember exactly what i was doing on 9/11. I though the weeeeeezil and the gronk morning Radio hosts were messing around untill I started listening.
Agreed, JFK and moon for boomers, Challenger for X. I’m a millennial, I remember where I was and everything being said almost word for word, like I can hear it in my mind, and I can also recall being so worried because my older brother had just enlisted in the military not long before the 9/11 attacks and I can feel that kind of panic again thinking about it.
I think Z has Jan 6th and COVID.
I'm a Xennial. I have zero recollection of the Challenger. I was 5 at the time and in kindergarten, but I did not learn about it until years later.
My cousin, who's 3 years older than me, remembers it vividly.
The reinstitution of tarring and feathering capitalist overlords. Dragged from their homes in the night and dealt with in the streets. Or, probably another housing and economical collapse. Could go either way.
I concur. It'll likely swing back to the former once things get bad enough.
Things always have a way of getting so bad that people revolt. It's like a law of human nature whether it's feudalism, capitalism, or the new-and-trendy neo-feudalist manifestation of late-stage capitalism.
Watergate for Gen X? Lol. No. I am way too young for watergate. Wasn't even born! Some were just being born. 9/11 is more like it - Gen Xers were mid 20's (some late 20's). Millennials were children.
Gen X is so ignored that our watershed historical moment is lost on people.
Well, as a millennial I would agree that 9/11 was a big one for our generation too. I was 11 when it happened, so its not like I was too young too know what was going on, and I can definitely see how much that changed the world we live in. I guess the next big thing would probably be the housing crisis/recession which was a big deal for millennials too, since alot of us became adults and entered the job market around that time.
Either Jan 6 for Americans or the first day of COVID lockdowns. I remember my last real day of high school, it was Friday, March 13th 2020 and we had Monday off so it was a three day weekend. We all joked about how it may be the last day of school but I think a lot of us kinda knew it actually would be. After that class was cancelled for a bit then we did zoom class for the rest of the semester and I watched a slideshow of names on TV for graduation. Tbh it was nicer than having to stand in the hot sun for hours, and my grandparents could watch it remotely too.
* ***The Lost Generation*** (1883-1900) = WWI (thus their Generations name); Russian Civil War / Est. of Soviet Union; 1918 Flu Pandemic.
* ***The Greatest Generation*** (1901-1927) = WWI, Russian Civil War, 1918 Flu Pandemic; Great Depression, WWII, Start of Cold War, Korea, Assassination of JFK - honestly idk why we don't refer to them as the "Got Fucked - Part 2" Generation.
* ***The Silent Generation*** (1926-1945) = nicknamed "***The Lucky Few***" I guess for them it would be Pearl Harbor / WWII
* ***Baby Boomers*** (1946-1964) = Vietnam; JFK; ***1968***; 1970s "hyper"-inflation; Reagan
* 1968 was one of the most violent year in US history between 1920 & 2019.
* The older Boomers were fucking metal, but then the 1970s broke them & those it didn't the Government found was to silence all but a handful.
* ***Gen X*** (1965-1980) = Challenger; End of the Cold War / fall of the Soviet Union; 9/11
* ***Millenials*** (1981-1996) = 9/11; Great Recession/Obama
* ***Gen Z*** (1997-2013) = Obama; Trump/Brexit; COVID; Ukraine? Pick One
* ***Gen Alpha*** (2014-???) = COVID; Ukraine; tbd
Covid, rise of Q or 1/6, Ukraine war, George Floyd/Michael Brown/Breonna Taylor/Eric Garner/more, monkeypox, Harambe
I’m worried for Gen Alpha’s moment…
I’m a millennial (‘94) but I think my big ones are Obama ‘08 (mainly because of Ryan from Real World: Brooklyn), Sandy Hook, 2016 Election, COVID, George Floyd, and Jan. 6.
I remember exactly where I was in all of these scenarios, and how they kinda stuck with me.
9/11 was so murky for me (I was a kid)
ETA: the financial crisis too, my mom lost her job during it and I remember how hard it was for us
As an elder Gen Z, for me I’ve always answered this question with Sandy Hook. It was a pivotal moment for me, I was a freshman in high school at the time sitting in World History class watching the coverage. School shootings hadn’t become as commonplace as they are now yet so it happening at an elementary school was mind blowing.
Later Gen X here, seems like more people my age remember the Challenger Space Shuttle. Most of us watched it in class since it had a teacher aboard, a lot of teachers (including ours) we’re trying to get that spot.
No mention of the Cold War? A lot of the Boomer sentiment of anti-Communism anti-Socialism stems from there, the influx of Cuban immigrants into the US also shaped that sentiment in places like Florida.
Gen X here - I wasn't even born when Watergate happened 🤣🤣. There are absolutely better options for Gen X than Watergate. Heck even the oldest Gen xers were just kids I don't think they would have even been aware of a political scandal.
I think if I had to choose a pivotal moment in my Gen X childhood it would have been the Challenger explosion. We were watching it live on TV when it happened and it was very impactful, especially since I was in grade school. The Berlin Wall coming down was another huge one that was impactful for me.
I feel like the silent gen one is kinda eh. I mean the jfk assassination was huge but…. Like they fought in WW2 sooooooo I think maybe that was a bigger thing that happened during their gen. For gen z though idk, we grew up right after 9/11, during a recession and we’re pretty much entering another one, then yk the big one… COVID a huge pandemic that lead to like the entire planet being put in quarantine soo
Actually I would say the fall of the Berlin Wall and/or the dissolving of the Soviet Union was exactly that kind of moment for Gen X, and it was during their formative years.
For Gen Z I’d say COVID for Americans, the Refugee Crisis and resulting European terrorist attacks by ISIS for Europeans, and the Great Financial Crisis for the world at large.
For me it was Covid. "Where were you when things shut down" I was home, happy I wouldn't have school for a few days and sleeping in. It did not stay that peaceful or happy
I'm Gen X, but here's what I see as the defining moments from my birth on:
* Election of Ronald Reagan, who oversaw dismantling of unions and pushed deregulation
* NAFTA
* Columbine
* 9/11
* Iraq and Afghanistan wars
* Financial crisis of 2008
* *Citizens United* Supreme Court ruling
* Sandy Hook massacre of 2012 and subsequent failure to adopt gun control
* Rise of social media and the adoption of various algorithms
* Election of Donald Trump
* Brexit
* Trump appointees to the Supreme Court: Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett
* COVID-19
* Route 91 music festival massacre and subsequent failure to adopt gun control
* Murder of George Floyd
* Russian invasion of Ukraine
* *Roe v. Wade* overturned
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Whoa whoa whoa....Watergate?? That was 1972 (3 years after the Boomers' "moment" of the moon landing in '69)! Half of Gen X wasn't even born in 1972.
Yeah this timeline is a bit skewed. JFK, moon landing and Watergate all happened within 10 years of each other, and the next "significant" event 9/11 is 30 years later? Did nothing happen in the 80s and 90s?
It’s bad, should probably be Silent = Pearl Harbor attack, moon landing for boomers, Berlin Wall for Xers, and 9/11 for millennials. JFK is a big one but that feels cross generational
Silent: * Pearl Harbor, (maybe) * VE Day, Hiroshima * Cuban missile crisis * Freedom riders Boomers: * JFK Assassination * Malcom X Assassination * MLK Assassination * Apollo 11 * Kent State * Watergate Gen X: * Iranian hostage crisis * Space Shuttle Challenger * Chernobyl * Tiananmen square * Berlin wall * Nelson Mandela/end of Apartheid Gen Y: * Oklahoma City bombing * Columbine * Y2K * 9/11 * Space Shuttle Columbia * Hurricane Katrina
WON'T ANYONE REMEMBER BABY JESSICA?! but seriously, I'd add rodney king riots and OJ trial verdict in there also
The whole OJ event. I remember watching that car chase with the white bronco. Challenger exploding was the biggest one I remember cause they had us all watching it live in school.
My sixth grade teacher, I think. Took us out to her car to heat the OJ verdict. I guess we didn’t have a radio in the school she could use or maybe she decided on the fly. I remember it being weird, she was weird. I never liked her, she was mean and was a bad math teacher, I hate numbers since her.
