Of course, it's extremely important. I'm currently listening to the Freakonomics podcast on the Challenger explosion[0]. I was only noting the difference being born a few years apart can make when it comes to significant shared cultural memories.
You will notice this sort of thing more and more as time goes on.
For me the "ah hah" moment was when it hit me that "Where were you when you heard about Challenger?" was my generation's version of, "Where were you when JFK was assassinated?"
Another easily observed one is music. Very few people are aware of much that happened in popular music after they hit 25.
You can listen through 65 years of pop music made so far. Then, if you live 80 years, you only lose about 45,8% of all pop-music you could have heard during your lifetime. That's not half bad.
If you include some blues, jazz and classical, that percentage goes down significantly.
Regards, 29 year old with 4 year long amnesia about music.
[0]http://freakonomics.com/2015/05/20/failure-is-your-friend-a-...