In academia, an article that is 10 years old is considered dated.

But how on earth does this matter now?

After the debacle of the Vietnam War, after the rebellions of the 1960s and the cultural ferment of the 1970s,

The more recent the research is, the better—or at least, more relevant—it’s assumed to be.

In a field such as technology, in which time does not march so much as it whizzes by, the freshness test is understandable.

lambastes

Society does not change overnight, but thinking it does lends a sense of drama to our everyday lives.

In 1979 the historian and social critic Christopher Lasch (1932–1994) published The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations.