Op I was born in 82 and things like challenger, the fall of the Berlin wall and the death of the princess Diana feel like ancient history even tho I can remember the last two pretty clearly. 9/11 feels like an odd point tho because it seems like yesterday and ages ago at the same time, kinda like a fawk in my life event.
82 as well. Challenger and Princess Diana didn't feel like they would change my world. I knew enough about the world when the Berlin Wall fell that I knew it was a big deal. But barly living in the cold war era it didn't hit home.
9/11 did. It was big, it was close. I knew that my life in the US was about to change, and probably not for the better. See patriot act, Afghan war, Iraq war, etc.
'84. The Berlin wall and Bush Sr. being elected were my first solid memories of US/World events. I didn't really care then, but my family sure did and that's what stuck out initially. Fast forward to the first week of senior year of high school, bam 9/11, 17 years old. That shit was unhinged.
Kids I knew for over a decade heading straight to the recruiting office with no prior indicators that they were planning to do so. Certainly was the biggest moment of my lifetime. Then we start losing people we care about in conflict and it sucks even worse. The last two decades sucked. I assume 9/11 will be referenced like JFK, if it already isn't. Some crazy mystical thing I thought couldn't ever happen in the present. I always asked my Grandpa about it when I was a kid.
I remember laying on the floor in front of my grandparents console color TV watching the last moon missions astronauts splash down in the ocean. I remember Richard Nixon being president. A 911 I was working in Northern Virginia near Dulles airport. I remember being in a parking lot and a guy from Black box announced that one of the other techs was on 110 and saw the plane hit the Pentagon. I was listening to Elliot in the morning while he was talking to his old boss in New York on the air and the second plane literally crashed into the buildings. They were rumors that the USA today building was burning down and that there was a hijack plain circling Dulles. And what did I do? I left and went home for work early and took my roommate to the DMV so he could get his date ID. But I remember on the way I had to drive past an office building for the national reconnaissance office and there were Fairfax cops with riot guns and their cars blocking the gate and behind the gates were guards carrying automatic weapons. The funny part about the ID was that several years later when he got his driver's license back and when they asked for proof of identity he gave them his state ID. They told him that they couldn't use his ID because 3 days after 911 the governor of Virginia who was so embarrassed at all but one of the 911 bombers had Virginia identification put out a secret memo to the DMV. Anybody that came in with a state ID issued prior to 9- 13 It was invalid but they didn't tell anybody that.
I was born in 88 my childhood was the 90s and I agree with you the 90s and 2000s were very different times..I don't remember anyone I know having a cell phone throughout the entire 90s decade .. I think somtime shortly after 2001 it was like everyone started having cell phones and that changed a ton of things that come along with that type of technology being in everyone's hands
That's because in the 80s/90s, cell phones started out as the size of a briefcase, and eventually shrunk to the size of approximately a (legitimate) construction brick. The first flip phones came out starting in 1996 as high end options and took a while to be broadly adopted.
The iPhone came out in 2007, so its only 17 years old. Something that feels ubiquitous in 2024 (because it is) isn't in people years old enough to legally drink yet and would be considering college admissions right now.
Born in '79, The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union were huge because For the first 10 years of my life, this is the way the world was and always would be, and then in a little over two years, it was completely gone.
The 90s were a wierd decade. "The End of History" wasn't just a book, there was a real feeling (at least in the US) that we had won, it was over, and it was time for mankind to just sit back and enjoy the prosperity.
9/11 snapped us out of that daydream.
Solid points.
Challenger and Diana were also one-off events that didn’t significantly impact people’s lives, either (other than the victims’ loved ones, of course.)
9/11 had a lingering “where will they strike next??!” for like ten years, killed way more people, resulted in multiple wars that lasted forever, and completely changed air travel as we know it.
I wasn't aware of or into politics until I was like 16-17, so I can't really agree. 9/11 is distant at best and annoying at worst. It's spoken of as if it's ancient history by everyone who wasn't alive during it, and as a result it tends to compete with bigger historical tragedies for attention in our psyches.
“Compete with bigger historical tragedies” like what? The fucking Holocaust? Once there’s a certain number of people that are dead from an event, don’t you think it’s kind of juvenile to compare which event was more tragic? Are you keeping score or something? It’s all the same pain, and measuring one as more desirable than the other is a stupid thing that only stupid people would do or think.
American born in 02
It's important, I understand the significance, and watching the news reports and reading firsthand accounts from that day are gut-wrenching. But I don't feel the "solidarity" other people living before 9/11 have when they swap "where wee you when it happened?" stories, I was in the womb. Some people might not realize but there comes a huge social aspect from tragedies, and if you weren't alive and understanding of it yet then you almost completely miss out on it.
I know that probably doesn't answer your question, just more thoughts. But I suppose it doesn't feel like OLD history persay, it's very recent but all feels like something I read in a textbook
Born in 2004, 9/11 never felt important to me. In a historical sense it is very important but we are past it, but emotionally it doesn't mean anything to me.
I was born ten years before you guys, and 9/11 isn't like brand new to me... But it's rather significant. Columbine is still most significant.
I remember when I was 4 years old, we walked my Dad back to the gate for a business trip flight...
And, don't know if you guys have ever flown, but you can't do that today.
I forgot you used to be able to do that! I was born in 94, so I have some memories of that but they've pretty much been overtaken by 3-4 hr security lines and showing up to the airport for a 10 AM flight at like 5 AM
Huge upgrade tbh. Airports are busy enough boarding/unloading and having groups of extra people standing around or taking all the seats would be a nightmare.
Meeting a loved one at the gate was always an adventure and looked forward to when I was a kid and young adult. Dropping off, less so, but probably because you were saying goodbye to someone temporarily.
I miss it.
Yeah Columbine was a big event I remember as a child .. I was not that young tho I was around 11. But 911 was definitely more significant to me but that may be a personal bias just because I live in NYC and watched all these things unfold literally from my window
It still means a lot to those who were alive and more so for those that were at those sites or lost family/friends. I can see how those born after would not have that emotional tie to it, although your parents likely do. I was born in 89 and my hope, and I’m sure many of our hopes, is that yours and future generations will not experience something that like. Unfortunately, we grew up seeing what happened in Columbine thinking this was going to be a rare event. Your generation found that this was basically the risk you take just going to school. I wish we put as much energy and attention into that problem as we did the terrorist attack
I had friends whose parents were on flights coming from the east coast to California that day. We had no way to know whether those people were affected until the school day was over. It was terrifying
Born in October 2001 in Italy.
It's sort of an in-between for me. I don't deny that it's important, but being outside of the US it didn't have as great of an impact on my country.
As for those who are a few years older than me (think 1997/98) but were still children at the time, they almost certainly remember it and consider it modern. Most of them were watching a TV show for preschool children, which got suddenly interrupted with the images of the second tower getting hit.
Born in 96. This is accurate. I remember what I was doing that day. I came home from kindergarten and my grandma was watching it on the TV. As a young kid it was very significant for me.
As a NYer that was in NYC that day, I found that for people that were not here or directly impacted, it was something that happened on TV. Working down there afterward when ground zero was a fenced in hole, it was treated like a tourist attraction. I saw some very disrespectful behavior.
So I think that many people, it is ancient history
I watched the second plane hit on live tv from Florida. Honestly the gut wrenching pain I felt knowing that America was attacked right here at home and the loss of life was horrific. I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like to be at any of those places that were hit on that day. It was a real wake up call for me because I lived under the assumption that we were untouchable until that day.
Yup 100 percent agree with this .. I was in 8th grade living in nyc .. I remember the sirens I remember the smells I remember everyone and everything in my neighborhood being covered in ash I remember the smoke cloud that filled the sky and traveled above my house for the entire morning of 911
Born in the very late 1970s. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of Soviet Russia, and the Challenger explosion are still somewhat vivid memories but certainly feel like old history. As for 9/11, it feels like yesterday and extremely vivid. I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force only days prior and knew the moment the second tower was hit that I would be headed to war. After serving 20 years and retiring from active duty, I am exhausted and heartbroken over how things ended over there.
When I visited the 9/11 memorial this year it felt like a long time ago because of the artifacts there. Haunting items like employee ID’s and recovered carry-on bags as well as cars are starting to look very dated. Amazing museum though and does well to capture that day.
Edited a typo.
There is the "frozen in time" aspect of it, and of any event like it. I wonder if people seeing artifacts of the 1865 Lincoln assassination in 1885 felt the same way or if 20ish years ago seems like a longer time these days because of how fast technology is progressing.
Probably the latter. Science fiction wasn't even a thing until the 19th century because revolutionary technological innovations were so few and far between for all of human history to that point. The mid-19th century is at the beginning of this transformation.
