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.

My dad’s cousin died in a pit accident when he was 16. Bet, given half a chance, he’d swap places with any millennial, as would his brother who was killed at Tobruk when he was 24.

Seriously? Watching 9/11 was worse than taking part in a war? Or experiencing real personal abuse?

I think the problem is the 24/7 'bad news' media. The world isn't worse or less safe. It's just that that's all the media tells us about! Current generations aren't savvier, they're just full of fake news. ALL generations question what they hear. We aren't 'catching up'! What utter nonsense!

Just. Turn. It. Off. You'll feel much better, believe me.

I grew up with ira bombings, that was a scary time, some were incredibly close to school, home and work.
Whilst 9/11 did change the world, I think we had a few years of relative peace which we didn’t appreciate or realise then suddenly bam 9/11 where it’s back to bombings (this time with no warnings).

@Jaxhog I agree. We are fed negativity which makes takes us into kind of victim mentality. Bad things have happened but other generations had bad things happen too. I agree house prices are silly. But it was difficult for every generation.

For me I think I grew up under Blair's government - free hand outs, entitlement. That is not how the world works. Less government the better - the government should work to protect the people and no more.

People think to solve the gig economy we need Jeremy Corbyn and the like but it's the opposite. If companies want to hire good workers then they know also that it works both ways. If it's a crap company then they won't care and won't keep staff for long. And won't stay in business for long.

Keep positive millennials. Way too much negativity. Survivors not victims.

@Jaxhog I agree. We are fed negativity which makes takes us into kind of victim mentality. Bad things have happened but other generations had bad things happen too. I agree house prices are silly. But it was difficult for every generation.

For me I think I grew up under Blair's government - free hand outs, entitlement. That is not how the world works. Less government the better - the government should work to protect the people and no more.

People think to solve the gig economy we need Jeremy Corbyn and the like but it's the opposite. If companies want to hire good workers then they know also that it works both ways. If it's a crap company then they won't care and won't keep staff for long. And won't stay in business for long.

Keep positive millennials. Way too much negativity. Survivors not victims.

@Jaxhog I agree. We are fed negativity which makes takes us into kind of victim mentality. Bad things have happened but other generations had bad things happen too. I agree house prices are silly. But it was difficult for every generation.

For me I think I grew up under Blair's government - free hand outs, entitlement. That is not how the world works. Less government the better - the government should work to protect the people and no more.

People think to solve the gig economy we need Jeremy Corbyn and the like but it's the opposite. If companies want to hire good workers then they know also that it works both ways. If it's a crap company then they won't care and won't keep staff for long. And won't stay in business for long.

Keep positive millennials. Way too much negativity. Survivors not victims.

Perhaps not all that relevant, but I never knew about 9/11 until I was older. I was 6 at the time and as children of that age are - they don't watch the news , they don't read the paper and their parents (should) shield them from those horrifying imagee

SaveKevin, agree re: the IRA bombings. Lived and worked in East London so Leadenhall Street and South Quay were close. Got caught in Harrods bomb though and still have scars as reminder.

The world is an overwhelmingly safe place and getting safer.

Such a good point @Genderwitched

I know that every generation has its difficulties but really - traumatised by watching 9/11 on TV, too much social media and the inability to buy a house?

Despite what you may read about how terrible everything is, being born in the West in the early 21st century is like being handed the golden ring in terms of quality of human life compared to what people went through before. Most of us live lives of unparalleled comfort, ease and safety and nobody seems to appreciate it - cheap, plentiful food on every street corner, heat and light at the touch of a button, time to enjoy an almost unlimited amount of entertainment, access to education and healthcare, the ability to travel safely around our cities and countries. Our children mainly live past infancy, mothers survive childbirth, most of us are not asked to sacrifice our lives for our country; our families are not sitting in bomb shelters waiting for the next explosion and our 16 year olds aren’t sitting in a trench waiting to have their heads blown off.

The minimum amount of research into how most people have lived throughout human history will reveal that for for the vast majority life was “nasty, brutish and short”. We really do have it pretty fucking good.

Whilst 9/11 did change the world, I think we had a few years of relative peace which we didn’t appreciate or realise then suddenly bam 9/11 where it’s back to bombings (this time with no warnings).

