There seems to be a huge upswing in mental health issues in the last ten years. I don’t know if there are actually more issues or if people are now more open to discussing them.
You’re looking at products, which, while not irrelevant, don’t show the whole picture. The big changes, in my opinion, are in processes. Specifically, the processes by which elements of culture spread and change. Both are much, much faster than they were even in 2003; much of the current spread of memetic subcultures has evolved since then. A side effect of this is that culture is much more niche-based now–which is one reason a lot of the changes really aren’t reflected in mass-market products.
You’re discounting changes in technology. Very well, but changes in technology cause changes in culture. Let’s not dismiss the changes that technological advances have made possible. Individual people have greater scope for coordinating and cooperating to make things happen than ever before. Look at last year’s opposition to SOPA and PIPA, for example: a rapid, coordinated political action by millions of people with no prior political association abruptly derailed two major bills in Congress. On a commercial level, consider crowdsourcing. Since its launch in 2009, Kickstarter alone has had nearly 40,000 successfully funded projects, with over $450 million dollars in funding. Indiegogo may have even more. Tens of thousands of musical productions, videos, games, gadgets, research projects, and more, have been made possible, not by wealthy corporations and venture capitalists, but by individuals pursuing their own personal vision of culture.
How is the world different in this decade? It’s faster. More interconnected. More personalized and more global, all at the same time. Niches are the new mainstream.
Or, to borrow from last decade: I’ve got 99 problems, but a niche ain’t one.
Yeah, I found a quote of mine on this board from Sept 2004 saying maybe Obama in 2016. I’m very surprised that it came as early as it did.
I actually see the opposite trend you do. The 80s/most of the 90s was probably the peak of trends that only lasted a year. What was cool in 1983 wasn’t cool anymore in '86. What was cool in '87 wasn’t cool in '90. And 1990 wasn’t cool in 1993.
What kids played with slap bracelets (1990-91) or pogs (1994-96ish) in 1999? Hell I was born in 1990 and I only barely remember pogs.
On the other hand though, the “fads” that started in the late 90s, many of them are still popular. Pokemon is still popular. Tamagotchis were popular into the mid 00s.
Even some things from the late 80s/early 90s are still around. I still see people wear hats backwards, kids still sag their pants. Full House and Fresh Prince are still syndicated on TV all the time. The Simpsons have been around since the late '80s and still make new episodes.
I think by the end of the '80s, everything that could be done in the context of modern culture had already been done. Some of these trends did not surface to the mainstream until quite late into the '90s, but there’s essentially been nothing truly new outside of technology in the past 15 years.
Today’s pop culture itself has changed little in the past 12 to 20 years. The only thing that’s changed is the medium. It’s absolutely true that cell phones are a part of life in a way they never were even in the early 2000s.
As early as 1998, people thought we lived in a “cell phone culture” but compared to now we really did not.
I think the smartphone is arguably an equal or possibly greater innovation than the World Wide Web itself and the Internet before it. You can literally access information anywhere; you need’t go home or to the library/cafe/office and dial up into a modem. That seems quaint and slow by today’s standards even though people from the 80s/early 90s would have found it incredible.
I think it’s utterly absurd to even suggest putting smartphones ahead of the Internet - a bit like saying the introduction of compact cars was a greater innovation than internal combustion engines were. Smartphones would be nothing without the 'net, and information was already accessible everywhere without smartphones. Everyone I know uses the Internet all the time, and have their lives changed due to it, but probably a good third of my friends and relatives do not have smartphones. I don’t have one, but carry a small laptop with a USB modem with me most everywhere. It takes me all of 2 minutes anywhere to go online and do anything a smartphone can do, plus a ton of other stuff, like efficient word and image processing, which I need to do all the time.
Seriously, don’t you follow the news?
The rise of China, the decline of the US, homosexual marriage, increasing terrorism and more state intrusion into private lives are just a few of the changes over the past 10 years.
Back then, institutions were trying to give me large unsecured loans at minimal interet and house prices were totally out of control.
You are correct. “Smartphones” are a prime example of societal brainwashing by very advertising savvy companies that have persuaded people that an expensive toy is an essential of life.
I do not have one, and hopefully never will, unless they use them to replace real money. Hopefully not in my lifetime.
How nice to live in the USA.
Most of the world’s population are just happy to have clean drinking water, and being “connected” is the last thing on their minds.
For them, the last 10 years have been perhaps about getting a motorbike and a tv.
True that. I also agree with Tom Scud about the Wikipedia comment.
My contribution is about sexual abuse. We had a President almost brought down over an affair with a - willing!- intern. We had five years of unfolding child abuse scandals in that most august of institutions, the Roman Catholic Church.
I can’t recall if the witchhunt for (alledged) sex offenders and child abusers was already at it’s peak in 2003. But I’d say that compared to 2003, no-one in the West is powerful enough anymore to silence accusations of sexual misconduct. No one in power can get away anymore with smirking “boys will be boys” and “wink-wink, nudge-nudge”.
One of the trends that started way way back in the 60s (that’s the 1960’s for you young whippersnappers) is that the generational gap that was very divisive in our culture at the time has narrowed to the point where the music I listen to now and dance to is the same that my friends who are decades younger than I do as well. And we do so without any feelings of weirdness.