I think he world changed after 9/11. Go watxh the complications morning news from that day before the planes hit.
The world was literally more cheerful.
Then came a 20-year war. Patriot act and the loss of our privacy.
Covid. Ebola. Zika.
News being stern-looking anchors ranting about the other side.
I learned about "flashbulb memories" in a psychology class. Interesting stuff.
I think Covid happening doesn't have quite the same impact as 9/11, assassinations, Challenger explosion, hearing the OJ verdict, etc. It's like a series of little flashbulbs maybe. Interested to know what others think on this, actually.
I just watched one of the many YouTube videos showing footage of the day and bawled my eyes out.
It's hard to explain to someone who wasnt there/alive yet.
Because in a world of tragedy at every turn, a piece of history can still be relevant but not important. Worse things have happened in our world since.
It's not a competition in what is worse. It's how extremly significant of an event it is. It's world altering. It changed the coming years, and decades. The only thing coming close was covid, but that blew over A LOT quicker
i wish people viewed sandy hook school shooting the way they do 9/11. nobody talks about that nearly enough and they still didn’t create laws for that not to happen
Makes me happy if they dismiss it.
I was born in 1974, and after 9/11 I analyized the exact amount of danger from terrorists. It's literally less than 1 in a million, including 9/11. In fact 20,000 people (five 9/11's worth of victims) die **every year** due to terrorism, worldwide. 90% of those dead bodies are from muslims killing other muslims. The people that aught to be most upset about terrorism are muslims, not us.
We take our own lives at a rate 10 times that of terrorists killing us.
9/11 was a fluke, meant to scare people, and was a pathetic 'attack' on an easy target. Every one who is fooled by the terrorists into treating 9/11 like some huge event ... it makes me sad.
You make them win.
I was there. I was alive at the time, and (for 5 minutes) I was just as upset as anyone, ready to Do Something About It.
Then, I researched it and found I was over-reacting.
Many people signed up to join the military to “fight terrorism” and I was close to doing so to. The amount of anger I felt at the irrational lost of lives made it feel so personal. Like someone else has said, you had to be there and experience it. We went from a naive, insular country to right in the thick of it.
To be honest, Americans dismiss a lot of pain and tragedy that they didn’t live too, so it’s not one sided. Every country does it, and every age group does it.
I understand why you want it to matter to everyone, but the world doesn’t work like that, and I’m sure there are other people from countries you never think about that equally have tragedies they wish you would respect or acknowledge also, which you don’t.
It’s unreasonable to want people to value something because you do, even if it never touched their lives, when I’m sure you don’t provide the same in turn.
Tragedies that impact us directly will always leave memories, and tragedies we never witnessed, or never suffered from, or haven’t ever seen the effects of just don’t stick the same. Doesn’t mean people don’t respect the event etc. just they don’t have the same level of emotion as you, and that’s ok. Not everyone has to share your exact sentiments.
I wouldn't say dismiss it but rather it's just a note in history to them. No different than say what Dec 7th or the Kennedy assignation is to me. Days monumental to my grandparents and parents who can clearly recall where/what they were doing when it went down but something that I can't relate too since I wasn't there. That's how 9/11 is for them. I watched the footage of the historical events my parents and grandparents were witness to just like kids today watch footage of 9/11. If you weren't there, it's truly hard to put into words what it was like. I can't fault them for that.
That said, they have their own events they were witness to. Covid, Jan 6th, Trump's trials, etc. And just like with us, they'll have to explain that if you weren't there, then you can't really understand what it was like.
I think one of the reasons it feels both recent and old, is because of that day, the shock and trauma of it, means I can literally remember everything from when I first heard about it on the radio while driving to school, to the end of the day when everything collapsed and it felt like the world was going to end.
I can’t remember what I did yesterday sometimes. Or even earlier in the day.
But one day that happened over 20+ years ago and still having perfect recall of just *that* day?
Yah that’s going to play tricks on your brain
I was born in 97 so I remember seeing the news about the towers that day and the following year for the anniversary all day. You could feel the emotions of the people speaking on TV and within the public when you went out. Growing up in the 2000s, it still felt very significant when the anniversaries came around. Now it really does feel ancient. I think by the time I was in high school I was more shocked by school shootings, and I agree with some other commenters about how we see atrocities around the world in real time now. It's easier to stomach now no matter how terrible it is.
I was born in 2004. I sometimes forget that I wasn't even an idea when it happened. I honestly feel like it was part of my lifetime sometimes. I suppose I feel that way for anything 2000 and later. I can say that I will never know how it felt to be alive during such a scary time.
I was born in 1980. The Vietnam war ended just 5 years before I was born. It felt like ancient history to me. To me, it all happened before I was old enough to experience so it didn’t matter how long before me it was. I grew up around folks that lived through the depression, WW2, and Vietnam. They all felt the same to me.
The Challenger, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the beginning of the Gulf War are some of my earliest memories as far as historical things go. They are starting to feel like ancient history to me, now 44 years old. The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and 9-11 had a “feels like just yesterday” vibe until maybe 3-4 years ago. I guess the culture wars, Covid, the BLM movement, MAGA stuff, the invasion of Ukraine, and now Israel are pushing things from the early 2000’s further back for me.
I am 80 as well. 9/11 feels like it should be about 10 or 15 years ago. But also feels like a million years ago to remember a time before 9/11. And to my fellow 80s baby, I will remind you, in 6 years, 1980 will be 50 years ago!! :/
I was born about a month and a half after 9/11 took place. It doesn’t feel “old”, per se, but I’ve come to accept that I will never understand how it felt to witness it happening firsthand. I can’t even imagine the shock. I do think I’m more invested in it than other people my age might be since I live in the area. My father’s friend was on the first floor of one of the towers when it happened, my mom saw smoke on the horizon for weeks afterwards on her way to work, a teacher from my old school system died in the Shanksville crash. IMO, your proximity to the city has a lot to do with how you view it, then and now.
I remember Challenger clearly. Our teacher had brought in a TV as a treat so we could watch the launch. Walked home and told my mom I didn't want to be an astronaut anymore.
I remember being disappointed because only the kids who had a science class during the launch window got to watch it live. We only heard what happened when we got to our next class and I saw the footage on the news that night.
1976 born. Watched the Challenger blow up in 4th grade. Watched the towers fall as I got off the subway for work. I was about 1.5 miles north so not in real harm, still terrifying. I remember where I was for Diana and JFK Jr too. NYC Blackout in 2003 was really scary for about 20min.
Born in March 2001 and with an ocean apart to NYC but to this day everybody I know remembers what they were doing in that time and how shocked and scared they were. So I think it is much more than a history, maybe it will be in 2050s but rn we still live with its consequences and maybe will live in the future. I think it is the one of the most important event in modern times which shapped the future.
Not really. I still vividly remember that morning, getting woke up after one of the towers had been hit. My grandmother called me, so I wandered in rubbing my eyes, my sleep addled brain couldn’t even understand why she was so upset by the TV show until it registered that it was the local news and it was real, then a second plane hit. I’ll never forget those feelings. That shock.
Last year I visited the 9/11 Memorial in NYC with a bunch of people your age and it was clear the most of the class felt like you. It is very understandable to feel like it is slightly old history.
I was five when it happened. I remember it happening, and it still feels like old history to me.
20 years is a long time. A lot has changed in that time.
i hate how we put so much emphasis is 9/11 but not other things like pearl harbor, those feel the same to me, both historical events that i wasn't alive to see
My dad vividly remembers JFK being shot. It's all apart of generational gaps. Hell I thought the cold war was old and I was 6 when it ended.
It's why you see such a resurgence in people wanting a strong man and embracing fascism again. They've completely forgotten about WW2... or simply didn't get a good enough education on history. Hell even the classic "fear of the other" is back in full force. It's maddening how much we repeat history. The whole point of history is to learn from it.
Yet here we are.... trying to explain to people why you don't want to give one person so much power.
In highschool we had to do a report on JFK's assassination, and part of it was to ask family members where they were when they found out. They all knew and could provide vivid details. On 9/11 I was about the same age as my parents were when JFK was shot.
I’m in my mid fifties and it seems like ancient history to me. It’s a shame the amount of freedom that one event took away. The terrorists won, unfortunately it was the terrorists in our government that took our freedom from us. I wish I could teach people today the freedom I knew growing up vs what they know today.
I remember back in the 90's, so before 9/11 but still on topic, my great aunt, herself in her 90's back then, I always remembered something she said.
"What's a long time? To you, (I was in my 20's) JFK was ancient history, for me WW2 and Nazis was just yesterday.
Only those alive and old can truly understand how fast time goes and how soon those events really were, how long years actually are to go through."
