This is such a great idea. And I'm going to use it as a launch off for a thread about shared experiences, and how, until this, Gen Z & back-end millennials really didn't have one. And how although they do have 1 now, neither of these two gens get to experience the many micro https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1245719019849744384

shared experiences that those of us that grew up in the pre-digital era got to have. You know the ones, bc The Day After was one of them. As so awesomely documented in my fav episode of The Americans (an excellent streaming option if you've never watched it), when that made

for TV movie aired in 1983- more than 100 million people watched it. Everyone watched it. I was 6, and I watched it. It scared the shit out of me. The next day, hell the next WEEK, it was all anyone talked about. That's bc the Cold War was still going on- and the threat of global

nuclear meltdown-esp growing up near DC, was a daily background threat. During this time, when something was pop culture, EVERYONE was into it, everyone watched it live, and everyone discussed it in person (or at least to each other on the phone) bc there was no internet. This

gave us all a shared experience bank, a pool of common experiences. Everyone knew the same things: New Coke, Cabbage Patch Kids, Billy Joel. The leap tech took in the 90s w digital and cable ended the Era of Shared Common Experiences. Now there are virtually no general knowledge

cultural reference jokes you can make from a show or movie bc there are 1000s of shows and movies and even if someone is watching the same one, they might have seen the whole season already or be on episode 2 when you're on 32. Music is much the same. You'd go to a record store

they were called that even though they largely sold tapes & then later, CDs) and see the entire library of an artist or band's work and when I new album went on sale, everyone would line up and wait for the store to open. Same w ticket sales. You had to camp in line for concert

tickets, and that meant the scalpers too. Nowadays, the closest things we get to shared experiences are the major tragedies, and now this, a pandemic that is just beginning and likely will change the course of our lives.