Is it only technical achievements that are not getting celebrated anymore? Sometimes when you read old books you can read that certain celebrity was greeted by a huge crowd when it came to USA via boat. Can you imagine crowds waiting for celebrities nowadays? Sure, you can have some fans, but certainly not crowds waiting for someone. I believe that social media are simply replacing crowd celebrations and people have no need to actually go outside to celebrate anymore. You can see the event live with great video coverage (while you usually don’t see much in the crowd) and you can also interact with all your friends (not with a bunch of random onlookers). This makes social media much more comfortable and accessible.
For a more recent example than trans-Atlantic ocean liners, when The Beatles arrived in the US by plane in 1964 they were greeted by a crowd of 3000 fans. That doesn’t seem likely to happen today (and not just because of airport security).
Is it only technical achievements that are not getting celebrated anymore? Sometimes when you read old books you can read that certain celebrity was greeted by a huge crowd when it came to USA via boat. Can you imagine crowds waiting for celebrities nowadays? Sure, you can have some fans, but certainly not crowds waiting for someone. I believe that social media are simply replacing crowd celebrations and people have no need to actually go outside to celebrate anymore. You can see the event live with great video coverage (while you usually don’t see much in the crowd) and you can also interact with all your friends (not with a bunch of random onlookers). This makes social media much more comfortable and accessible.
For a more recent example than trans-Atlantic ocean liners, when The Beatles arrived in the US by plane in 1964 they were greeted by a crowd of 3000 fans. That doesn’t seem likely to happen today (and not just because of airport security).