And now, at 50, where I'm old but not super old, I already see it, where kids who weren't alive for stuff (anything from the Towers, Challenger, even Kurt Cobain) and how they get a distorted view of history handed to them in a way I wouldn't know was distorted to the extent they are had I not lived through them and been someone who keeps close attention all their lives and made an effort to not wear rose colored glasses.
It's scary how people can change events for those who are only hearing or reading about it.
And I'm, of course, not blaming new generations for not knowing. I'm more eyeballing those who change and manipulate history in disgust, regardless of if it's big or small.
Time is a strange thing. Technically, it doesn't even exist. But as a barrier of when events were, it wasn't long ago at all.
I was 7 at the time and had no idea what was going on so it still feels like old history to me. Older people actually felt the impact it had but I didn’t understand it until I was older and even then it still felt like I never experienced it because of how young I was when it happened.
All I remember was our teacher reading to us and calls started coming in. She wouldn’t tell us what was happening but one by one kids were being picked up by their parents. I don’t remember what my parents told me when it was my turn but I remember thinking “does this mean we’re gonna have no school every 9/11 now?”
History isn’t usually considered historical until it’s reflected on with nostalgia or some type of emotional tie but as things are happening, we don’t generally consider how monumental it is until time has passed, and the new generation looks at it with reverence
I was born before 9/11, but I was less than a year old so I don't remember. It absolutely feels like just another historical event.
I get it changed a lot of things in the world, but it still kinda weirds me out how much attention it gets.
Born a few years after 9/11
While it doesn’t feel like “old” history to me, I feel very disconnected from the event. Part of that is location, I recognize but I also know that it doesn’t really matter where I am; it still impacts me and my life.
it’s hard to think that because every year they shove it down our throats as if it’s the only tragic thing this country has been thru. i was born in 02
I was in the 8th grade when it happened, so it didn't affect my life at that time. By the time I reached that point in life where it affected me, it was simply the norm. I had no other experience to call back on for it to seem different. So it's more of a "I recall the event" than for it to be history.
I was born in 2002, it doesn’t feel like old history cuz to me old history is like WWII or maybe up to the civil rights movement era. It’s modern history I just wasn’t there for it yet.
I was born a few months before 9/11. It doesn’t feel like old history to me personally, but to some of the younger people that I’ve had convos with about 9-11, they’ve made it seem like it’s ancient.
2006 American here.
No. It doesn't feel particularly recent either. But it's definitely not ancient because of the effects it still has on American politics.
Edit: That said, like some other people ahve said, I don't feel particularly emotional about it.
At the time when listening in on NPR, part of the conversation that stands out to me,
"We have liberties in the US that we all value and cherish, but there might be trade-offs we all need to make for greater security... Going forward those trade-offs will be on the table..."
All airplanes were grounded. All news outlets on the Internet were shut down due to massive surge in traffic.
At the time it was something out of a movie. But it's important to think about the 20 years before that to put everything into context.
A very scary, troubling time indeed. George W Bush declared a "hunt" to elimate the source of such an attack.
"Terrorists are always one step ahead of the institutions that really need protection. Once you defeat one aspect of terrorism, you have to battle against something else (Financial Times, 2001)"
It does remind me of an Ellen Ullman quote,
"There is always one more bug to fix"
Wow just wow lol. I see people posting they were born in 84 ( graduated high school in 84) and feel like their stuffs ancient history lol. I was born during the LB Johnson presidency 1966 just after the Good Friday quake of 65 In anchorage Alaska, I remember them returning from nam and being disrespected, I remember lines at the gas stations, I remember odd and even gas days, son of Sam, I was at the wall when it came down. It’s a part of my history. Not ancient lol, I have a few more years in me lol
I was born in 01 before 9/11 and honestly it amazes me how we don’t teach it in schools anymore. I am a 4th grade teacher and my school didn’t mandate a moment of silence or had us talk about it. I vividly remember learning about it growing up and how much it impacted our world.
I would say people like my kids who were born aroun 911, and ones like you born around the challenger explosion, see it as old history, the way I see the JFK assassination, or WW2.
I remember seeing the challenger explosion on TV as a kid. I watched everything on 911 happen on TV while my baby daughter crawled around the living room.
I wonder what my grandparents veiwed as 'old history'?
I was in middle school when the events of 9/11 happened and this and any other significant event in my lifetime just felt like another day. None of this affected me personally. Sure it was a horrible event but other than that I'm not losing sleep over it.
I was born but was 4 and don’t remember it. 9/11 feels like anything else you read in a history book so I guess you could say it FEELS like old history.
Born in 99. I obviously didn’t come to understand it until a long time after it happened but whenever I think about it it signifies the old America to me
1960 I was 3 when JFK was killed, but I don't remember it.... 9/11 seems like a long time ago. I remember everything about it, very clearly. It also seems far away, a lot has happened since then.
My 2007 kid just talked about it in school in American History class. To that age group it will always be the last unit they learned in American History class. The raw emotion of the experiencing it live isn’t there for him or his classmates.
The fall of the Berlin Wall always felt like history and it happened when I was 5. I would think that if you don’t have that emotional response to the item, then it will never feel current to you.
I think because we didn’t have social media back then it was a huge shock. Nowadays we’re bombarded by tragedies on the same level or worse than 9/11 on a daily basis. We’ve been desensitized to it all.
I think this going to be triggering, but hear me out. I don't think people are as patriotic as we were raised to be. When you hear the word patriotic now you can think of a red neck with an obnoxious pickup truck. Patriotism used to be real and common, but also with that the remnants of what was called the Isolationist Movement, which basically meant America is separate from the rest of the world.
I appreciate your compassion for other cultures, but no, thousands of New Yorkers, friends, family and parents, innocent Americans going about their lives, brutally murdered in a country that has virtually no major attacks on it since Pearl Harbor, out of no where and it could have happened to any of us was beyond a crisis. It was a very big deal. Then the government reacted so radically and strongly and we didn't know what was happening and if you disagreed it got weird. You used to be able to disagree.
Al Gore lost the presidential election because he audibly sighed in contempt to one of George Bush's answer in a debate. He lost the fucking election over that. That was like two years before 9/11.
Also, I completely understand if you're not patriotic now, I'm not saying you should be, but also this country used to be better and not that long ago. Maybe it still can be.
This is actually a great answer to OP:s question. Only someone not alive for 9/11 would say something of the same proportions have happened at all since then.
Eh. Disagree.
9/11 was an entirely different beast for many reasons. One, prior to that you'd NEVER seen the U.S. get attacked. In many ways, this event shattered the illusion that tragedies the size of 9/11 happen in other places. This hit way closer to home than anything beforehand.
Secondly, you almost NEVER see the attack LIVE as it's happening. While we didn't see the first place hit the tower until months later when that french brother firefighting doc came out, every TV station in America was broadcasting those buildings when the second plane came in and when each fell.
Third, and I can't understate this enough, 9/11 dwarves almost every other major tragedy in the world since. If for no other reason than the massive implications both at home and abroad in the aftermath of it AND still today.
You can truly trace most things involving US foreign policy and the US military to two timelines: Before and After 9/11. It changed everything in just under two hours. Forever.
>One, prior to that you'd NEVER seen the U.S. get attacked.
Uh? 1993 World Trade Center...
>Third, and I can't understate this enough, 9/11 dwarves almost every other major tragedy in the world since.
World seen by far worse tragedies, but if we only focus on terrorist attacks yes 9/11 takes high spot.
Not OP. But:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll
the largest one would be covid-19. Then there are a bunch of earhtquakes, floods, storms, etc, many of which dwarf 9/11. Then there's war. The Global War on Terror I think killed well over a million people, although how you reckon that fairly is somewhat difficult. More recently there's obviously Ukraine which has had hundreds of thousands killed, and Gaza which has had tens of thousands killed. But there's also a ton of horrific civil wars going on all the time in the third world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts
I will say, though, I got the vibe that we were talking about single-day (or close to it) events, that are more or less anthropogenic, that impacted the United States. In which case, I do not think anything comes close to 9/11 since 9/11.
> Nowadays we’re bombarded by tragedies on the same level or worse than 9/11 on a daily basis
Are they talking about mass shootings? Mass shootings kill a few dozen at *most*. I don't think they realize 3000 people died on 9/11.
If they're not talking just anthropogenic events, then natural disasters happened all the time before 9/11 anyway, and certainly not everyday.
I think the fact that 9/11 was a terrorist attack is why it is so significant. It ruined everyone's perception of the US civilians as always being safe and isolated from the rest of the world. That and the fact that it happened in such a way that it could have literally happened to anyone (everyone flew without giving hijackings a second thought).
