How are the 2010s different from the 2000s?

In My Humble Opinion
21

In the 2010’s, the US is arguably becoming more like Europe:

– Decline in religiosity

– Declining fertility rate

– Move in direction of universal heath care

– End of ever-increasing gun freedom, and possible move in other direction

– Higher taxes

The last three won’t be clearly true or false until we are deeper in the current decade.

There probably will be a long-term generational difference in outlook between people who got their career settled before our long-term near-depression, and those, mostly younger, who are caught up in it.

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Reported for forum change.

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Moved from General Questions to IMHO.

samclem, moderator

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Take note, your experience depends on your age as well. If you’re 30-something now, your experience of the 00’s will be of the 20-something segment (music, culture, everything). You may not think it’s changed because 30-somethings today may like what 20-somethings liked in the 00’s, while the 20-somethings of today like new things. You may also not think it’s changed because you have no reference of 30-something lifestyle before.

Personally, I think change is only obvious on hindsight.

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Younger people, here at least, are more health conscious. They’re way more likely than the older generation to go to the gym.

They’re more frugal, a quarter of their life or more has been lived under austerity. They’re more sensible, more mature, more career minded on average than I was 10 or more years ago. (I’m 31, haved recently worked with a lot of 18-25 year olds).

Buying a CD, which is something I still occasionally do even though I jumped on the MP3 bandwagon before most people, is something that a 20 year old just doesn’t do unless it’s a present for their elderly relative maybe.

Electropop and dubstep were far less mainstream a decade and more ago, now they’re all but the pop status quo. The Neptunes were in a decade ago, mashups were also popular. British guitar bands were enormous, there are still some big ones nowadays of course, but in the mainstream The Libertines et al were a big deal.

The internet was getting more useful but in 2003 you could still be a young person with no meaningful engagement with it. I doubt that’s possible in the west in 2013.

Texting was king, social networks were new. Fashion now, way more women and men dye their hair than a decade ago. Hot pants with leggings weren’t in fashion a decade ago (are they still in fashion? I know these things change.)

Tolerance, awareness and support for homosexuality/transgender etc. is far higher now than a decade ago. In Ireland at least people are more internationalised, the result of mass inward migration and cheaper international travel.

I’d like to think people are less racist than a decade ago but that’s a hard one to call. Certainly the racism that’s borne of people who don’t know anyone of another race must be lessened. People are more pessimistic, people are poorer. Emigration is now a big thing again after over a decade of huge inward migration.

Irish society is now, superfically at least, way more like American and British society as international conglomerates have become more embedded in Irish shopping centres. Trends that start elsewhere in the world catch on quicker here due to the net. There’s way less lag between cinema releases, tv show airings, and general awareness of interesting cultural happenings elsewhere on the planet.

Anime, manga, and comics in general have had a resurgence. From my vantage they were more niche in the early '00s than nowadays.

In 2003, I bought my first mobile phone. In the three years prior to that I hadn’t needed it. In 2013 I miss out on parties, events because I don’t have a facebook account. Nobody texts you to tell you about stuff anymore, they just set up an event page.

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**How are the 2010s different from the 2000s? **

They aren’t over yet.

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Oh, yeah, that little thing. :wink: I’m 37. That’s easily the single biggest cultural change in my lifetime, no question. (Yes, I know you call it “significant,” but it still sounds a little downplayed to me…)

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Yes, I downplayed it because the 90s aren’t defined by the dawn of the Internet, even though that’s when it started to rise, as it was barely acknowledged by non-geeks at all. I was designing websites back then and you had to explain everything to everybody and they were all frightened and confused by it.

By the 2000s they’d relaxed about it somewhat, and when compared to the 80s, it’s the 2000s that’s all about the Internet, cellphones, interactive handheld computers, and HDTV. The 90s, though, is a transitionary period with no obvious identity of its own, at least in my eyes.

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  1. The battle over smoking in public places. Read some threads on this message board on smoking bans. In the US, smoking is banned in bars and restaurants and it is harder to smoke anywhere.