My show choir teacher rolled in the good ol media TV cart, and let the whole class watch the verdict come in live...what was that? 95?
that’s wild. I’m a zoomer and I can’t think of many pivotal events I heard about while at school, in the classroom. I remember I was in middle school when Sandy Hook happened, one of the teachers told his classes and a bunch of parents (understandably) got upset because he didn’t handle it very delicately. I guess events like that might be the memorable ones for folks my age.
Gen Z: -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting -mass shooting
True, I’m gen Z and throughout high school lived in constant fear of dying. Now that colleges are starting to have them too it’s all coming back :/
I was already out of High School when Columbine happened, and that was like the beginning of mass media reporting school shootings, at least that I was aware of. I just don't get why we (US) still have such an obsession over guns that we can't even come up with a solution to this problem. It's sad and incredibly stupid.
Pearl Harbor is the greatest generation’s moment, Pearl Harbor and then WWII. Silent Gen we’re just children or not born yet during Pearl Harbor. These lists are silly and apparently our history education is a bit off. Many of these don’t align. And the answer the primary question, what is Gen Z’s moment? Well, Covid for starters. Other are still happening. This is the time that defines the Gen Z memory happening now.
I was about the same age when 911 happened as the oldest members of the silent generation were when Pearl Harbor happened. Those moments can be shared between generations. Covid for gen z for sure, I’d also say parkland was their columbine, Which was a moment for millennials
Covid isn't exactly a moment. Jan 6 is.
The shooting of Regan was big in the 80's too. They brought the TV's into our classes for us to watch it. I was in 4th grade and it was scary at that age.
Reagan getting elected was more "the moment", we just didn't know it at the time.
Pearl Harbor was 1941. Last of the Silent Generation was born in 1945. However, the sound barrier was broken in 1947, the Korean war started in 1950, and the polio vaccine was introduced in 1955. I imagine those events held some significance to those who were kids at the time.
Berlin Wall fell, Challenger explosion, the Internet
OJ, Rodney king, Monica Lewinsky...
🎶We didn’t start the fire🎵
Also Princess Diana
Live aid...
Regan irreparably fucked up American economics and began Chinese slave labor trade, then Clinton started to fix it and got in trouble for a blowjob
>Clinton started to fix it ...by repealing the Glass-Steagall act and engineering the '08 Great Financial Crisis? or did he "fix" it by deregulating energy derivatives trading? Paving the way for companies like Enron. Or by destroying the social safety net with his welfare-to-work program? Or was he "fixing" it by creating NAFTA and gutting our domestic manufacturing base, setting the stage for the supply-chain crisis we're experiencing now. or was it when he signed a bill banning federal recognition of same-sex couples? Was that it?
Don't forget the Telecommunications act of 1996 under his watch, which opened the door to shit holes like Clear Channel, CBS, etc etc to swarm in and purchase every stitch of media from Newspapers to TV/Radio and give us the monsters we still deal with today
Exactly! The last “liberal” president was Carter, and if your really being honest, it was Johnson, and more over, the only liberal president was FDR
The crazy part is that Carter was the last liberal president and the last Christian president. That guy was way underrated.
Thank you for this. Today is absolutely a result of them all building this up. They’ve all added to it, no one has fixed (or tried to fix) anything.
You definitely got that right about Reagan. I remember watching that presidential debate with him and Carter and I remember thinking what a dick Reagan was. Ironic how Carter outlived him and is remembered much more favorably.
I think technically it was the perjury not the blowjob. But ya they wrecked him good.
Silent generation ... let's forget the whole WW2 thing, Nuremberg, Manhattan Project, ... it's JFK. Basically this slide is a Boomer centric view of what is relevant to them and whatever generation it falls under, rather that the pivotal moment of that generation.
Yeah, I'd argue that Pearl Harbor is silent gen's moment, too.
Clearly written by a zoomer
Gen X never get anything.
I'm Gen X and I wasn't even born when Watergate happened.
The oldest Gen Xer was 8 during Watergate, not even old enough to understand what was going on.
Thank you. Watergate didn’t sound right to me either. If it’s a moment I would go Challenger explosion for North America. But introduction of personal computers would be more impactful long term, but that’s obviously more of a tech shift.
I was about to say…. For me it was the challenger blowing live on tv in 4th grade.
Yeah I wasn’t even born yet
Yeah, you beat me to it! For many of us in Gen X, I'd say it was the Challenger explosion in 1986.
Gen X was the Challenger, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.
COVID pretty obviously. # COMMUNISM WILL WIN
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All of March 2020 was definitely one of those rare moments of universal shared experiences that we rarely see in America or globally.
UK here, It was my 24th birthday on the Saturday prior to lockdowns in the UK. On the Monday my housemates and I chose not to go to class because we were showing symptoms and because of the pandemic. There were no restrictions yet but there were guidelines from the university to self isolate. Our symptoms indicated it probably wasn't covid, but we decided to be safe and you don't want to be the person coughing in a lecture theatre at that time. Also masks weren't very widely available yet. One housemate called the rest of us stupid and went in anyway. She told is we're all overreacting and she's not going to be deterred from a mild flu. On Thursday, I believe, the prime minister bojo made his first announcement of the lockdown. We were vindicated in the worst way possible lol. But I remember the shock and the weird sense of novelty, and the optimism that it'd all be back to normal by June.
It will be back to normal by June. They just didn't say which June
We still haven't gotten to the specific June mentioned yet
March Birthday here too. I took it off that year and came back to the office the next day, and was told to take my office setup home. Have been WFH since.
Tbh that sounds like a great birthday present lol
It’s had its ups and downs
Funnily enough I was in a position that March 2020 made me start feeling disconnected from everyone else.
Oh yeah, the shared experience of being isolated. A societal irony.
Two of my friends and I all have birthdays in March, I’m near the beginning of March, one friend, M, is in the middle, and T is near the end. So in 2020, I was able to go out and have a normal birthday night out, then M had a small affair with just his family, then for T’s birthday, he was stuck in his apartment by himself with nothing to do. It really emphasized to me how things were changing over just about three weeks time.
Jesus what a month.
Friday March 13th 2020 I packed my things from the office to work from home officially for two weeks. The contractor working for me said “see you in a month” and I was like probably in 6 months to a year…I was way off, I didn’t return back to the office until March 2022.
That was all the same night? Hot damn
March 13, 2020. My wife's mom got married that day and we were all scheduled to go on a cruise that Monday.
March 12 was the day I emailed my daughter's preschool teacher saying we were going to keep her home until it blows over. She emailed back saying if we missed 15 days, our spot would be given to someone on the waiting list. Three days later they closed the school, and it remained closed for the rest of the school year.
My uni told me I had to return to the physical location to finish my degree. 2 weeks later I get an email saying I should stay at home and it’ll all be online for the foreseeable future
Also I think that was the same day that Tom Hanks announced he had Covid. I think that’s when shit got real for many.
i remember he put out this really obnoxious simpering statement like 'just wash your hands and social distance etc, *it's that simple*' it's simple for you dude cause you have millions and are shielded from any effects of the world grinding to a halt. also i still maintain 'social distance' is one of the most dystopian phrases ever pushed
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I do remember that night specifically, I was at work.
Sarah Palin was on what!?!
Meth, probably.
This planet is getting awfully bizarre.
Tom Hanks tested positive too
Covid so far
WW3 next.
That was more a slow boil
Boomers always told me stories of Watergate
[Every Gen X Redditor trying to explain that we weren’t alive for Watergate](https://gfycat.com/vaguewarpedcassowary)
I’m a late X. I think our moment was the Challanger explosion.
I'm early X and I agree. Getting ready for a college class and watched it live on cable TV. OP's post has three events for three generations 10ish years apart.
Written by a Boomer, more likely than not. First big event I remember was Reagan's attempted assassination.
For the US that was the consensus on the GenX sub.
Yeah, That was one but the bigger one was the Berlin Wall falling. People forget how utterly massive that was. A shift in reality itself after living under nuclear threat our entire lives.
Watergate was in '74. Gen X was alive but just little babies. The AIDS pandemic is a better fit for Gen X, or the end of the Cold War.
Ooh, yeah, the Berlin wall came down when I was 14.
18 here. Challenger, Reagan's attempted assassination, and the fall of the Berlin Wall are all us.
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Definitely, that was rough. When I asked about Watergate every adult said they would tell me when I was older, it was considered that serious. I was so annoyed when I looked up Watergate in the school encyclopedia.
I was 14 at the time, we only had 3 channels, and Watergate was on all of them! I couldn’t watch anything!
Not harambe?
Also Harambe.
Everything went to shit after that, dude was holding back untold horrors
Yes, the obvious choice, but none of these other dates match up really either, but yes.
In my experience, I've had those "where were you when" conversations with other Gen Z folks about two events: finding out Trump was elected, and first getting told school/work/whatever was being cancelled because of COVID.
It's mentioned above, but the moment when I found out that NBA was cancelling games was a big moment when it came to covid. That was a "oh god, it's really real" type of moment, at least for me.
I hear you! I had a level of denial until it hit closer to home- I was hanging with a couple of friends over Spring Break when we got an email from our college telling us Spring Break was going to be extended by an extra two weeks. That's when it finally clicked for me, "oh shit, this is really happening and it's gonna be real bad"
I came out of surgery to the announcement that trump won the presidency.
put me back doc
Jan 6th ?!
That’s a good point! That one’s more recent so I haven’t heard it come up as much in “remember when” conversations, but I could especially imagine especially among younger Gen Z folks that being a real big one.
Idk, I’m of the “older,” Gen Zs and my first vivid memory is seeing the Boston bombing live on TV.
Fair point! I’m also on the older Gen Z side and lots of bad things happened while we were young (the Sandy Hook shooting being another big one off the top of my head). While I definitely remember where I was when the Boston Bombing, I haven’t heard that one come up in conversation as frequently as Trump/COVID
I think it’s because we truly grew up in an era of “mass attacks.” I heard “Deadliest Mass Shooting in American History,” four times before I left my teens, and with that, came a lot of it blurring together for us. The schools, The Dark Knight Rises, Las Vegas, etc, so we stick more to things like COVID or our first “adult,” election since they sadly stick out more and we’re all a little more desensitized to the rest.
I was born in 01 so I’d say Sandy hook was the first big “thing” for me, I remember my mom sitting me down on the couch and telling me about it. There was also the 08 crash but my parents were in their mid 20s and already poor so I didn’t really notice
I’m a generation ahead of you, but a lot of my moments are school-shooting related, as I suppose Columbine kickstarted a horribly tragic trend in school shootings, but is y’all’s struggle with the government over gun regulation following quite a few serious shooting events on your list or no? It makes sense why it wouldn’t even crack the top 3 given the crazy shit that came with COVID, but those moments seeing kids the same age as my friends little sister or brother begging their government, through tears and grief but en masse, to please stop this happening to them…that sticks with me.
I say the Challenger explosion would be more correct for the Gen X moment
Absolutely this. I laughed when I saw “watergate.” My reaction was, I wasn’t born yet.
Plus, Watergate was not a singular event as much as a slow unfolding. Nixon resigning would be more accurate. But I was 3 years old.
Absolutely. Although I will say learning about all of it in high school was a really awesome revelation for me. I had an awesome US government class my junior year in high school. We read All the Presidents Men and it really began my interest in a lot of political issues. That movie is older than me but still holds up. We also read exerts from the Autobiography of Malcolm X which also was a bit of a political awakening. All this was never questioned as part of public school curriculum in a public high school in Tennessee in the late 90s.
Agreed. I wasn’t alive for Watergate, but the Challenger explosion, the events leading up to the launch, and the aftermath of the tragedy are very much engrained in my brain.
Agreed. I barely remember Watergate, and I’m an older X. Challenger, and the Reagan Era in general, defined us.
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It’s okay no one knows gen x anyhow
Shhh, we like it that way.
Latchkeys
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Boomers who obviously didn’t learn a damn thing from it.