That is a significant thing. It cause cultural changes to blend. I can wear just about anything to the store and nobody will say anything. I could wear a ballcap backwards with my long grey hair sticking out from it, and the usual response would be a nod and a smile. From people my age.
What has changed?
Well, of course, as a computer scientist, the first thing I would point out is the same thing that everyone else has pointed out. When computers were first invented, they were calculating devices. Now, their most common use is for communications, which certainly makes sense since we are a very communicative species.
But in the affairs of humans, worldwide, what has changed between 2003 and 2013?
The battle for same-sex marriage in the US appears to be over the tipping point which is a relief to someone who has several friends who are affected directly by this social change. We as a nation are much more divided but we still reelected a biracial man as the President of the United States, so we must have done something differently than we would have 10 years before. Women’s rights are well-established but we still live in something bordering on the ‘rape culture’ that we have all been speaking about on other threads. But, at least we can all talk about it. And it comes back to the connection point, the ubiquitous Internet and its many ports. The fact that we talk about this can change things.
Or not.
Depends upon the person.
Yes, but I’'m beginning to think that rape culture, like racism, has become a lower class thing. If you want to have any serious public power in the US, you can’t be caught saying or doing racist or sexist stuff. Unlike the days of Mad Men, and unlike the Clinton years. Oddly enough it was Ken Starr and the republicans who started the whole sex as smear- campaign fodder, and it backfired.
The only ones who can get away with doing racist and sexist stuff are people on the anonymous internet, the anonymous street, or in low power positions. You can say and do stuff like that if you’'re still a student, or in an entry level job. Or in the privacy of your circle of friends and family.
Agreed. “Rape culture” as a mainstream thing now refers to the latest episode of Law & Order: SVU, not actual sexual assault.
Economically, 2000 was MUCH better-just about anybody could ge a decent job. In contrast, the current decade is terrible-we now have college grads who are working menial jobs-while waiting to take their place. This decade is bad for othe reasons as well-intability ios breaking out around the world. Its a lot like the 1930’s all over again.
I remember discussing this back in AP Government and everyone (including the black kid) took it for granted that there’d be a female President first. The black kid didn’t think there’d be a black President for decades.
Unlock HD technology.
ISP’s enforce a bandwidth cap. Rogers I believe was 1 or 2 dollars per extra gigabyte.
trololol.
Why does everyone refer to him as “black” when he’s half caste? Theoretically, it’s as valid to call him “white”.
Had the media done their job, Hillary would have been a shoo in.
Roughly the same amount of people on Earth have mobile phones as have clean drinking water.
I was (very far) out of the country from 2006-2010, so I can comment on the major changes I noticed upon coming back.
Technologically, smart phones are a big one. Even little things like how we navigate cities has changed dramatically as a result. Flat screen TVs are now everywhere. When I left, they were considered a stereotypical extravagance (people would rail, for example, about people who are on welfare but have flat screen TVs.) When I came back, they were the norm and you could find them even in places like hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Finally, self-checkout has become a normal thing. When I left, they were still experimental and found only in a few stores.
Food-wise, when I came back I noticed the little tiny cans of soda they now sell, as well as smaller-portioned packaged food. When I left, it was hard to buy snack food in single-serving sizes- everything was “big grabs” that could serve as several meals. But we’ve seen the introduction of some controlled portions.
Culturally, men’s clothing has become tighter and brighter, and we see things like those brightly decorated hoodies that would have looked ridiculous a decade ago. Women’s clothing has also changed dramatically- we’ve gone through both 80s and 90s revivals, and now we see a lot of semi-80s boho stuff- thin cotton floral skirts and straw hats and the like- that wouldn’t have made visual sense in the 2000s. It may be my change of social set, but it seems like street fashion has become a lot less gritty and homegrown/athletic and a lot more focused on high-end designers. Even away from street fashion, there are changes. When I was in college (1999-2003), it was all about showing up to class in pajamas or cargo pants. Now college kids seem a lot more put together and preppier (but this may just be a perception influenced by moving from the west coast to the east coast.)
Culturally, high school has changed dramatically, with social life being as electronic as it is in-person. Outside of high school, it’s not to much different. Outside of weddings, it’s been years since I’ve been invited to an event by any means other than evite, Facebook event or at least text message.
And I think this is a change in social networks in general. When I was in college, social networking was primarily about expressing yourself. We used Livejournal or MySpace to put our thoughts out there, and maybe get some comments back. Now, social networks are more action-oriented- they translate more seamlessly into real life. A person may use Facebook to manage both casual and formal get togethers with friends, Foursquare to find people when they are out and about and bored, OKCupid to line up dates, LinkedIn to do career networking, Blackboard to manage classwork, and private social networks to manage tasks and share information at work.
Absolutely not. Cell phones have changed everything in Africa, and everyone down to hunter-gatherers in the rainforest use them regularly. Internet collaboration has completely changed India’s economy, and Chinese people are getting online in droves. If anything, technology has had a great impact in the developing world than it has here. We had landlines before we had cell phones, os the changes were incremental. But for much of the world, the sudden introduction of inexpensive communication and information sharing has massively, massively altered everything from daily life to the national economy.
I’d actually count YouTube, not Facebook, as the single biggest change. I literally have problems conceiving of a world without YouTube.