[globular-toast]

A really big part of the bond between my girlfriend and me is that we are almost the same age, from similar families and had all the same TV and radio growing up. We actually have very different musical tastes, but we both know and like all the familiar stuff from the 90s.

I've had many relationships where we've been very different ages or grew up in different countries and it's surprising how much is missing from such a relationship. I could always tell this by observing former partners relish talking about this stuff on the occasion they meet someone in their own group. I, of course, couldn't join in.

The fragmentation started in the 90s, though. Already there were kids who had watched the football last night. Or they'd seen something American, like a film. These were available on subscription only TV (which I thought only rich families had, but, in fact, it was mostly families bad with money). More and more stuff went to paid TV, like cricket and boxing, that used to be available to all. Then you had kids who had inexplicably seen all of something like South Park despite it not being on any public channel. It steadily grew from there to the extent I wouldn't even be surprised if kids from non-football families don't know what Manchester United is, for example.