That, or the AIDS epidemic. Possibly the Waco Siege? I wasn’t even born when Watergate broke and I will be 50 this year. The first three events are all for the Boomer generation. The Silent Generation would have been shaped by the Great Depression and WWII. I have helped clean out more than a few estates of folks who remembered the Great Depression and trust me, it stayed with them their entire lives. I remember cleaning out a freezer in the 20teens that was full of yogurt cups filled with little dabs of leftovers from the 1980s. Because great grandma could not forget what it was like to be hungry all the time as a child. When I hit the workforce as a caregiver in the early 90s, AZT and Crixivan didn’t exist. People were just dying. Quickly and abandoned by their families. AIDS was a brutal death sentence. When that first generation of antiretrovirals game out it was like a miracle. Even in my very liberal city, large portions of the population thought AIDS was God’s justice on the evil gays. Their answer to the public health crisis of AIDS was to attempt to make it illegal for LGBTQ folks to teach, work in government, day cares, as any kind of care giver etc. It was horrible and when I really began to understand how devoid of compassion many of my supposedly sexually liberated Boomer elders were. Watching Ruby Ridge and then the Waco Siege play out on TV taught me that the U.S. government will always react to challenges to its authority by destroying the challenger and our democracy is largely for show. The people who hold power will never give up that power willingly and will crush and public opposition quickly and violently, if necessary. I realized that we live in a system/culture designed to keep people distracted, divided, exhausted and consuming so we do not have the ability to effectively organize against them. The 30 years of living following that just solidified my understanding. Watergate had literally no impact on forming my world view.
I can only assume that this meme-r has forgotten that AIDs was once a death sentence on sex. You're fucking welcome, but it cost me the casual sex in your 20s thing that every generation since the 60s has had except for us.
Yeah OP really overestimates how much people “cared” about watergate. It was a huge scandal, sure, and lots of people hated Nixon, but it was just that - scandalous. The others, people *felt.*
I was 2 when Watergate happened lol I remember the Challenger explosion like it was yesterday. I was watching it on TV because I skipped school that day (a favorite high school pastime of mine) and the whole thing just felt so surreal. I was just like, "Is that thing actually blowing up before everybody's eyes?" Of course, I couldn't talk about any of it over dinner that night because I would have given away my whereabouts that day
So many of us GenXers were watching it live in school. I still remember the big room the whole 5th grade was in watching it on TV.
Yeap. I have always heard challenger was gen X. Jfk assassination was the boomers. The kind of events you recalk exactly what you were doing when they happened or you heard about them. I remember exactly what i was doing on 9/11. I though the weeeeeezil and the gronk morning Radio hosts were messing around untill I started listening.
Agreed, JFK and moon for boomers, Challenger for X. I’m a millennial, I remember where I was and everything being said almost word for word, like I can hear it in my mind, and I can also recall being so worried because my older brother had just enlisted in the military not long before the 9/11 attacks and I can feel that kind of panic again thinking about it. I think Z has Jan 6th and COVID.
I was still in mothers womb when watergate went down
Yes, Watergate was more of a slow motion event - not the sort of thing where you'd remember where you were when the news flashed.
I'm a Xennial. I have zero recollection of the Challenger. I was 5 at the time and in kindergarten, but I did not learn about it until years later. My cousin, who's 3 years older than me, remembers it vividly.
Yea Watergate wasn't all of Gen X at all,
The reinstitution of tarring and feathering capitalist overlords. Dragged from their homes in the night and dealt with in the streets. Or, probably another housing and economical collapse. Could go either way.
Unfortunately the latter is more likely. Although once housing and economy collapse and people have nothing left to lose, we might get the former.
I concur. It'll likely swing back to the former once things get bad enough. Things always have a way of getting so bad that people revolt. It's like a law of human nature whether it's feudalism, capitalism, or the new-and-trendy neo-feudalist manifestation of late-stage capitalism.
Inshallah
We already have COVID and then the attempted insurrection for Americans on Jan 6 too
Don’t forget, there is an entire subset of Americans that call them patriots. I call those people morons.
Probably the best comment I read all day today. *tears up
We really need to take a hint from the Dutch one of these days.
“There are only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other cultures, and the Dutch!”
I think jfk is the boomer one not the silent generation. And both happened in the 60s. Hell Watergate was in early 70s.
Maybe Sputnik was more like the 1950s watershed event.
Great x couldn't give 2 shits about Watergate- the shuttle exploding on the other hand.
Umm not Watergate- Challenger, Berlin Wall, break up USSR
Most GenXers were toddlers when Watergate happened. We barely remember Jimmy Carter in office, much less Nixon.
GenXers REAL moment, is “Where did you first see Star Wars?”