  2. The affordability of home theatre. While DVD had taken over for VHS, the past ten years have seen tremendous price drops for flat screen TVs and high definition blu ray players. This, coupled with the recession and ever increasing ticket prices is really starting to have an effect on live sporting events.

  3. Social media on elections. The republicans spent billions running negative ads in the 2012 and it didn’t work. Obama used social media and target marketing and won. 2004 was the year of swiftboating.

30

You really think so? Everyone at the time said “This changes everything,” but how much has really changed? Flying has become more of a pain in the arse, certainly, but what else? Lots of military adventures in the Middle East? Well that’s hardly new. How has your day-to-day life changed because of what happened on 9/11 (assuming I’m not being incredibly crass and you were personally affected in some way)?

31

Its a far more dangerous and uncertain time. Politically you have seen the new powers arriving with in this last decade. In 2003 China, India, Brazil etc countries of the future and the US and Europe were the decision makers. China has a seat at the table now, India will soon, Brazil will host the Olympics and the World Cup in the next three years. The financial crises jhas had a big impact.

Tech wise, the change has been extraordinary and many posters have listed said changes.

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What the US will do when it’s not the only superpower would make an interesting thread, if there hasn’t been one already (I’m new here). But one could argue that with the rise of the BRICs, the world has never been a safer place and is only getting safer. I don’t mean to imply a direct correlation there but improved economic stability and the expansion of democracy seems to make it less likely for great nations to use dumb muscle to advance themselves.

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To me, the main things that I’ve noticed are primarily technology-related.

A lot of the things that were either on-the-horizon advancements in 2000 or that were in very embryonic stages of adoption are commonplace today, with all the corresponding social changes. Things like HD televisions, smartphones, tablets, wi-fi local networking, etc… were all conceived of, but most were either insanely expensive and impractical, or not released yet.

Probably the biggest changes I’ve noticed are the rise of reality TV and the always-on nature of today’s smartphone users. Neither are positive changes, IMO. The always-on business tends to bleed into the working world, where the lines between work and home are starting to seriously blur, and for many people, home life is what’s losing out in that battle. Reality TV is just plain awful. I can’t think of a more accurate way to describe it. Even the worst sitcoms are usually miles better than whatever “Real Housewives” or Survivor episode that happens to be on.

Other than that, things haven’t changed all that drastically. People still go to work, have kids, buy groceries at the grocery store, watch TV (albeit on larger TVs), monkey around on computers, play video games, go to the gym, etc…

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I can’t speak for much else since I was very young in 2003, but the music from then sounded much more like late 90s music than it sounds like today’s music. There was a lot of overlap.

You don’t hear any new music that sounds like old Blink-182, Sum-41, Destiny’s Child, etc. That sound was a carry over from the 90s.

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Musically, you have the explosive popularity of gangsta rap, a neo-pop-punk movement, grunge (of course), Britpop, drum & bass/jungle, trance, big beat, trip hop, etc. Electronic acts like Underworld and The Prodigy start moving into the mainstream. Nu metal begins its ascent, too. 90s music, for me, is quite distinct and a lot was going on genrewise, despite the fragmentation of the market.

TV shows in the 90s were different than the 80s. Looks at Married With Children, Roseanne, The Simpsons, Seinfeld. Yes, these all started at the end of the 80s, but culturally made a significant impact on the identity of the 90s. TV sitcoms moved away from showing the idealized, perfect family units that were so prevalent in 80s family sitcoms like Family Ties or Growing Pains. Then look at cartoons like Beavis and Butthead, South Park, Ren and Stimpy. The character of humor in the 90s became more crude, sarcastic, ironic, absurdist. For me, the 90s were the decade of irony.

Coffee culture exploded in the 90s. Craft beer culture exploded in the 90s.

For me, the Internet was big. By the late 90s, almost everyone I knew at least had a Hotmail or Yahoo address. My main method of long-distance communication had changed dramatically and profoundly. Cell phone culture was also on the rise, but I’ll give you the 2000s for the peak of it.

So, yeah, for me, the 90s are quite culturally distinct. That’s just off the top of my head. I’m sure if I sit for awhile I could come up with a lot more examples of 90s culture.

^I should add that most of this is addressing 90s culture in the USA, specifically.

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Well on Valentines Day 2003, the world was engrossed on the Iraq issue. Now it turns out that the whole thing was a pack of lies. In 2003, you had several former Iron Curtain countries preparing to join the EU and it was a byword for prosperity. Nowdays, the very existance of the EU is uncertain and its a byword for insolvency and debt. In 2003, while Oil prices were rising, OIl was still reletively cheap. It has exploded since then and is likely to so remain. In 2008, you had the financial crsises and also the prices of basic commodites rose alarmingly and continues to do so. In 2003, the US was the undisputed top dog geopolitically. In 2013, its more of a primus inter parus. caused by the ridiculously high deficit and national deby. The failure of the US Armed forces to impose their will on two small countries shall have great consequences for the future.

On the good side. YouTube, Daily Motion, IPlayer has opened up knowldge and information beyond even the wildest dreams of the 1990’s and even 2003. It not an information superhighway, its a bloody ocean.

Plus I am not using IE to come to this page.

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I think this is true. At 40, I don’t feel there was much cultural change from the 1990s to today, but when I see pictures or movies from the 1990s or 2000s, the differences are obvious.

Plus I agree with Ludovic. Technology has created more of a cultural mashup so there is less of a distinctive subculture.
If I were to pick a distinctive style and culture for the 2000s, I would reference films like Garden State, Juno, Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist, The Social Network (a 2010 film that is really a period piece about the 2000s) and on a lighter note, Superbad and the American Pie sequals:
-Lots of post 9/11 existential angst.
-Most of the kids come from affluent families but seem to face a less prosperous or at least uncertain future.
-Hoodies, T-shorts and other ultra casual clothes.
-Eclectic soundtrack or indie, emo and pop punk bands.
-Kids seem more “sensitive” and “diverse” than prior decades.
-Technology is integrated into their lives but not in an in your face "OMG! Look at this cool tech! way.
I think the 2010s have shifted into more of a focus on big names and pop culture. Justin Beiber and dub step and electronica whatnot. While at the same time, you have shows like HBO’s Girls about a bunch of broke hipster chicks living in some Brooklyn shithole appartment. A decade ago they would be living in Manhattan babbling each week about some investment banker they blew or Jimmy Choos they just bought.

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The first is also a 90s theme. The whole Generation X vs Baby Boomer stuff really started getting played up in the 90s. The second one I could also see having been made in the 90s, as the whole “slacker generation” thing being played up, like in Reality Bites or similar movies of the era. But, offhand, I can’t think of any series that actually did play up that theme. It just seems like something that would have been at home in the 90s, too.

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“Reality TV” was born in the 70s and actually rose to ubiquity in the year 2000. The fact that it hasn’t gone away is just proof that it’s not really a fad. For example…

1973: An American Family

1989: Cops

1992: The Real World

2000: Big Brother, Survivor, and the rest is history. 2003 had plenty of reality shows.

40

Why would you pirate South Park episodes when you can stream them all for free from southparkstudios.com?

The problem with “music hasn’t changed” is that people tend to follow the music they were into when they were in their 20s for the rest of their lives. Maybe you branch out into new things when you’re older, but the one thing you don’t branch out into is the shitty music today’s teenagers are listening to.

90% of the music teenagers listen to is crap. Yeah, you like the music from when you were a teen/20something now that you’re 30ish/40ish/50ish. Except you only listen to a small fraction of the teenage music of that era. I never listened to hip hop or rap from the 80s or 90s. Now when I hear some rap from that era I think, “Wow, that’s actually listenable”. Except that’s the 1% that people still listen to. It’s easy to think that music hasn’t changed much, until you read about an awards show and realize you haven’t heard of any of these people.