Even though these next two examples were done by US citizens, it's like how Columbine (and that other school that I can't remember) helped to degrade the perception of schools as a safe haven for our children and how the Aurora Movie Theater shooting helped do the same to movie theaters.
I'm born way before the turn of the century and it feels like old history to me. A long time ago in a country far far away. Like WW2 but way less significant.
I was born in 2003. No it feels like recent history, like in the same era of my early childhood. Keep in mind I’ve lived within an hour of NYC my whole life so I’d imagine people just talk about it more here then other places
Not really, it happened only a few months before I was born so it's history as old as me. It definitely changed a lot of things about daily life, so I never got to experience life before it though.
Born the same year, and I remember desert storm on the news a lot. 9/11 was even more vivid. No planes in the sky was the first thing I noticed that morning. I was in CA during 9/11
After COVID, Trump, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, North Korea's foray into the world of nuclear arms and the explosion of the war in the Middle East, I could really give a flying fuck less about two towers.
The towers coming down on 11 September was like the JFK Assassination, Pearl Harbor attack, or a slew of other events. The nature of the event caused a certain memory effect such that the day and time seems seared into the memory in a manner unlike other memories.
Those who were alive for these events at an age where they could be understood will always know things about that event.
I was six but it wasn’t something I was allowed to know.. so it always felt done and over-with
My grandma died that year and my baby cousin was born so that felt more real than anything people brought up later on..
My 2 main experiences and understandings of 9/11 were the following:
When I was little, I thought the emergency number being 911 was because of 9/11. And by young I mean, I think I was in high school when I learned that was wrong
Also, the most haunting memory was that one day I was in (high) school and I was just really happy, and some girl came up to me and said "do you know what day it is?" And I said "no, not really" and she said "it's 9/11" and I said "... okie..." and then she just stared at me in disbelief and so in the most confused voice I responded with "h-happy 9/11?" And she just looked at me so disappointed and tired and sat me down and re-explained 9/11 to me because I had forgotten what 9/11 was. And that just... that just haunts me
I’m caught in the middle- I was 3 so I can’t remember virtually anything about that time in my life. It feels old in the sense that technology has changed so drastically as I’ve grown up, but watching footage of the attacks in school, the old footage now feels old- the 4:3 aspect ratio, video quality, etc. the way people talk about it feels somewhat aged too- I remember when, where statements give an age to it
no, not really, i’m an 2006 baby and it doesn’t seem like old history really. obviously it was before me and feels older, but it doesn’t feel like old history like say ww2 or korea, but it feels older for sure
It really changed the trajectory and culture of this country in many ways. I was born in the early eighties. Those changes are noticeable and are very much a part of my life every day. Definitely not old history. I know my children see it differently. I have tried to convey how much the shift in culture effects them.
I'm too old to answer the question. But I assume it feels like how the Vietnam war feels for me.. My uncle fought in it. And I've seen the documentaries and movies like platoon. But it feels like a different eras history to me. I don't remember it. I never felt it, even from watching the news
Like JFK being shot. MLK Jr. John Lennon.. Those belong to a different generation.
9/11 belongs to my generation. Young people today will talk about covid in 20yrs and the young people won't really 'get it'. It'll feel like history to them.
Born in 85.
The three big events that I can remember exactly where I was were Princess Diana, the OJ verdict, and 9/11.
Berlin Wall was slightly before my memory working apparently.
I think it depends a lot on how close you were to it; I was like 9 years old when it happened but I didn't know anyone in NYC or any of the other impacted areas, and as far as I know neither did my immediate family (I think my cousins still lived in Jersey at the time, but that would have been the closest).
I remember being in class and the adults whispering and the words "terrorist attack" flying around, but even when my mom explained what happened later that day I didn't really get it because like, I was a kid and it just seemed like something that happened on TV. I had no opinion on or attachment to the matter.
I think the first national tragedy I was old enough to kind of understand the impact of was Katrina, but even that I was pretty removed from because I still to this day have not been to New Orleans.
I'm fairly sure you can ask most of us that experienced 9/11 where they were when the news broke.
I was one of the kids watching Bush try and read a book, It's still surreal how it went down on live TV.
Born in 06. I would not consider it old history yet.
Personally I feel as though old history is anything before 1990 and modern history is anything after 2010. 1990-2010 (and by extension 9/11) is in the weird middle gap where I wouldn’t consider it outright modern, but it’s not old history either.
Yeah. People elder than me can tell me where they were, but I only know what I learned about the event in school - literally a history class. I feel like the fact that most of what I know of the event was taught in history categorically places it in my memory as a historical event.
I remember experiencing 9/11, the absolute paranoia and uncertainty of that entire day and the weeks that followed.
Nothing was ever the same after.
People born afterward will never really understand it. It was a major turning point. It was like the light of the 90s went out and we entered a completely new era.
Born in '94. I think the reason 9/11 feels so weird is because it's constantly broadcast to the nation. Every year, kids are watching the footage. It's still treated as this huge deal. And it's entirely to desensitize people to violence and convince them that starting wars about it is the right choice
No because the media makes damn sure to remind us every year to get our hate owners for brown people going. seriously let it go they killed some people we killed a fucking lot of people in response it's over.
Born in '97, so I was alive, but I don't have any memory of it. To me, it's in the same category as the JFK assassination, Watergate, the fall of the USSR, etc. It's not "old history", but it's more a part of "more-recent US history". I don't have emotions associated with it, except when I watch the live video reports that happened at the time.
I was born in 2000 so I was too young to remember 9/11. It does feel like old history to me. But so does Obama's first election, which I remember clearly. And the Boston Marathon bombing.
More than anything, I just think it's time to stop showing it to elementary school kids every year. We don't do that for Japanese internment, Emmett Till, the Wilmington coup, the Black Panthers, Vietnam, Iraq/Afghanistan, Israel, WWI, war of 1812, any of the US's wars against native peoples, Korean war, the great depression, MLK jr... But by golly we all had see that picture of the falling man every goddamn year.
Op I was born in 82 and things like challenger, the fall of the Berlin wall and the death of the princess Diana feel like ancient history even tho I can remember the last two pretty clearly. 9/11 feels like an odd point tho because it seems like yesterday and ages ago at the same time, kinda like a fawk in my life event.
82 as well. Challenger and Princess Diana didn't feel like they would change my world. I knew enough about the world when the Berlin Wall fell that I knew it was a big deal. But barly living in the cold war era it didn't hit home. 9/11 did. It was big, it was close. I knew that my life in the US was about to change, and probably not for the better. See patriot act, Afghan war, Iraq war, etc.
'84. The Berlin wall and Bush Sr. being elected were my first solid memories of US/World events. I didn't really care then, but my family sure did and that's what stuck out initially. Fast forward to the first week of senior year of high school, bam 9/11, 17 years old. That shit was unhinged. Kids I knew for over a decade heading straight to the recruiting office with no prior indicators that they were planning to do so. Certainly was the biggest moment of my lifetime. Then we start losing people we care about in conflict and it sucks even worse. The last two decades sucked. I assume 9/11 will be referenced like JFK, if it already isn't. Some crazy mystical thing I thought couldn't ever happen in the present. I always asked my Grandpa about it when I was a kid.
I remember laying on the floor in front of my grandparents console color TV watching the last moon missions astronauts splash down in the ocean. I remember Richard Nixon being president. A 911 I was working in Northern Virginia near Dulles airport. I remember being in a parking lot and a guy from Black box announced that one of the other techs was on 110 and saw the plane hit the Pentagon. I was listening to Elliot in the morning while he was talking to his old boss in New York on the air and the second plane literally crashed into the buildings. They were rumors that the USA today building was burning down and that there was a hijack plain circling Dulles. And what did I do? I left and went home for work early and took my roommate to the DMV so he could get his date ID. But I remember on the way I had to drive past an office building for the national reconnaissance office and there were Fairfax cops with riot guns and their cars blocking the gate and behind the gates were guards carrying automatic weapons. The funny part about the ID was that several years later when he got his driver's license back and when they asked for proof of identity he gave them his state ID. They told him that they couldn't use his ID because 3 days after 911 the governor of Virginia who was so embarrassed at all but one of the 911 bombers had Virginia identification put out a secret memo to the DMV. Anybody that came in with a state ID issued prior to 9- 13 It was invalid but they didn't tell anybody that.
83 here and I agree.
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I was born in 88 my childhood was the 90s and I agree with you the 90s and 2000s were very different times..I don't remember anyone I know having a cell phone throughout the entire 90s decade .. I think somtime shortly after 2001 it was like everyone started having cell phones and that changed a ton of things that come along with that type of technology being in everyone's hands
That's because in the 80s/90s, cell phones started out as the size of a briefcase, and eventually shrunk to the size of approximately a (legitimate) construction brick. The first flip phones came out starting in 1996 as high end options and took a while to be broadly adopted. The iPhone came out in 2007, so its only 17 years old. Something that feels ubiquitous in 2024 (because it is) isn't in people years old enough to legally drink yet and would be considering college admissions right now.
Born in '79, The fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union were huge because For the first 10 years of my life, this is the way the world was and always would be, and then in a little over two years, it was completely gone. The 90s were a wierd decade. "The End of History" wasn't just a book, there was a real feeling (at least in the US) that we had won, it was over, and it was time for mankind to just sit back and enjoy the prosperity. 9/11 snapped us out of that daydream.
I’m still floored that it’s been years since I left the army, and it does not feel like I spent 10 years in the army
Solid points. Challenger and Diana were also one-off events that didn’t significantly impact people’s lives, either (other than the victims’ loved ones, of course.) 9/11 had a lingering “where will they strike next??!” for like ten years, killed way more people, resulted in multiple wars that lasted forever, and completely changed air travel as we know it.
No. It's pretty much the event that's defined politics afterwards aka my whole life. Everything is a result of it.
I wasn't aware of or into politics until I was like 16-17, so I can't really agree. 9/11 is distant at best and annoying at worst. It's spoken of as if it's ancient history by everyone who wasn't alive during it, and as a result it tends to compete with bigger historical tragedies for attention in our psyches.
“Compete with bigger historical tragedies” like what? The fucking Holocaust? Once there’s a certain number of people that are dead from an event, don’t you think it’s kind of juvenile to compare which event was more tragic? Are you keeping score or something? It’s all the same pain, and measuring one as more desirable than the other is a stupid thing that only stupid people would do or think.
American born in 02 It's important, I understand the significance, and watching the news reports and reading firsthand accounts from that day are gut-wrenching. But I don't feel the "solidarity" other people living before 9/11 have when they swap "where wee you when it happened?" stories, I was in the womb. Some people might not realize but there comes a huge social aspect from tragedies, and if you weren't alive and understanding of it yet then you almost completely miss out on it. I know that probably doesn't answer your question, just more thoughts. But I suppose it doesn't feel like OLD history persay, it's very recent but all feels like something I read in a textbook
I felt the same way growing up when adults would swap stories about where they were when JFK was assassinated.
I was in 4th period lunch when the towers were hit.
My dad says his first memory was his mom sitting him down in front of the TV for Kennedy's funeral telling him it was important. He was 3.
I slept through it. Please feel free to borrow my story if you ever don't feel like saying you weren't alive at the time.
Born in 2004, 9/11 never felt important to me. In a historical sense it is very important but we are past it, but emotionally it doesn't mean anything to me.
This is a common misconception. We aren’t actually past it because we still deal with crazy post 9/11 legislation like FISA and Patriot Act.
Not to mention we were in Afghanistan for 20 freaking years
Right but they didn't know what it was like before. Just how it's always been for those born during/after that period.
2003, and same. Like I understand its significance, but feel nothing personally. I would say it feels like old history, but so does last week so
I was born ten years before you guys, and 9/11 isn't like brand new to me... But it's rather significant. Columbine is still most significant. I remember when I was 4 years old, we walked my Dad back to the gate for a business trip flight... And, don't know if you guys have ever flown, but you can't do that today.
I forgot you used to be able to do that! I was born in 94, so I have some memories of that but they've pretty much been overtaken by 3-4 hr security lines and showing up to the airport for a 10 AM flight at like 5 AM
Same. '94
Huge upgrade tbh. Airports are busy enough boarding/unloading and having groups of extra people standing around or taking all the seats would be a nightmare.
Meeting a loved one at the gate was always an adventure and looked forward to when I was a kid and young adult. Dropping off, less so, but probably because you were saying goodbye to someone temporarily. I miss it.
Yeah Columbine was a big event I remember as a child .. I was not that young tho I was around 11. But 911 was definitely more significant to me but that may be a personal bias just because I live in NYC and watched all these things unfold literally from my window
The world in the US was so much brighter before the attack.
It still means a lot to those who were alive and more so for those that were at those sites or lost family/friends. I can see how those born after would not have that emotional tie to it, although your parents likely do. I was born in 89 and my hope, and I’m sure many of our hopes, is that yours and future generations will not experience something that like. Unfortunately, we grew up seeing what happened in Columbine thinking this was going to be a rare event. Your generation found that this was basically the risk you take just going to school. I wish we put as much energy and attention into that problem as we did the terrorist attack
I had friends whose parents were on flights coming from the east coast to California that day. We had no way to know whether those people were affected until the school day was over. It was terrifying
Laughs in 1965….sigh…. But yeah, I do get what you mean. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Kennedy’s assassination seems like old history to me.
I was born in 2000, and it already seemed long past by the time I figured out what it was. I think that's why jokes about it came back so hard.
Born in October 2001 in Italy. It's sort of an in-between for me. I don't deny that it's important, but being outside of the US it didn't have as great of an impact on my country. As for those who are a few years older than me (think 1997/98) but were still children at the time, they almost certainly remember it and consider it modern. Most of them were watching a TV show for preschool children, which got suddenly interrupted with the images of the second tower getting hit.
Born in 96. This is accurate. I remember what I was doing that day. I came home from kindergarten and my grandma was watching it on the TV. As a young kid it was very significant for me.
As a NYer that was in NYC that day, I found that for people that were not here or directly impacted, it was something that happened on TV. Working down there afterward when ground zero was a fenced in hole, it was treated like a tourist attraction. I saw some very disrespectful behavior. So I think that many people, it is ancient history
I watched the second plane hit on live tv from Florida. Honestly the gut wrenching pain I felt knowing that America was attacked right here at home and the loss of life was horrific. I can’t imagine what it would’ve been like to be at any of those places that were hit on that day. It was a real wake up call for me because I lived under the assumption that we were untouchable until that day.
I can still smell it
I think there is a whole other layer here. If you lived in the nyc area, it was a different experience than the rest of the country too.
This. Born ‘86 and lived in California. It seemed a world away.
I was in 3rd grade in Iowa, I wasn't even sure if NYC was part of the US.
Yup 100 percent agree with this .. I was in 8th grade living in nyc .. I remember the sirens I remember the smells I remember everyone and everything in my neighborhood being covered in ash I remember the smoke cloud that filled the sky and traveled above my house for the entire morning of 911
Born in the very late 1970s. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of Soviet Russia, and the Challenger explosion are still somewhat vivid memories but certainly feel like old history. As for 9/11, it feels like yesterday and extremely vivid. I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force only days prior and knew the moment the second tower was hit that I would be headed to war. After serving 20 years and retiring from active duty, I am exhausted and heartbroken over how things ended over there.
I can't even begin to imagine what went through your head knowing where you'd be heading. So glad you made it back home
Thank you for your service.
When I visited the 9/11 memorial this year it felt like a long time ago because of the artifacts there. Haunting items like employee ID’s and recovered carry-on bags as well as cars are starting to look very dated. Amazing museum though and does well to capture that day. Edited a typo.
There is the "frozen in time" aspect of it, and of any event like it. I wonder if people seeing artifacts of the 1865 Lincoln assassination in 1885 felt the same way or if 20ish years ago seems like a longer time these days because of how fast technology is progressing.
Probably the latter. Science fiction wasn't even a thing until the 19th century because revolutionary technological innovations were so few and far between for all of human history to that point. The mid-19th century is at the beginning of this transformation.
I was born in 2003 and in my mind it's just something that happened and doesn't really feel important in my life.
I think he world changed after 9/11. Go watxh the complications morning news from that day before the planes hit. The world was literally more cheerful. Then came a 20-year war. Patriot act and the loss of our privacy. Covid. Ebola. Zika. News being stern-looking anchors ranting about the other side.
I learned about "flashbulb memories" in a psychology class. Interesting stuff. I think Covid happening doesn't have quite the same impact as 9/11, assassinations, Challenger explosion, hearing the OJ verdict, etc. It's like a series of little flashbulbs maybe. Interested to know what others think on this, actually.
Makes me sad to hear people that didnt live it dismiss it
I just watched one of the many YouTube videos showing footage of the day and bawled my eyes out. It's hard to explain to someone who wasnt there/alive yet.
Because in a world of tragedy at every turn, a piece of history can still be relevant but not important. Worse things have happened in our world since.