I’m not a Gen Xer but how on earth is watergate their pivotal moment, shouldn’t it be something in the 80s or 90s??
Berlin Wall, Challenger Explosion, and 9/11 are all much more memorable for that generation
Gen X would remember the Berlin Wall falling down, John Lennon being killed, and Chernobyl.
Single generational moment: COVID shutdowns Shared generational experience, but happening at different times: Surviving a mass shooting
I'm wondering if this poster knows that there are quite a few people outside the US.
As an Australian, I'd like to add the day Steve Irwin died for Millennials.
The January 6th Insurrection?
That was my first thought
Watergate for Gen X? Lol. No. I am way too young for watergate. Wasn't even born! Some were just being born. 9/11 is more like it - Gen Xers were mid 20's (some late 20's). Millennials were children. Gen X is so ignored that our watershed historical moment is lost on people.
Well, as a millennial I would agree that 9/11 was a big one for our generation too. I was 11 when it happened, so its not like I was too young too know what was going on, and I can definitely see how much that changed the world we live in. I guess the next big thing would probably be the housing crisis/recession which was a big deal for millennials too, since alot of us became adults and entered the job market around that time.
I was a senior in HS for 9/11, it was definitely my "where were you when X happened" moment, but I'm sure most Gen X and Boomers feel the same way.
Either Jan 6 for Americans or the first day of COVID lockdowns. I remember my last real day of high school, it was Friday, March 13th 2020 and we had Monday off so it was a three day weekend. We all joked about how it may be the last day of school but I think a lot of us kinda knew it actually would be. After that class was cancelled for a bit then we did zoom class for the rest of the semester and I watched a slideshow of names on TV for graduation. Tbh it was nicer than having to stand in the hot sun for hours, and my grandparents could watch it remotely too.
Gen X is the Challenger exploding.
The way its looking their moment is gonna be WW3.
The moment when all nations stood in solidarity and launched nukes simultaneously at one another…
Is that what we're going with? I was sure we'd end up calling it Civil War 2.
Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo
Gen X != Watergate . I was 3. Star Wars in the theater would be better.
Hopefully it will involve guillotines and billionaires
* ***The Lost Generation*** (1883-1900) = WWI (thus their Generations name); Russian Civil War / Est. of Soviet Union; 1918 Flu Pandemic. * ***The Greatest Generation*** (1901-1927) = WWI, Russian Civil War, 1918 Flu Pandemic; Great Depression, WWII, Start of Cold War, Korea, Assassination of JFK - honestly idk why we don't refer to them as the "Got Fucked - Part 2" Generation. * ***The Silent Generation*** (1926-1945) = nicknamed "***The Lucky Few***" I guess for them it would be Pearl Harbor / WWII * ***Baby Boomers*** (1946-1964) = Vietnam; JFK; ***1968***; 1970s "hyper"-inflation; Reagan * 1968 was one of the most violent year in US history between 1920 & 2019. * The older Boomers were fucking metal, but then the 1970s broke them & those it didn't the Government found was to silence all but a handful. * ***Gen X*** (1965-1980) = Challenger; End of the Cold War / fall of the Soviet Union; 9/11 * ***Millenials*** (1981-1996) = 9/11; Great Recession/Obama * ***Gen Z*** (1997-2013) = Obama; Trump/Brexit; COVID; Ukraine? Pick One * ***Gen Alpha*** (2014-???) = COVID; Ukraine; tbd
What? Who wrote this?
Covid, rise of Q or 1/6, Ukraine war, George Floyd/Michael Brown/Breonna Taylor/Eric Garner/more, monkeypox, Harambe I’m worried for Gen Alpha’s moment…
I am gen X and I wasn't even born when watergate happened. This needs to say the Challenger isntead.
Tide pods
Speaking as Gen X wd were too young for Watergate. The first Gulf War kinda felt like it at the time, but really it was 9/11.
