How are the 2010s different from the 2000s?

[Zebra]

We greet the new boss, the same as the old boss.
In other news the pub is now called the Eagle.

[Doggo]

@even_sven

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.

Hmmmm, I’d have to hazard a guess and say that not many hunter- gatherers have smartphones, or people living on a rubbish tip in any large Asian city.
If I didn’t make it clear that I was referring to smart phones/ internet use, I apologise. I loathe the smart phone culture, but even I have a cell phone, though it’s increasingly hard to get one without unessential extras like cameras.
If in fact hunter-gatherers do have smart phones, how do they afford them? Even in Thailand they are extremely expensive.

BTW, are you sure about “information sharing”? In Thailand, the number one use of the internet in internet cafes has to be on line gaming, hardly the most worthy use of amazing technology.

[even_sven]

@Doggo

Hmmmm, I’d have to hazard a guess and say that not many hunter- gatherers have smartphones, or people living on a rubbish tip in any large Asian city.
If I didn’t make it clear that I was referring to smart phones/ internet use, I apologise. I loathe the smart phone culture, but even I have a cell phone, though it’s increasingly hard to get one without unessential extras like cameras.
If in fact hunter-gatherers do have smart phones, how do they afford them? Even in Thailand they are extremely expensive.

BTW, are you sure about “information sharing”? In Thailand, the number one use of the internet in internet cafes has to be on line gaming, hardly the most worthy use of amazing technology.

Probably not smartphones, though they are becoming more popular. In Cameroon, we used cheap Chinese knock-off Nokias at around $7.00 a pop. Those who could not afford phones used the copious community phone stands you’d find at every corner- just a few pennies to send or receive a text message, and receiving calls (for example, from your rich relatives in the city) is generally free. These “call boxes” are a major driver of village economies across Africa these days.

They are indeed used for information sharing. A big one is sharing prices of commodities at various markets, making it easier for traders and farmers to efficiently sell their goods. They are also used to give warnings of conflicts and other insecurity. When Cameroon had a set of riots, we were able to have the knowledge we needed to keep ourselves safe, rather than relying on rumor and waiting in terror for the riots to hit our town. Health is starting to be a big one. Health officials set up numbers so that local people can text when there is a case of measles or cholera, allowing them to take immediate and targeted action to control the outbreak. Previously, an outbreak in a rural region might rage and spread for weeks before anyone else knew about it.

Cell phone banking, too, is a thing. It’s not unusual for rich relatives in the city to transfer cell phone credit to their family in the village. This could be used or traded for goods and services.

[Doggo]

@even_sven

Probably not smartphones, though they are becoming more popular. In Cameroon, we used cheap Chinese knock-off Nokias at around $7.00 a pop. Those who could not afford phones used the copious community phone stands you’d find at every corner- just a few pennies to send or receive a text message, and receiving calls (for example, from your rich relatives in the city) is generally free. These “call boxes” are a major driver of village economies across Africa these days.

They are indeed used for information sharing. A big one is sharing prices of commodities at various markets, making it easier for traders and farmers to efficiently sell their goods. They are also used to give warnings of conflicts and other insecurity. When Cameroon had a set of riots, we were able to have the knowledge we needed to keep ourselves safe, rather than relying on rumor and waiting in terror for the riots to hit our town. Health is starting to be a big one. Health officials set up numbers so that local people can text when there is a case of measles or cholera, allowing them to take immediate and targeted action to control the outbreak. Previously, an outbreak in a rural region might rage and spread for weeks before anyone else knew about it.

Cell phone banking, too, is a thing. It’s not unusual for rich relatives in the city to transfer cell phone credit to their family in the village. This could be used or traded for goods and services.

Seems that Africans get cheaper phones that I can in Thailand. Most people here have cell phones, including smartphones, but they aren’t cheap at all. My wife mainly uses hers for playing games and gossiping, and I’d imagine that would be similar for most.

[SpeedwayRyan]

@pancakes3

This is far more than just the phone at work. In 2003, not only would I not have an iphone to do all of this, none of the services that I used would have been available. No online banking, no cheap entertainment apps, the prevalence of paypal, skype, facebook, etc. The difference between the internet 2003 and the internet now is almost like the wild west pre and post gold-rush.

Really? By 2003, I had been using the internet for nearly a decade, and had been on broadband for a few years. I had been using online banking services for a few years as well…and this was in the midwest, not exactly Silicon Valley. By 2003 I had been on eBay for five years, and by then eBay had already bought out PayPal, which was very well established by that time. From Wikipedia:

By April 2000, more than 1,000,000 auctions promoted the PayPal service. 70% of all eBay auctions accepted PayPal payments, and roughly 1 in 4 closed auction listings were transacted via Paypal.

That was April of 2000. Three years before the time you mention. A couple of years later it was used in half of all auction payments, and eBay had plunked down $1.5 billion for it.

I’m not saying the internet hasn’t exploded with a lot of cool things in the last decade, but 2003 wasn’t exactly the stone ages.

[GreenElf]

In the early 2000s, online shopping, especially Ebay and Amazon, really became popular, and everyone was at least somewhat caught up in a collectibles craze. Looking back at my purchases during that time period, I have to laugh at how I overvalued things such as books and CDs that since then have maintained their value about the same or greatly dropped in value.