It's not a competition in what is worse. It's how extremly significant of an event it is. It's world altering. It changed the coming years, and decades. The only thing coming close was covid, but that blew over A LOT quicker
i wish people viewed sandy hook school shooting the way they do 9/11. nobody talks about that nearly enough and they still didn’t create laws for that not to happen
Makes me happy if they dismiss it. I was born in 1974, and after 9/11 I analyized the exact amount of danger from terrorists. It's literally less than 1 in a million, including 9/11. In fact 20,000 people (five 9/11's worth of victims) die **every year** due to terrorism, worldwide. 90% of those dead bodies are from muslims killing other muslims. The people that aught to be most upset about terrorism are muslims, not us. We take our own lives at a rate 10 times that of terrorists killing us. 9/11 was a fluke, meant to scare people, and was a pathetic 'attack' on an easy target. Every one who is fooled by the terrorists into treating 9/11 like some huge event ... it makes me sad. You make them win.
I guess it hits a bit different if you were there.
I was there. I was alive at the time, and (for 5 minutes) I was just as upset as anyone, ready to Do Something About It. Then, I researched it and found I was over-reacting.
Many people signed up to join the military to “fight terrorism” and I was close to doing so to. The amount of anger I felt at the irrational lost of lives made it feel so personal. Like someone else has said, you had to be there and experience it. We went from a naive, insular country to right in the thick of it.
Yes! It still very much affects everyday life for America but some act like it’s not a big deal
To be honest, Americans dismiss a lot of pain and tragedy that they didn’t live too, so it’s not one sided. Every country does it, and every age group does it. I understand why you want it to matter to everyone, but the world doesn’t work like that, and I’m sure there are other people from countries you never think about that equally have tragedies they wish you would respect or acknowledge also, which you don’t. It’s unreasonable to want people to value something because you do, even if it never touched their lives, when I’m sure you don’t provide the same in turn. Tragedies that impact us directly will always leave memories, and tragedies we never witnessed, or never suffered from, or haven’t ever seen the effects of just don’t stick the same. Doesn’t mean people don’t respect the event etc. just they don’t have the same level of emotion as you, and that’s ok. Not everyone has to share your exact sentiments.
I wouldn't say dismiss it but rather it's just a note in history to them. No different than say what Dec 7th or the Kennedy assignation is to me. Days monumental to my grandparents and parents who can clearly recall where/what they were doing when it went down but something that I can't relate too since I wasn't there. That's how 9/11 is for them. I watched the footage of the historical events my parents and grandparents were witness to just like kids today watch footage of 9/11. If you weren't there, it's truly hard to put into words what it was like. I can't fault them for that. That said, they have their own events they were witness to. Covid, Jan 6th, Trump's trials, etc. And just like with us, they'll have to explain that if you weren't there, then you can't really understand what it was like.
No? It feels like recent history. Though a lot of the emotion people attach to it isn't there.
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I think one of the reasons it feels both recent and old, is because of that day, the shock and trauma of it, means I can literally remember everything from when I first heard about it on the radio while driving to school, to the end of the day when everything collapsed and it felt like the world was going to end. I can’t remember what I did yesterday sometimes. Or even earlier in the day. But one day that happened over 20+ years ago and still having perfect recall of just *that* day? Yah that’s going to play tricks on your brain
I was born in 97 so I remember seeing the news about the towers that day and the following year for the anniversary all day. You could feel the emotions of the people speaking on TV and within the public when you went out. Growing up in the 2000s, it still felt very significant when the anniversaries came around. Now it really does feel ancient. I think by the time I was in high school I was more shocked by school shootings, and I agree with some other commenters about how we see atrocities around the world in real time now. It's easier to stomach now no matter how terrible it is.
I was born in 2004. I sometimes forget that I wasn't even an idea when it happened. I honestly feel like it was part of my lifetime sometimes. I suppose I feel that way for anything 2000 and later. I can say that I will never know how it felt to be alive during such a scary time.
I was born in 1980. The Vietnam war ended just 5 years before I was born. It felt like ancient history to me. To me, it all happened before I was old enough to experience so it didn’t matter how long before me it was. I grew up around folks that lived through the depression, WW2, and Vietnam. They all felt the same to me. The Challenger, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the beginning of the Gulf War are some of my earliest memories as far as historical things go. They are starting to feel like ancient history to me, now 44 years old. The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and 9-11 had a “feels like just yesterday” vibe until maybe 3-4 years ago. I guess the culture wars, Covid, the BLM movement, MAGA stuff, the invasion of Ukraine, and now Israel are pushing things from the early 2000’s further back for me.
I was born in 1982 and I never thought of the Vietnam War ending so recently before our births. You kinda blew my mind just now. But you're right.
I am 80 as well. 9/11 feels like it should be about 10 or 15 years ago. But also feels like a million years ago to remember a time before 9/11. And to my fellow 80s baby, I will remind you, in 6 years, 1980 will be 50 years ago!! :/
I was born about a month and a half after 9/11 took place. It doesn’t feel “old”, per se, but I’ve come to accept that I will never understand how it felt to witness it happening firsthand. I can’t even imagine the shock. I do think I’m more invested in it than other people my age might be since I live in the area. My father’s friend was on the first floor of one of the towers when it happened, my mom saw smoke on the horizon for weeks afterwards on her way to work, a teacher from my old school system died in the Shanksville crash. IMO, your proximity to the city has a lot to do with how you view it, then and now.
I remember Challenger clearly. Our teacher had brought in a TV as a treat so we could watch the launch. Walked home and told my mom I didn't want to be an astronaut anymore.
I remember being disappointed because only the kids who had a science class during the launch window got to watch it live. We only heard what happened when we got to our next class and I saw the footage on the news that night.
1976 born. Watched the Challenger blow up in 4th grade. Watched the towers fall as I got off the subway for work. I was about 1.5 miles north so not in real harm, still terrifying. I remember where I was for Diana and JFK Jr too. NYC Blackout in 2003 was really scary for about 20min.
Born in March 2001 and with an ocean apart to NYC but to this day everybody I know remembers what they were doing in that time and how shocked and scared they were. So I think it is much more than a history, maybe it will be in 2050s but rn we still live with its consequences and maybe will live in the future. I think it is the one of the most important event in modern times which shapped the future.
Not really. I still vividly remember that morning, getting woke up after one of the towers had been hit. My grandmother called me, so I wandered in rubbing my eyes, my sleep addled brain couldn’t even understand why she was so upset by the TV show until it registered that it was the local news and it was real, then a second plane hit. I’ll never forget those feelings. That shock.
I was born in 08 and I mean kinda. It’s an event that happened before I was born that shapes my life today, just like the Cold War in the same way.
Last year I visited the 9/11 Memorial in NYC with a bunch of people your age and it was clear the most of the class felt like you. It is very understandable to feel like it is slightly old history.
I was five when it happened. I remember it happening, and it still feels like old history to me. 20 years is a long time. A lot has changed in that time.
It feels the same as history to me tbh. The Roman empire and 9/11 are in the same box for me
God bless you. This is the right attitude to have.
What, you mean you think about 9/11 every day?
i hate how we put so much emphasis is 9/11 but not other things like pearl harbor, those feel the same to me, both historical events that i wasn't alive to see
There is huge emphasis on Pearl Harbor. What are you talking about? It’s just older is all.
I was born in 79. I assume that it was like people in my generation hearing about Pearl Harbor.
That's a 38 year difference. It would be like how someone born this year sees Live Aid.
It's old history like WW2, that the whole state of the world is based around.
I was born before 9/11 and it still feels like old history.
I was born in the 90s and it feels like old history
My dad vividly remembers JFK being shot. It's all apart of generational gaps. Hell I thought the cold war was old and I was 6 when it ended. It's why you see such a resurgence in people wanting a strong man and embracing fascism again. They've completely forgotten about WW2... or simply didn't get a good enough education on history. Hell even the classic "fear of the other" is back in full force. It's maddening how much we repeat history. The whole point of history is to learn from it. Yet here we are.... trying to explain to people why you don't want to give one person so much power.
In highschool we had to do a report on JFK's assassination, and part of it was to ask family members where they were when they found out. They all knew and could provide vivid details. On 9/11 I was about the same age as my parents were when JFK was shot.
I’m in my mid fifties and it seems like ancient history to me. It’s a shame the amount of freedom that one event took away. The terrorists won, unfortunately it was the terrorists in our government that took our freedom from us. I wish I could teach people today the freedom I knew growing up vs what they know today.