Don't mean to personally pick on you but this is simply not true about relative peace for much of the rest of the globe nor about 9/11 changing the world. The media just has been very selective about what to show. Horrendous multiple casualties outside of first world countries hardly register. And worse, a lot of it is a result of western/US interference. The only change was that an operative, armed and trained by the USA turned rogue aaaand north Americans had to face some of the horrors usually experienced in other countries. People mentioned the Gulf wars but don’t really accknowledge how they are directly linked to 9/11. I have to confess; I am sick to my back teeth of the tunnel vision around 9/11 and it being heralded as the worst moment for so many. I don’t want to out myself but I have physical and emotional scars from civil war when I was a small child and loss of immediate family members that makes it hard for me to get so over sentimental about one tragic incident above others. I am so sick of the whining about North Americans losing their sense of political innocence and no longer feeling safe. Welcome to the reality of so many other people on the back of your nation’s failed and short-sighted diplomatic interference. Watching something on TV in no way equates to the real lived terrors of so many and to suggest this as some carte blanche for indulgent and navel gazing behaviour is preposterous.

My defining 'oh shit' moment was the Manchester attacks. I was 21, but it was the first thing that happened and I was old enough to understand. 9/11 I was six and I was still very young with the London attacks. Friends of mine from uni were at the arena although thankfully not hurt.

There were 3 attacks within a few months wasn't there? Threat levels were raised etc. I was astounded at how my parents cracked on without a wobble. It was the first time I felt threatened, and unsafe. I lived in a very rural area (SW valleys) and though I'd heard of the older attacks, they were 'past' almost in the way the IRA attacks were, to my generation. I hadn't experiencrd them or hadn't known what had gone on, I accepted they happened but naively thought that wouldn't happen. You get used to seeing other countries being bombed etc but this country? 3 in a short time? It was scary.

I can't describe it really. It felt as though my innocence had been taken - I always knew there were evil people but I never thought I could be at risk of harm. I'd always be ok. And realistically I would have been ; why would you attack Wales, it's full of sheep - but it was scary. I began obsessing over what would I do if terrorists stormed into my place of work? I worked in Cardiff and felt angsty going there especially as I worked in a government building.

I had to be quite stern to myself and pull myself out of it. Dad in particular was very unsympathetic- he basically said that yes it can and does happen but you can't let them rule your lives. Mind, they lived through the troubles (while Wales was relatively safe I imagine there was still that overarching fear). They seemed to deal with it much better than my generation did. I knew many friends who were scared like me.

At the risk of being accused of misery top,trumps - I spent the first few years of my life in a communist country and terrified that one wrong comment to the wrong person and my parents would disappear, like others disappeared. My parents then defected to England and fear of being arrested was replaced by a fear of nuclear war and bombs. I don't think the millennials had it any worse than other generations.

At the risk of being accused of misery top,trumps - I spent the first few years of my life in a communist country and terrified that one wrong comment to the wrong person and my parents would disappear, like others disappeared. My parents then defected to England and fear of being arrested was replaced by a fear of nuclear war and bombs. I don't think the millennials had it any worse than other generations.

I assumed we were talking about uk millennials. Hence the relative peace comment grumpel
The ira ceasefire was in place, the uk hadn’t felt safer. Business was booming, food was cheap, houses cheap. Life was good (for the uk). If you were born in those few years (in the uk) and then saw 9/11 on the news you’d feel like the world shifted.

But if you’d lived through otherstuff, you’d just think it’s fucking awful, but here we go again.

At the risk of being accused of misery top,trumps - I spent the first few years of my life in a communist country and terrified that one wrong comment to the wrong person and my parents would disappear, like others disappeared. My parents then defected to England and fear of being arrested was replaced by a fear of nuclear war and bombs. I don't think the millennials had it any worse than other generations.

I grew up with the Falklands war and the IRA mainland bombing campaign. I think 'that tweet' is clutching at straws to justify millenials being arse.

And the cold war, nuclear threat, the pamphlet 'Protect and Survive'

Although I don't think that feeling of fear and unsafe is a reason for people to claim it's life-changing- unless they were involved of course! As I said I don't remember 9/11 but someone piggybacking off that and saying that watching it happen on TV is the reason they have X y and z disorder now ... Is an insult to the actual victims.

