Love & War
- Royal weddings make top 10 iconic moments of 80’s and 2000’s
- Twin Towers attack 11 years ago the most remembered moment of the noughties
- New Friends Reunited allows access to over 10 million memories to mark those ‘Remember when?’ moments
Do you remember where you were when Charles and Diana were married? Or when you heard about Elvis’ death? Chances are you do, as both occasions were voted among the top iconic moments of their decades, according to new research by Friends Reunited.
Friends Reunited unveiled its new beta site today, allowing people to find, collect and share their most cherished memories; from personal experiences shared with friends and family, to the national moments we mark together.
Top five defining moments of each decade:
Most Iconic Moments of the 2000s
Twin Towers attacked in New York - 28%
Obama becoming first black President - 4%
Millennium - 4%
Iraq War - 4%
Economic downturn - 4%
Most Iconic Moments of the 1990s
Princess Diana’s death - 25 per cent
Nelson Mandela’s release - 6 per cent
New Labour & Tony Blair coming to power - 6 per cent
The Gulf War - 5 per cent
The end of Thatcher’s Britain - 4 per cent
Most Iconic Moments of the 1980s
Falklands War - 14%
Live Aid - 13%
Berlin Wall coming down - 11%
Charles & Diana’s royal wedding - 11%
Thatcher’s Britain - 6%
Most Iconic Moments of the 1970s
Maggie Thatcher elected as Prime Minister - 11%
Silver Jubilee - 10%
Elvis’ death - 10%
The rise of Punk music - 5%
Strikes - 5%
The Nation Remembers
Friends Reunited research reveals the top defining moments memories that have shaped the country including the heart-breaking as well as the heart-warming. Over a quarter of Brits (28%) found the attack on the Twin Towers 11 years ago in September 2001 to be the most defining moment of the noughties. The previous decade saw Princess Diana’s death at the heart of a quarter (25%) of the nation’s memories, and Falklands War was the most recalled memory in the eighties.
The Iron Lady
Margaret Thatcher made a huge impression on our collective psyche as her election to Prime Minister was voted the most iconic moment of the seventies (11%) and ‘Thatcher’s Britain’ also made the top five of the eighties. As Thatcher’s reign as Prime Minister ended, our hopes and dreams switched and by the nineties New Labour and Tony Blair coming to power was a defining moment.
Live Aid
Music also plays a key part in our nostalgia, particularly in the seventies and eighties. One in eight (13%) respondents considered Live Aid their most iconic memory of the eighties, with Elvis’ death (10%) and the rise of punk music (5%) taking third and fourth spot in the seventies.
Charles and Diana
It seems that men and women have rather different views on what the most iconic moments are. In the nineties, the death of Diana was the most memorable for two out of five women (39%), compared to just 15 per cent of men. Similarly in the eighties, a quarter of men (26%) thought the Falklands War was the most marking event, whereas only ten per cent of women agreed. In comparison, a quarter (25%) of women believe the wedding of Charles and Diana to be the most iconic moment of the eighties, in contrast to just five per cent of men.
Matt Bushby, Head of Friends Reunited, said:
“Through the power of iconic images, users will be transported back to some of their favourite moments, including The Silver Jubilee in 1977, or Freddie Mercury’s career-defining performance at Live Aid in 1985. Using the unique “Keep” button, members can build and add to their own nostalgic collections from the events, places, and moments they discover on the site.
“The New Friends Reunited is the one place to search, collect and save the bigger, more important moments in our lives, memories which, in today’s digital world, are in danger of slipping through our fingers.”
It’s not just old school …Friends Reunited, traditionally known for reuniting old school friends, has evolved to reunite members with every blast from their past. Launching with 10 million memories (including 6m photos, 2m events and 2m places) it has automatically created over 24.3 million “Family Boxes”, that’s one for each of the site’s existing members. Family boxes provide a dedicated place for families to share memories within a small group and to begin discovering their personal history. Additionally, Friends Reunited has created over 10,000 nostalgic collections for people to enjoy browsing, ranging from “I Can’t Believe We Wore It!” to “Maggie Thatcher’s Britain”.
Straightforward privacy is a cornerstone of the new service, allowing users to store their most personal memories (including old photographs, videos, scanned ticket stubs and other memorabilia) privately. They can also share those memories with a select few, or make them public.
Members will be encouraged to share what they remember using social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, in combination with a Facebook app that shares your favourite memories with your Facebook friends.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Lisa Elliott / Jemma Green / Emily Paul
Lansons Communications
lisae@lansons.com / jemmag@lansons.com / emilyp@lansons.com
0207 294 3679 / 0207 294 3642 / 0207 566 9722
Carolynne Bull-Edwards
brightsolid
Mobile: 07932723866
Notes to editors
About brightsolid
brightsolid began life in 1995 as Scotland Online. It now has two divisions; brightsolid online publishing and brightsolid online technology. brightsolid online technology is a leading UK independent provider of online IT business services. brightsolid online publishing has a number of innovative online businesses around people and places including Friends Reunited and leading family history brands Genes Reunited, ScotlandsPeople and the findmypast global network.
The family history sites deliver access to over a billion records dating as far back as 1200. Family historians can search for their ancestors among global collections, relating primarily to people with UK and Irish ancestry, of military records, census, migration, occupation directories, and current electoral roll data, as well as birth, marriage and death records.
brightsolid was awarded The National Archives’ contract to digitize and publish online the 1911 census for England and Wales, which it launched in January 2009. Most recently, in November 2011, the online innovation group launched the British Newspaper Archive in partnership with the British Library, to digitize up to 40 million pages of historic newspapers over the next 10 years, providing a unique insight into major events and key periods of historical international interest.
Headquartered in Dundee, the company is owned by the publishers D.C. Thomson, and also has operations in Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Sydney and Los Angeles.
About Friends Reunited
Friends Reunited is the original social network with over 24 million members. Launched in 2000 as a back-bedroom hobby to put old school friends back in touch, it swiftly became a British media phenomenon. Today, the site has evolved to celebrate every blast from the past, becoming a central part of the brightsolid mission to safeguard the nation’s history.
