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 Is the COVID-19 pandemic the biggest news story of your life, A BuzzJack Poll |
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 Jan 19 2021, 09:07 PM
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#1
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 Here to play, here to stay
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 A little less than 12 months ago it was not the main news headline, and now it has almost been a year of daily headlines across the world affecting more people at one time than any other time in recent history. With this in mind, I really wanted to ask from a broad age group of people whether the Coronavirus pandemic is the biggest news story of your entire life? If it is, or even if it is not, what would you rate as the biggest, or second biggest, news story of your lifetime? I was born in 1986, and whilst there was obviously world news going on at the time of my youth, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, naturally I barely cared for it. The first real news story to grab my attention and which of course seemed especially big at the time, was the World Trade Center terrorist attack on September 11th 2001. It was a school day for me, and I would have just started in Year 11 at the time, my final year, and that’s when I found out what had happened and it took some time for it to register how big a news story it was at the time and the widespread international reaction to it was talked about for a long time afterwards. So I would say up until 2020 that was for me the biggest news story that I remember in my life, but this Coronavirus pandemic has surely surpassed any life expectancy we initially assumed when it was first reported on, and for obvious reasons it remains the daily headline around the world. |
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Jan 19 2021, 09:14 PM
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#2
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 🔥🚀🔥
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It would have to be, based on how much news coverage it's got and will continue to get. Brexit being the second big one.
Another big story for me earlier in life was the Australian bushfires and heatwaves back in 2009 when I was still living there (and the drought they'd been having). I am just about old enough to have been alive on 9/11 but didn't find out about it until many years later as I was only 4 years old when it happened. |
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Jan 19 2021, 09:21 PM
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#3
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 BuzzJack Platinum Member
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Sometimes I think about how the video of Boris (and other leaders) announcing the first lockdown to the nation will be one of the most memorable and well known pieces of television in the future. I just imagine people in the future watching it and studying the pandemic as a whole in sociology, history and economic classes.
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Jan 19 2021, 09:29 PM
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#4
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 The owls are not what they seem
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I mean yeah, I don't think anything else has really come close, certainly in mine and I'd imagine most people alive today apart from WWII maybe? Honestly can't recall another time that our way of life has been altered so much (my history's a little shaky so apologise if I've forgotten something major x). It'll really be one to say 'I was there' in the future, and at the same time as Brexit and the Trump presidency as well!
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Jan 19 2021, 10:40 PM
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#5
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 there's nothing straight about plump Elvis
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Yes, I'd say so.
Frankly I think 9/11 is overblown. Yes, it was a big event, and a tragedy, but there was less loss of life than plenty other events since or before. Obviously I can see the impact on those of us IN America especially, but I've never quite got why everyone around the western world and in the UK especially seems to act as if it was also a personal attack on themselves. |
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Jan 19 2021, 10:43 PM
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#6
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I'd say without a shadow of a doubt.. yes.
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Jan 19 2021, 11:02 PM
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#7
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 #38BBE0 otherwise known as 'sky blue'
Joined: 27 October 2008
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It's by far the biggest- and I didn't think 11 September 2001 would ever be eclipsed in terms of impact and scale. That Peter Sissons news report from that day still rings in my head: Good evening, America came under attack today from international terrorists, on a scale that made it more an act of WAR..
Not just in how much it has affected all aspects of our lives, but the duration, the scale of it, and how its impacts will likely continue to shape the world potentially for decades to come. I don't think I ever expected to live through a moment where the Prime Minister would address the nation asking everyone to remain at home, it felt like being in a diaster movie at times, like 28 Days Later or something. It was really surreal at times, that first weekend before the lockdown was announced I was working in NW London and the tube was virtually empty, the train that I took home on that Monday had nobody but me and the driver on it. I remember Twitter being full of people saying 'lockdown NOW' and thinking this just won't happen will it? How will it be enforced? I also remember about a year ago coming on here and saying ' oh it looks like China have it under control, if it has spread it will be tracked and stopped ' and there was similar complacency at work from colleagues - how weird it is to think back to that time now.. |
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Jan 19 2021, 11:07 PM
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#8
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BuzzJack Legend
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No, man landing on the moon in 1969, Diana's death in 1997 and then 9/11 were bigger I'd say.
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Jan 19 2021, 11:13 PM
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#9
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Here to play, here to stay
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This pandemic has definitely outlived the time we thought it would last for, partly making it seem like the biggest news story of our generation.
Not even global warming, the global financial crisis or any other virus reported on in years gone by (like Swine flu and Ebola) have come close to the mass scale of impact on each and every human being on the entire planet. It also makes me wonder could anything else in my lifetime ever surpass this event as a contender for “biggest news story of my life” or is this going to be like Chez earlier stated an “I was there” moment in history.  It’s a pity, though unsurprising, that any major news story most of us would think of is always bad news and never good news. In fact if you asked me to name the biggest “good news” story in my life I would not have a clue where to begin and would probably jus end up naming a famous wedding or other national occasion or ceremony of some description, and that wouldn’t be too much to go on. |
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Jan 19 2021, 11:17 PM
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#10
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Here to play, here to stay
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QUOTE(common sense @ Jan 19 2021, 11:07 PM)  No, man landing on the moon in 1969, Diana's death in 1997 and then 9/11 were bigger I'd say. The moon-landing must surely be the most major human achievement from the last century I would agree, and whilst I didn’t live to see it when it happened, I could see how it would have been a global phenomenon at the time. As for Princess Diana’s death, I do recall that news story when it happened, I was very young, around 11 or 12, and it did seem quite big at the time perhaps because of the shocking and unexpected nature of the cause of death. But in retrospect it is one person and yet millions have died since, including people who were as if not more famous than Diana was. Not to make it sound like it didn’t matter, of course it did, but I wouldn’t think of it as the biggest news story of my life. |
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Jan 20 2021, 04:14 AM
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#11
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The horrors persist, but so do I
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It's always been 9/11 for me, I actually have a hard time comparing it with the pandemic because the terrorist attacks happened all in one day, a matter of hours actually, whereas the pandemic has been so long-term. That said, I'll always remember March 11th of last year - Trump announcing the European travel ban, Tom Hanks testing positive and the NBA suspending its season all in the same evening made it feel so real, and yet so surreal at the same time. I'm sure once more time passes I'll think of COVID as the bigger story, since in many respects it already is.
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Jan 20 2021, 04:25 AM
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#12
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 I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
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Yes, biggest world event since WW2. Nothing else in the interim disrupted regular life, particularly people's recreational activities, to this extent.
The various Middle-Eastern conflicts, particularly the Iraq War (of course in direct response to 9/11 the US government inflicted at least 20 9/11s on Iraq and Afghanistan), and Cold War battles like Vietnam disrupted those parts of the globe far more significantly than this has, and 9/11 and Berlin Wall changed how the direction of world events proceeded, but on both counts and on a global scale this has affected nearly every country highly negatively, with only a few notable exceptions like Vietnam and New Zealand. Will probably only be surpassed if there's a large-scale conflict, which is unlikely because of MAD but US-China tensions rising still makes me pretty nervy. |
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Jan 20 2021, 07:21 AM
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#13
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 Right in front of my salad?!
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For me, Diana remains the biggest news story of my life. COVID and 9/11 next I would say.
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Jan 20 2021, 08:47 AM
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#14
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BuzzJack Legend
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QUOTE(common sense @ Jan 19 2021, 11:07 PM) No, man landing on the moon in 1969, Diana's death in 1997 and then 9/11 were bigger I'd say. Not in terms of the impact on people’s lives. The first two didn’t change many people’s lives at all. Some things changed after September 11 but most of the changes were short-term or had little impact on most people’s day-to-day lives. |
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Jan 20 2021, 08:53 AM
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#15
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
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I suppose there's an argument for this topic being about what caused the most media sensation and Diana/moon probably are in contention there, but also just looking at what the media is talking about isn't a great way to measure the relevance of historical events.
Moon was also huge for Cold War politics and the scientific community, but sensation aside, only about impactful as another event or advancement like Cuban Missile or the invention of video gaming (though if you start down the road of inventions that's a whole lot of dominoes to go through, not that I'm discouraging that or anything). |
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Jan 20 2021, 09:04 AM
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#16
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BuzzJack Legend
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QUOTE(Suedehead2 @ Jan 20 2021, 08:47 AM) Not in terms of the impact on people’s lives. The first two didn’t change many people’s lives at all. Some things changed after September 11 but most of the changes were short-term or had little impact on most people’s day-to-day lives. The question didn't mention impact on people's lives though. It asked what was the biggest story in your life, from a personal point of view I assumed. |
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Jan 20 2021, 09:10 AM
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#17
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BuzzJack Legend
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Without any question at all. I remember thinking Brexit was the news story that would never go away but that has completely been put in the shed now. Covid will talked about for centuries to come.
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Jan 20 2021, 09:51 AM
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#18
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WINTER IS COMING
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Well as a continual news event I would probably say yes, but as a defining moment it's different to "where were you when 9/11 happened" for example. I'm slightly biased as I was in Australia for the beginning part of 2021 so I did not consume nearly as much news as I would usually and we were 3-4 weeks behind Europe so even in early March I was naive to the situation as I was in complete normal life. However similar as Doctor Blind stated, when they shut the borders and international travel.. the aftermatch of that was like a movie. That will stay with me forever, it was complete and utter carnage.
As mad as it is the biggest news event for me was the Queens Mother dying as you literally could not escape it was about 2 weeks. I was only small at the time, but Jeez did that go on. |
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Jan 20 2021, 09:58 AM
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#19
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 I Drink Wine
Joined: 12 April 2015
Posts: 10,484 User: 21,753
 
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QUOTE(Doctor Blind @ Jan 19 2021, 11:02 PM) I don't think I ever expected to live through a moment where the Prime Minister would address the nation asking everyone to remain at home, it felt like being in a diaster movie at times, like 28 Days Later or something. It was really surreal at times, that first weekend before the lockdown was announced I was working in NW London and the tube was virtually empty, the train that I took home on that Monday had nobody but me and the driver on it. I remember Twitter being full of people saying 'lockdown NOW' and thinking this just won't happen will it? How will it be enforced? I also remember about a year ago coming on here and saying ' oh it looks like China have it under control, if it has spread it will be tracked and stopped ' and there was similar complacency at work from colleagues - how weird it is to think back to that time now.. It's quite eerie / shocking thinking back about how fast things escalated and how slow people's mind sets changed from Covid being a little threat that will pass one week in Mid-March to being incredibly serious and with us for the long haul. Even as late as the first/second week in March, I was still being made to travel for face-to-face meetings and court hearings and clients were making jokes like 'let's not shake hands and elbow instead lol', 'see you in a few weeks when this will all have passed'. Then within 2 weeks everyone was ordered to stay at home. The week of 16 March to 23 March had so many 'you had to be there' moments. It's quite alarming looking back when you think on the Monday, the government's message was 'wash your hands and keep your distance' at the first Downing Street conference and then just 5 days later all bars and restaurants were ordered to shut and people were being encouraged to start working from home if possible and then another three days later a full national lockdown. |
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Jan 20 2021, 10:01 AM
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#20
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I Drink Wine
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I just noticed all of the government briefings / news specials are on iPlayer going back to the first one on 16 March.
Can't wait to catch up with the series, I missed what happened x |
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