Think of the first responders for eg, many of whom died, who then went back to work. My generation is extremely lucky ( born mid 90s) in that we haven't had a war or real hardship. Previous generations had coal strikes, mass unemployment, an entire industry wrecked (mining), wars, fewer contraceptive or family planning options, less equality, common serious illnesses eg TB, unaffordable healthcare and certainly in my area, which is still prevalent but not as much - poverty

Watching something on TV in no way equates to the real lived terrors of so many and to suggest this as some carte blanche for indulgent and navel gazing behaviour is preposterous.

Excellent post @Grumpelstilskin - this point especially.

I was 15 when 9/11 happened and I definitely see it as a bit of a turning point, the news has never seemed quite as relaxed since.

This is much more of a sign of the “look at me” generation than people having more than normal to be traumatised about. Yes it was shocking but there are kids dying now in Yemen and Syria while kids here on their IPhones on SM need therapy. Bloody ridiculous.

It’s an interesting thought & maybe as SaveKevin it’s because it was relatively peaceful, I am assuming we are talking about the UK too.

I’m a Londoner & a millennial (born in the early 80s) & never really felt scared about the IRA threat as in I would be caught up in a bomb. I don’t know if it was because I was young or because when I would go back to visit Belfast & Dublin (Irish parents) the threat felt much more present & real. Compared to what some of my cousins experienced just on their walk to school I felt very safe. Having said that 9/11 did scare/shock me a bit but I’m not sure why. Maybe it was just the fact planes were involved and/or that buildings collapsed.

@AllTheWhoresOfMalta that may be seen as typically millenial that you assume nothing much happened when you weren't around! Not many people younger than 15 take in much news, let alone be affected by it.
911 was a massive event, but on the other side of the world, but we'd been dealing with terrorism way before that. The Grand Hotel, Docklands bombing, Manchester shopping centre, to name but three....on our soil.

People talk a lot more about their mental health now. That is my opinion of millenials.

I was about to return to uni for my final year the day after 9/11. I walked into the house having bought items for my new student house moments before the second plane hit. The news readers were confused for a while as to whether it was new footage or actually a second plane hit, and when it was realised that it was a second plane and therefore neither could have been a horrific accident and that these were deliberate acts, it was a gut wrenching moment to realise that this could be the brink of WW3.

I fit better as a gen X and don't relate to being a Millenial at all for the sake of a few months. (The Xennial microgeneration description hits the nail on the head for me). I was the youngest in the family and have a long memory, so my cultural points of reference of childhood are more gen X.

The 1990s were progressive. 1998 saw the GFA, and I remember the very real threat of bombs through the 80s and early 90s. There were many human disasters in that era, Hillsborough, Kings Cross, Zebrugge... but we began to learn from them and in 2000 the western world was an optomististic, booming, more peaceful place than it had been 10 years earlier as communism fell and democracy spread across Europe (albeit with several years of war in the former Yugoslavia), and suddenly realising that we could be heading for a major war (remembering the tail end of the Cold War). Of course it did lead to war in Afghanistan and indirectly in Iraq, and influenced a whole spate of proxy wars since the Arab Spring. It did change the political direction of this century so far and popped our optomistic Millenium bubble.

Each generation faces its own challenges. My GM still feels her WW2 childhood, and that generational trauma still feeds through the family in its own way. Where life is different for Millenials is the opening of social inequality and the loss of social mobility that was avaliable to post-war generations. We are not all in it together in a rose-tinted nostalgia (and probably never were). We are in an aspriational, complex world of isolated bubbles and all the information we could ever need instantly at our fingertips. What worries me at present is seeing that we are in an era of financial instability, a lack of investment and regressing social conditions (racism, women's rights, employment conditions, affordable education, SN support, access to healthcare etc.). Millenials are the first generation to have truely digital lifestyles (where I feel I don't fit as I remember life before it was lived through a smart phone and am capable of organising life more manually)

Through the benefits of state education until the at least age of 16 we can draw worrying parallels to the inter-war era. I'm glad I wasn't born 5-10 years later.