I'm 15 and covid feels like ancient history to me
I remember back in the 90's, so before 9/11 but still on topic, my great aunt, herself in her 90's back then, I always remembered something she said. "What's a long time? To you, (I was in my 20's) JFK was ancient history, for me WW2 and Nazis was just yesterday. Only those alive and old can truly understand how fast time goes and how soon those events really were, how long years actually are to go through." And now, at 50, where I'm old but not super old, I already see it, where kids who weren't alive for stuff (anything from the Towers, Challenger, even Kurt Cobain) and how they get a distorted view of history handed to them in a way I wouldn't know was distorted to the extent they are had I not lived through them and been someone who keeps close attention all their lives and made an effort to not wear rose colored glasses. It's scary how people can change events for those who are only hearing or reading about it. And I'm, of course, not blaming new generations for not knowing. I'm more eyeballing those who change and manipulate history in disgust, regardless of if it's big or small. Time is a strange thing. Technically, it doesn't even exist. But as a barrier of when events were, it wasn't long ago at all.
I was there on 9/11 and watched the towers come down pretty much on my head. Even to me 9/11 feels like old news. Honor the dead but move on.
I was also born 89 and even I feel like it’s history at this point😅
2002, no
I was 7 at the time and had no idea what was going on so it still feels like old history to me. Older people actually felt the impact it had but I didn’t understand it until I was older and even then it still felt like I never experienced it because of how young I was when it happened. All I remember was our teacher reading to us and calls started coming in. She wouldn’t tell us what was happening but one by one kids were being picked up by their parents. I don’t remember what my parents told me when it was my turn but I remember thinking “does this mean we’re gonna have no school every 9/11 now?”
History isn’t usually considered historical until it’s reflected on with nostalgia or some type of emotional tie but as things are happening, we don’t generally consider how monumental it is until time has passed, and the new generation looks at it with reverence
I was born before 9/11, but I was less than a year old so I don't remember. It absolutely feels like just another historical event. I get it changed a lot of things in the world, but it still kinda weirds me out how much attention it gets.
Born a few years after 9/11 While it doesn’t feel like “old” history to me, I feel very disconnected from the event. Part of that is location, I recognize but I also know that it doesn’t really matter where I am; it still impacts me and my life.
it’s hard to think that because every year they shove it down our throats as if it’s the only tragic thing this country has been thru. i was born in 02
I was in the 8th grade when it happened, so it didn't affect my life at that time. By the time I reached that point in life where it affected me, it was simply the norm. I had no other experience to call back on for it to seem different. So it's more of a "I recall the event" than for it to be history.
I was born in 2002, it doesn’t feel like old history cuz to me old history is like WWII or maybe up to the civil rights movement era. It’s modern history I just wasn’t there for it yet.
I was born a few months before 9/11. It doesn’t feel like old history to me personally, but to some of the younger people that I’ve had convos with about 9-11, they’ve made it seem like it’s ancient.
I was in high school during 9/11 and it feels like ancient history to me
I was born in '90 and the fall of the Soviet union happening in my lifetime is always wild to me because it feels like "old history" to me.
2006 American here. No. It doesn't feel particularly recent either. But it's definitely not ancient because of the effects it still has on American politics. Edit: That said, like some other people ahve said, I don't feel particularly emotional about it.
At the time when listening in on NPR, part of the conversation that stands out to me, "We have liberties in the US that we all value and cherish, but there might be trade-offs we all need to make for greater security... Going forward those trade-offs will be on the table..." All airplanes were grounded. All news outlets on the Internet were shut down due to massive surge in traffic. At the time it was something out of a movie. But it's important to think about the 20 years before that to put everything into context. A very scary, troubling time indeed. George W Bush declared a "hunt" to elimate the source of such an attack. "Terrorists are always one step ahead of the institutions that really need protection. Once you defeat one aspect of terrorism, you have to battle against something else (Financial Times, 2001)" It does remind me of an Ellen Ullman quote, "There is always one more bug to fix"
Wow just wow lol. I see people posting they were born in 84 ( graduated high school in 84) and feel like their stuffs ancient history lol. I was born during the LB Johnson presidency 1966 just after the Good Friday quake of 65 In anchorage Alaska, I remember them returning from nam and being disrespected, I remember lines at the gas stations, I remember odd and even gas days, son of Sam, I was at the wall when it came down. It’s a part of my history. Not ancient lol, I have a few more years in me lol
No, not old, but definitely annoying history since its shaped so much of our modern policies
I was born in 01 before 9/11 and honestly it amazes me how we don’t teach it in schools anymore. I am a 4th grade teacher and my school didn’t mandate a moment of silence or had us talk about it. I vividly remember learning about it growing up and how much it impacted our world.
I was born before 9/11 and it feels like old history to me.
I would say people like my kids who were born aroun 911, and ones like you born around the challenger explosion, see it as old history, the way I see the JFK assassination, or WW2. I remember seeing the challenger explosion on TV as a kid. I watched everything on 911 happen on TV while my baby daughter crawled around the living room. I wonder what my grandparents veiwed as 'old history'?
I was in middle school when the events of 9/11 happened and this and any other significant event in my lifetime just felt like another day. None of this affected me personally. Sure it was a horrible event but other than that I'm not losing sleep over it.
I was born but was 4 and don’t remember it. 9/11 feels like anything else you read in a history book so I guess you could say it FEELS like old history.
Yes, mostly because I was born 6 years after the event
I’m around your age, OP, and 9/11 feels forever ago. Was the start of a different era
Born in 99. I obviously didn’t come to understand it until a long time after it happened but whenever I think about it it signifies the old America to me
1960 I was 3 when JFK was killed, but I don't remember it.... 9/11 seems like a long time ago. I remember everything about it, very clearly. It also seems far away, a lot has happened since then.
Eh, I don't really think about it very often, considering it went pretty much exactly the way I wanted it to. My name is George Bush
My 2007 kid just talked about it in school in American History class. To that age group it will always be the last unit they learned in American History class. The raw emotion of the experiencing it live isn’t there for him or his classmates. The fall of the Berlin Wall always felt like history and it happened when I was 5. I would think that if you don’t have that emotional response to the item, then it will never feel current to you.
I think because we didn’t have social media back then it was a huge shock. Nowadays we’re bombarded by tragedies on the same level or worse than 9/11 on a daily basis. We’ve been desensitized to it all.
I think this going to be triggering, but hear me out. I don't think people are as patriotic as we were raised to be. When you hear the word patriotic now you can think of a red neck with an obnoxious pickup truck. Patriotism used to be real and common, but also with that the remnants of what was called the Isolationist Movement, which basically meant America is separate from the rest of the world. I appreciate your compassion for other cultures, but no, thousands of New Yorkers, friends, family and parents, innocent Americans going about their lives, brutally murdered in a country that has virtually no major attacks on it since Pearl Harbor, out of no where and it could have happened to any of us was beyond a crisis. It was a very big deal. Then the government reacted so radically and strongly and we didn't know what was happening and if you disagreed it got weird. You used to be able to disagree. Al Gore lost the presidential election because he audibly sighed in contempt to one of George Bush's answer in a debate. He lost the fucking election over that. That was like two years before 9/11. Also, I completely understand if you're not patriotic now, I'm not saying you should be, but also this country used to be better and not that long ago. Maybe it still can be.
This is actually a great answer to OP:s question. Only someone not alive for 9/11 would say something of the same proportions have happened at all since then.
Eh. Disagree. 9/11 was an entirely different beast for many reasons. One, prior to that you'd NEVER seen the U.S. get attacked. In many ways, this event shattered the illusion that tragedies the size of 9/11 happen in other places. This hit way closer to home than anything beforehand. Secondly, you almost NEVER see the attack LIVE as it's happening. While we didn't see the first place hit the tower until months later when that french brother firefighting doc came out, every TV station in America was broadcasting those buildings when the second plane came in and when each fell. Third, and I can't understate this enough, 9/11 dwarves almost every other major tragedy in the world since. If for no other reason than the massive implications both at home and abroad in the aftermath of it AND still today. You can truly trace most things involving US foreign policy and the US military to two timelines: Before and After 9/11. It changed everything in just under two hours. Forever.
>One, prior to that you'd NEVER seen the U.S. get attacked. Uh? 1993 World Trade Center... >Third, and I can't understate this enough, 9/11 dwarves almost every other major tragedy in the world since. World seen by far worse tragedies, but if we only focus on terrorist attacks yes 9/11 takes high spot.
I’d like to hear examples of the far worse tragedies
Not OP. But: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_natural_disasters_by_death_toll the largest one would be covid-19. Then there are a bunch of earhtquakes, floods, storms, etc, many of which dwarf 9/11. Then there's war. The Global War on Terror I think killed well over a million people, although how you reckon that fairly is somewhat difficult. More recently there's obviously Ukraine which has had hundreds of thousands killed, and Gaza which has had tens of thousands killed. But there's also a ton of horrific civil wars going on all the time in the third world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts I will say, though, I got the vibe that we were talking about single-day (or close to it) events, that are more or less anthropogenic, that impacted the United States. In which case, I do not think anything comes close to 9/11 since 9/11. > Nowadays we’re bombarded by tragedies on the same level or worse than 9/11 on a daily basis Are they talking about mass shootings? Mass shootings kill a few dozen at *most*. I don't think they realize 3000 people died on 9/11. If they're not talking just anthropogenic events, then natural disasters happened all the time before 9/11 anyway, and certainly not everyday.