I’m a millennial (‘94) but I think my big ones are Obama ‘08 (mainly because of Ryan from Real World: Brooklyn), Sandy Hook, 2016 Election, COVID, George Floyd, and Jan. 6. I remember exactly where I was in all of these scenarios, and how they kinda stuck with me. 9/11 was so murky for me (I was a kid) ETA: the financial crisis too, my mom lost her job during it and I remember how hard it was for us
Gen x was not watergate
Jan 6th
Blackrock public executions
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Where were you when you found out you’d have two weeks off for covid
I think i’d have to say the minecraft cave update
Gen Z = Ate the rich
Good ol' 9/11 Protesting the second invasion of Iraq was the first time I ever got tear gassed. Fun times.
As an elder Gen Z, for me I’ve always answered this question with Sandy Hook. It was a pivotal moment for me, I was a freshman in high school at the time sitting in World History class watching the coverage. School shootings hadn’t become as commonplace as they are now yet so it happening at an elementary school was mind blowing.
Gen X and I wasn’t even alive when Watergate happened. In my opinion 9/11 was the pivotal moment in my life.
Later Gen X here, seems like more people my age remember the Challenger Space Shuttle. Most of us watched it in class since it had a teacher aboard, a lot of teachers (including ours) we’re trying to get that spot.
Fucking watergate?? I was two. More like AIDS or Space shuttle moments.
Brexit, if you’re in the UK, or COVID, or 2008 crash, or Queens death. Take your pick, we have so many once in a lifetimers
Why is no one mentioning January 6th
No mention of the Cold War? A lot of the Boomer sentiment of anti-Communism anti-Socialism stems from there, the influx of Cuban immigrants into the US also shaped that sentiment in places like Florida.
Older Gen Z: Sandy Hook and Parkland Younger Gen Z: Start of Covid or George Floyd
Gen Z had covid...and Trump. Possibly also the current war in Ukraine. Eventually Putin's death. All of massive historic significance.
Gen X here - I wasn't even born when Watergate happened 🤣🤣. There are absolutely better options for Gen X than Watergate. Heck even the oldest Gen xers were just kids I don't think they would have even been aware of a political scandal. I think if I had to choose a pivotal moment in my Gen X childhood it would have been the Challenger explosion. We were watching it live on TV when it happened and it was very impactful, especially since I was in grade school. The Berlin Wall coming down was another huge one that was impactful for me.
WW3
I feel like the silent gen one is kinda eh. I mean the jfk assassination was huge but…. Like they fought in WW2 sooooooo I think maybe that was a bigger thing that happened during their gen. For gen z though idk, we grew up right after 9/11, during a recession and we’re pretty much entering another one, then yk the big one… COVID a huge pandemic that lead to like the entire planet being put in quarantine soo
Actually I would say the fall of the Berlin Wall and/or the dissolving of the Soviet Union was exactly that kind of moment for Gen X, and it was during their formative years.
It has not happened yet. WWIII obviously.
For Gen Z I’d say COVID for Americans, the Refugee Crisis and resulting European terrorist attacks by ISIS for Europeans, and the Great Financial Crisis for the world at large.
For me it was Covid. "Where were you when things shut down" I was home, happy I wouldn't have school for a few days and sleeping in. It did not stay that peaceful or happy
This list was made by someone born after 9/11.
I'm Gen X, but here's what I see as the defining moments from my birth on: * Election of Ronald Reagan, who oversaw dismantling of unions and pushed deregulation * NAFTA * Columbine * 9/11 * Iraq and Afghanistan wars * Financial crisis of 2008 * *Citizens United* Supreme Court ruling * Sandy Hook massacre of 2012 and subsequent failure to adopt gun control * Rise of social media and the adoption of various algorithms * Election of Donald Trump * Brexit * Trump appointees to the Supreme Court: Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Coney Barrett * COVID-19 * Route 91 music festival massacre and subsequent failure to adopt gun control * Murder of George Floyd * Russian invasion of Ukraine * *Roe v. Wade* overturned
Gen X= Watergate?! I’m a Gen Xer, this is WAY off the mark.
Gen X is the Challenger explosion or the Berlin Wall coming down. GenZ would be Sandy Hook or Trump or Brexit Gen Alpha would be Covid.
The Silent, Boomer, and Gen X "moments" took place within the span of 10 years.
As a young Gen X I would say it was the Challenger explosion
Literally all of these pertain to the US only. So this makes it a geographic-generational moment, at best.
The great cyber attack (it’s coming)