AIBU to ask you your opinion on 9/11 and millennials?

[CorianderDestroysFamilies]

I read a tweet this weekend that went - why do millennials complain all the time and the answer is basically because we saw 2000 die on tv when we were 10 and the world has got worse ever since.
Reading the following tweets made me realise that actually it must have had a massive effect for the mindset of that group, myself included, and I’ve never really thought about it - obviously more so for those in the US but even in the UK I remember seeing it happen and then it does feel like everything has just got worse. The war in Iraq, the demonisation of Muslims, so so many mass shootings and terrorist attacks, it sometimes feels like we’re sitting on the edge of the abyss. I know a lot of this is to do with non stop news and how small the world has become but it just struck a nerve with me.
One thing I read that I’d never heard about before was that Nick Jr and PBS in the US played cartoons all day to basically distract the kids whilst the adults took in what had just happened and that alone made me want to cry.
Anyway I’m not putting it very well but hopefully it’s makes sense as I just wondered what other people thought because I can lose myself in MN debates and there’s always angles that I’ve not thought about.

Nobody is doubting that awful things have happened in the last 20 years. But they have always happened. It's the self-centredness of the 'we have it worse than previous generations' that is astonishing. The modern emphasis on mental well-being has had great benefits but the idea that your own inner world is of preeminent importance is not one of them.

Yes it did kids. It may not have been what you intended, but that’s how it read.

Is it really the case that the world is not the same post 9/11? I don't see that it is that different TBH. Like others are saying, there were scary things before - IRA, Aids, nuclear fallout etc. We now have much more coverage of disasters (man made or natural) from more places than ever but that's due to internet/technology/news channels, not 9/11.

@ofjoseph1 there will always be people "playing the system" in all areas of life. That doesn't mean everyone is though and I hate it when mental health is undermined and thought of "as an excuse" because some play the system. Mental health issues is very real and very misunderstood, especially from employers.

Depression for instance is often mixed up with general sadness. Sadness is something most human beings experience from time to time, depression is not, because it is a whole different ball game. Depression varies from person to person but someone with clinical depression might not be able to even get out of bed for instance. Depression is a horrible disease of the brain which should never be taken lightly. Not many people realise that depression is something a person has for life and they just learn to manage it during its dormant stages. You don't just "get better" and that's that.

There is a difference between the trauma of watching 9/11 on TV as a child (which I am not disputing) and the lived experiences of children of the 70s and 80s.

Every generation has their memories and events, difference is millennials moan and will probably be after some sort of compensation for seeing it on television

9/11 was terrible - but i am absolutely astonished that people think growing up in the shadow of it was worse than anything else - and i do think that level of self absorption is ... well...a poor character trait.

My comment was in reply to some of the above comments. I simply stated that millennials have experienced terrorism too & plenty will have been born in the 80s anyway so experienced the troubles. I didn’t state that all other generations only experienced WWs, the Cold War, Nuclear threats, the Troubles etc through the television.

The modern emphasis on mental well-being has had great benefits but the idea that your own inner world is of preeminent importance is not one of them.

Interesting. Can you elaborate ? I do Wonder how in the absence of armchair psychology the older generations coped better mentally.. it’s rsther an interesting point

A lot of them ended up in asylums @IABUQueen.

I think the difference for this generation is the 'non-stop' news environment we live in and how small the world has become with social media.

Nowadays, our devices are so intrinsically linked with our lives, that it's impossible to escape. After a big event happens anywhere in the world we see real footage, we hear on social media from everyone involved, we get live updates for the following 24 hours, we see all the journalists and figure heads chime in on their thoughts, we see celebrities comment on it. Then the next day it's something else, somewhere else in the world.

Going back to the OP, the key point in that tweet was and the world has got worse ever since

A lot of the arguments on here e.g. World Wars, AIDS etc - all these big issues were tackled and were not seen again, or never had the same impact again in that generation's life time.

For millennials, all the issues brought to the fore with 9/11 have only got worse. Terrorism, anti-muslim rhetoric, war on the middle-east... these things are still happening, more and more every day.

I think this is the point that needs to be made - for millennials, we see all the bad things happening, and for some reason the people who have the power to stop it are only making it worse.

I think some of the things we are living through now are more stressful than anything before. Milennials and my dcs generation have the right to be furious about climate change. But 9/11 was not more stressful than the experiences of previous generations.

My grandparents generation were raised by survivors of ww1. I know on my dad's side both his grandfather's were destroyed by what they went through and came home to try and parent through serious ptsd (which passed scars on through the generations) . Then they lived through ww2 themselves and the introduction of the nuclear threat. Is it really harder to watch events on TV than to live through the blitz, or spend 5 years expecting news someone you love has been killed?

as i said before, i have great sympathy with milenials- and the environmental issues - but this whole 'we saw 9/11 and the worlds got worse than ever' argument is bollocks.

you really have no idea.

terrorism, anti-muslim rhetoric, war on the middle-east

terrorism - rife in the Uk and yes, v scary back then too- as was the threat of nuclear war (im guessing youve not heard of the cold war)

anti-muslim rhetoric? racism was rife/racist attacks were rife, anti-semitism- homophobia, you name it. skinheads used to rampage through my town...

war on the middle east? - wars in the middle east have been happening a long time. really. western intervention has too.

study some history ffs.

I do think the worst thing that milenials have faced which wasn’t the same as back in the older days... is the decline in society morals and disintegration of community fabrics.

Social media did contribute to that, and the “connectivity” of the world meant that real bonds were lost because people no longer minded going far distances and leaving relationships behind.. and so it all became super transient.

Experiences are too individualised.. too unique.. too alone.. and it’s not that a whole community can support you pull through .

I think the world didn’t change.. we as humans, our behaviour changed

Pretty sure the world wasn’t the same after WWII as well

I was 14 when 9/11 happened. It was terrifying and upsetting but I can’t claim that we have it worse because people have witnessed bombing and atrocities for years gone by. I get that it’s on tv more but if anything I think that desensitises us....

A lot of the arguments on here e.g. World Wars, AIDS etc - all these big issues were tackled and were not seen again, or never had the same impact again in that generation's life time.

The Troubles were pretty long lasting and had an impact, mostly on Irish/Northern Irish people, and led to a huge rise in anti Irish rhetoric. I'm sadly old enough to remember (and be disgusted by) the No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish stickers in windows.

Each generation has issues to cope with, and yes, the world has changed, negatively since 9/11, absolutely. But to dismiss such enormous issues from before 9/11 as tackled belittles what it was actually like at the time.

It's the millennials have it harder attitude I find difficult to get my head around. I'm apparently technically a millennial (by a couple of months), but when people speak of millennials I don't consider myself to be one.

Communication and the world becoming smaller because of the internet and communication between people across the world becoming easier than previous generations highlights things in a way that didn't happen before, yes.

But I find it hard to believe that millennials consider themselves to have had it harder than previous generations, and quite tactless too.

@Helmetbymidnight @InTheHeatofLisbon

• here is the point

• here you are

The tweet it quite simple - millennials experienced such an event, and yet still things haven't changed or got better. Of course bad things happened before, nobody is denying that. The point is that 9/11 was a huge event that marks history and yet it didn't change anything, it made it worse.

ohcanada

Oh get over yourself. Millennials weren't the only ones with televisions in 2001 and this victim complex over what they say is unedifying and ridiculously self centred.

Of course bad things happened before, nobody is denying that

No, but you're minimising it because it was tackled before you remember it, therefore less important.

Away and get over yourself, seriously.

It's been less than 20 years since 9/11, The Troubles lasted for 40 years and are dangerously close to restarting, because people didn't give the GFA a second thought in the brexit vote.

All this patronising and superior tone towards people just shows you up to be a stereotypical millennial, because if you didn't see it or don't remember it it's not important.

So I didn't miss the point, you did. Spectacularly.

You think you know it all because you saw 9/11 on TV and heard millennials online claiming it and making it all about them.

Aye the world has changed, and not for the fucking better!

Am I the only one here who grew up with stories of what happened in the Blitz? One parent and my grandparents (long since dead) were bombed out of three houses. They lost everything. The last time it was a doodlebug and they were the only ones who survived in their part of the street. My other parent's family fled everything they knew as refugees. I grew up watching the war in Vietnam on TV. We just got on with it. My work brings me in contact with people who have fled horrific situations including one lad who was destined to be a child soldier and who fled his village with a sibling and no adults to escape this. Some girls and women have been victims of FGM. Another grew up knowing that her Mother was whipped for having her (out of wedlock). So you'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit skeptical that some millennials (or later years of Gen Y) feel like they need to complain.

Am I the only one here who grew up with stories of what happened in the Blitz?

No, my grannie remembers the Clydebank Blitz and regularly told stories of it, both my grandfathers fought in WWII and my great uncle too. I grew up in awe of that generation, it's very telling that as WWII veterans become fewer, their tales and experiences become irrelevant isn't it?

No, my grannie remembers the Clydebank Blitz and regularly told stories of it, both my grandfathers fought in WWII and my great uncle too. I grew up in awe of that generation, it's very telling that as WWII veterans become fewer, their tales and experiences become irrelevant isn't it

Or romanticised :(

My GF fought on the Western Front in WW1. He was a horrifically damaged man and his legacy continued in the family. That's real in a way that watching a tragedy on TV isn't. It's also the case that there have been horrific genocides and wars throughout the latter years of the C20th and into the C21 as well as famines and suchlike, but they don't cause trauma because they only happened to poor black people.

but they don't cause trauma because they only happened to poor -black- people.

I shall highlight this. Over and over and over...

The world doesn’t consist of one type of humans.

So only “white Caucasian non-Balkan and non Jewish or Muslim ” millennials suffered a huge trauma at 9/11 being surrendered on TV. The rest of the world was suffering bigger issues before and after.

The world is much broader than this.

No. The world is better than it was. This is most dramatically seen in the poorest countries where death rates are dropping like a stone, and where hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty.

Even in rich countries like the UK, life is better. Crime is down from the high of early 90s. Less teenage pregnancy, more education etc.

There are serious disadvantages to life today for youngsters - owning a property and the inequality between the rich (old) generation compared to the younger. But overall the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.

My phone deleted a huge screed I'd written about ration books, how make do and mend wasn't a trendy phrase, but a necessity and how utterly self centred and attention seeking this millennial need for victim status is.

This is the generation who called 999 when KFC ran out of chicken.

But aye, so much harder for them watching 9/11 on TV than any other generation has had it eh?

Things have been horrible since, but a quick history lesson will show each generation had its problems.

Why do millennials think they're the ones with the monopoly on far right politics being current and racism being the norm?

This is the generation who called 999 when KFC ran out of chicken.
Surely every generation has idiots & people who hoax call 999, it can’t all be attributed to millennials.