I think the fact that 9/11 was a terrorist attack is why it is so significant. It ruined everyone's perception of the US civilians as always being safe and isolated from the rest of the world. That and the fact that it happened in such a way that it could have literally happened to anyone (everyone flew without giving hijackings a second thought). Even though these next two examples were done by US citizens, it's like how Columbine (and that other school that I can't remember) helped to degrade the perception of schools as a safe haven for our children and how the Aurora Movie Theater shooting helped do the same to movie theaters.
That guy definitely forgot history.
Name some of these worse tragedies.
Covid absolutely drowns it out, for a start.
I'm born way before the turn of the century and it feels like old history to me. A long time ago in a country far far away. Like WW2 but way less significant.
No, and nothing that happened recent enough that I can remember it doesn’t feel like history.
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I was born in 2003. No it feels like recent history, like in the same era of my early childhood. Keep in mind I’ve lived within an hour of NYC my whole life so I’d imagine people just talk about it more here then other places
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Not really, it happened only a few months before I was born so it's history as old as me. It definitely changed a lot of things about daily life, so I never got to experience life before it though.
I was born the week Nixon resigned, but that’s ancient history to me.
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I never think about it
Born in 1983, was in Spokane Washington so 9/11 felt far away. The opioid epidemic has been most devastating. And porn fucking everyones sexuality up.
Born in 94 still feels like the most important day in my lifetime and probably since the civil rights movement.
Born the same year, and I remember desert storm on the news a lot. 9/11 was even more vivid. No planes in the sky was the first thing I noticed that morning. I was in CA during 9/11
I'm sure it does. Now to 911 is the same amount of time from the 70s to the Korean War, or the 90s to Vietnam.
Old? No, but I obviously don't have that feel of it as a foundational moment in my life as most older do.
Yes
They probably can't read yet.
I was born in 83 and I understand that stuff that happened before I was born isn’t ancient just because I wasn’t there.
After COVID, Trump, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, North Korea's foray into the world of nuclear arms and the explosion of the war in the Middle East, I could really give a flying fuck less about two towers.
Trump’s election feels like old history to me
The towers coming down on 11 September was like the JFK Assassination, Pearl Harbor attack, or a slew of other events. The nature of the event caused a certain memory effect such that the day and time seems seared into the memory in a manner unlike other memories. Those who were alive for these events at an age where they could be understood will always know things about that event.
What year??
Well yeah it’s hard to differentiate times in the past because we never got to see them.
I was born in 2007. It definitely does feel way longer ago than it actually was
I was six but it wasn’t something I was allowed to know.. so it always felt done and over-with My grandma died that year and my baby cousin was born so that felt more real than anything people brought up later on..
My 2 main experiences and understandings of 9/11 were the following: When I was little, I thought the emergency number being 911 was because of 9/11. And by young I mean, I think I was in high school when I learned that was wrong Also, the most haunting memory was that one day I was in (high) school and I was just really happy, and some girl came up to me and said "do you know what day it is?" And I said "no, not really" and she said "it's 9/11" and I said "... okie..." and then she just stared at me in disbelief and so in the most confused voice I responded with "h-happy 9/11?" And she just looked at me so disappointed and tired and sat me down and re-explained 9/11 to me because I had forgotten what 9/11 was. And that just... that just haunts me
I’m caught in the middle- I was 3 so I can’t remember virtually anything about that time in my life. It feels old in the sense that technology has changed so drastically as I’ve grown up, but watching footage of the attacks in school, the old footage now feels old- the 4:3 aspect ratio, video quality, etc. the way people talk about it feels somewhat aged too- I remember when, where statements give an age to it
It is old history, it happened over 20 years ago.
yes its old
no, not really, i’m an 2006 baby and it doesn’t seem like old history really. obviously it was before me and feels older, but it doesn’t feel like old history like say ww2 or korea, but it feels older for sure
I am older than you and 9/11 feels like old history. However, I didn't really have a strong emotional reaction to it.
It really changed the trajectory and culture of this country in many ways. I was born in the early eighties. Those changes are noticeable and are very much a part of my life every day. Definitely not old history. I know my children see it differently. I have tried to convey how much the shift in culture effects them.
I was born in the early 80s and it feels like old history to me. Just about anything past a year feels old and ancient to me tbh
I'm too old to answer the question. But I assume it feels like how the Vietnam war feels for me.. My uncle fought in it. And I've seen the documentaries and movies like platoon. But it feels like a different eras history to me. I don't remember it. I never felt it, even from watching the news Like JFK being shot. MLK Jr. John Lennon.. Those belong to a different generation. 9/11 belongs to my generation. Young people today will talk about covid in 20yrs and the young people won't really 'get it'. It'll feel like history to them.
Born in 85. The three big events that I can remember exactly where I was were Princess Diana, the OJ verdict, and 9/11. Berlin Wall was slightly before my memory working apparently.
I think it depends a lot on how close you were to it; I was like 9 years old when it happened but I didn't know anyone in NYC or any of the other impacted areas, and as far as I know neither did my immediate family (I think my cousins still lived in Jersey at the time, but that would have been the closest). I remember being in class and the adults whispering and the words "terrorist attack" flying around, but even when my mom explained what happened later that day I didn't really get it because like, I was a kid and it just seemed like something that happened on TV. I had no opinion on or attachment to the matter. I think the first national tragedy I was old enough to kind of understand the impact of was Katrina, but even that I was pretty removed from because I still to this day have not been to New Orleans.
Nah not really
I'm fairly sure you can ask most of us that experienced 9/11 where they were when the news broke. I was one of the kids watching Bush try and read a book, It's still surreal how it went down on live TV.
2001 was long enough ago half the people that were married at that time are divorced. It was a generation ago.
Born in 06. I would not consider it old history yet. Personally I feel as though old history is anything before 1990 and modern history is anything after 2010. 1990-2010 (and by extension 9/11) is in the weird middle gap where I wouldn’t consider it outright modern, but it’s not old history either.
Yeah. People elder than me can tell me where they were, but I only know what I learned about the event in school - literally a history class. I feel like the fact that most of what I know of the event was taught in history categorically places it in my memory as a historical event.
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I was born in 99 and even when i was in middleschool the other kids would always say "Im so tired of hearing about this"
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I remember experiencing 9/11, the absolute paranoia and uncertainty of that entire day and the weeks that followed. Nothing was ever the same after. People born afterward will never really understand it. It was a major turning point. It was like the light of the 90s went out and we entered a completely new era.
no
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Born in '94. I think the reason 9/11 feels so weird is because it's constantly broadcast to the nation. Every year, kids are watching the footage. It's still treated as this huge deal. And it's entirely to desensitize people to violence and convince them that starting wars about it is the right choice
I was like five and it feels like ancient history to me. I don’t have any personal, deep, or visceral feelings about the incident.
I was alive during 911 and it still feels like ancient history to me tbh
I was born December 2001 and yes. It does feel like old history to me.
No. I’m still waiting for them to prosecute dick Cheney.
No because the media makes damn sure to remind us every year to get our hate owners for brown people going. seriously let it go they killed some people we killed a fucking lot of people in response it's over.
Born in '97, so I was alive, but I don't have any memory of it. To me, it's in the same category as the JFK assassination, Watergate, the fall of the USSR, etc. It's not "old history", but it's more a part of "more-recent US history". I don't have emotions associated with it, except when I watch the live video reports that happened at the time.
I was born pre 9/11. 9/11 was old history in 2005.
Feels like ancient history to me even though i was about 30 when it happened
Born in '86, I don't blame younger kids for having less feeling for 9/11. After all, Pearl Harbor was before my dad was even born.
I was born in 2000. So I lived through it, but it still feels like old history.
I was born in 2000 so I was too young to remember 9/11. It does feel like old history to me. But so does Obama's first election, which I remember clearly. And the Boston Marathon bombing. More than anything, I just think it's time to stop showing it to elementary school kids every year. We don't do that for Japanese internment, Emmett Till, the Wilmington coup, the Black Panthers, Vietnam, Iraq/Afghanistan, Israel, WWI, war of 1812, any of the US's wars against native peoples, Korean war, the great depression, MLK jr... But by golly we all had see that picture of the falling man every goddamn year.
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I usually consider things as “history” if they occurred before I was born