Saturday Data: If it didn't happen in their Millennial lifetime, They know nothing about it.

    

A reference in a story about a driver ticketed for going 88 mph in a Delorian caught my attention. First, yes, the driver was going that fast because of the Back To The Future movie plot.

     The story was written by an apparently just-graduated college journalist writing sports stories for a couple of websites (and---conflict alert--- working in sales for a pro basketball team too).

     Anyway here's the quote:

     "One of the quirks of the DeLorean was that once it hit 88 mph, the flux capacitor would cause it to travel through time. I’m a millennial. I haven’t seen the movie. Don’t ask me how it works."

     That struck a chord...I've heard similar comments by other millennials...they don't know about classic movies made before they arrived on the planet. 
     Am I the only one who has noticed a kind of intentional cinematic amnesia when it comes to that generation.

     Fortunately I know an excellent source for the topic: My longtime movie-reviewing nephew Arthur, who's full time job is as a professor of psychology in Australia. I asked him the Millennial question:

I rarely have a chance to get into discussions of cinema with my students (too bad!).  My sense is, however, that you are probably right for the average Millennial.  To me, not speaking as an expert, culture today seems very fragmented – everyone is in their own niche; this certainly seems true with regard to music, at least.  So, I suspect there really are millennials who have delved deeply into cinema in the past, just as there are those who are learning their music history, but the average young person is probably focused squarely on the here and now and I suspect that is how it always was.

[Saturday Data is a regular feature of TimLennox.com] 
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