# How would you characterize the 2000's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 6, 2019, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806 "2019-09-06T17:45:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/41 "2019-09-11T17:42:31Z")
I just re-watched _Juno_ on a plane a few days ago, and I was surprised that it actually feels a bit dated to me now. That movie came out in what, 2005 or 2006 thereabouts? Of course there was the technology, like everyone using landline phones. Juno would never have her novelty hamburger phone today. And looking at ads in a print copy of the Penny Saver. I suppose Craigslist is kind of the new Penny Saver in a way. But also there was just the style of the movie. That purposely low quality animation in the opening sequence seems more like a 2000s and late-1990s thing. And there’s the way Juno speaks. I know she was supposed to be someone who marches to her own drummer, but still the slang she uses felt more 2000s than 2010s. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/42 "2019-09-11T21:08:46Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > In fashion, it’s pretty easy to find [comparison](https://www.dmjuice.com/story/entertainment/2015/07/30/fashion-now/30740947/) or “[remember this?](https://www.buzzfeed.com/leonoraepstein/forgotten-early-2000s-trends)” style articles. Which leads me to think that it might be less “There was nothing defining about that decade” and more “SDMB skews older with people who stopped paying attention to fashion trends in 1995”. I suspect this probably extends to other cultural trends except, again, we have a disproportionate number of people around here who proudly stopped buying new music in 1988 and enjoy saying things like “I don’t even know what a Taylor Swift is.” Such people probably missed EDM music [blowing up](https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2015/10/30/the-popularity-of-music-genres-2005-present/) in the 2010s or other genre shifts. Yep, exactly. The styles are very different. Look at a movie like Mean Girls or the aforementioned Juno and compare it to young people are wearing today. Speaking of Juno, the 2000s were a decade where Michael Cera could be a relatively famed actor. I think there a strange this is what dork-cool looks like sort of vibe with Cera. Which is just really humorous right now. It was also the era of the manic pixie dream girl, which hasn’t completely disappeared, but is far far less of a thing (thankfully). ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/43 "2019-09-12T03:43:50Z")
Rather than come up with a sound bite description, I’m going to divide it into broad categories. Politically, the noughts were when political parties continued to become more polarized. There was less cooperation, and more “dark money”. Terrorism became a major concern, and rightly so, but people were naive about privacy and security. Economically, it was an era of misplaced optimism. The real estate and stock markets kept going up, until they didn’t. Culturally, it was a hodgepodge of earlier trends, as computing became mainstream and nostalgia became digitally accessible. Socially, people were starting to use more technology, but were not yet in isolated bubbles or slaves to their telephones and social media. It seemed like a more optimistic time than the glum 90s. ---
**Author:** ![kirkrapine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7ea924/32.png) [@kirkrapine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kirkrapine)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/44 "2019-09-12T05:17:59Z")
> [@Lantern](#): > > I have this theory that the first two decades of a century don’t develop an identity partly because there is no convenient name that everyone agrees on; 00’s is awkward and 10’s is not much better. With the 20’s we will finally be able to refer to a decade conveniently and I expect that after another 6-7 years it will develop an identity of some kind. > > As for the last 20 years, I think the culture has been transformed by technology and the Internet. Netflix, Youtube, social media, podcasting, Kindle, smartphones etc. Mostly for the better IMO; because while there is a staggering amount of junk, our access to the very best of global culture has never been better and we can mostly choose to ignore the junk and focus on the good stuff. In particular I think the “golden age of television” is real and is still going strong. TV is a lot more varied and interesting than it used to be and I think it will remain that way for both economic and cultural reasons. > [@bobot](#): > > The 2000s were the internet decade. Yeah, it existed before, but the 2000s was when everyone and their mother got connected. What comes after “postmodern?” I say 2000 was the first year of the cyberzoic period – it sounds profound and it’s got “cyber” in it. It implies but is not definitely committed to the coming [singularity](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Singularity). ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/45 "2019-09-12T05:41:23Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Reality TV elimination shows just exploded throughout the 2000s and everyone was watching at least some of them. And everyone was talking about them. > We had all of these start in the 2000s: > Survivor 2000 > Big Brother 2000 > Amazing Race 2001 > The Bachelor 2002 > American Idol 2002 > Project Runway 2004 > The Apprentice 2004 > Hell’s Kitchen(US) 2005 I think this is a really good point. Add to that the “I love the 80s/70s/90s” shows and “Worlds dumbest” shows…those all scream 2000s. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/46 "2019-09-12T11:50:38Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > It seemed like a more optimistic time than the glum 90s. I personally found the 90s the most optimistic decade of my lifetime, speaking as an American. Cold War just ended, economy was booming, web browsers were invented and the internet just got introduced to the average person. It seemed a time with endless possibilities–the thread of the Cold War over, money to be made, and the world’s information at our fingertips. Then, a lot of that optimism came to a crashing halt with the bursting of the dot com bubble, the events of 9/11, the housing market crash, the deep recession. It’s hard for me to find more optimism in the 00s than the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/47 "2019-09-12T14:45:45Z")
I was a teenager in the 2000s. I agree with what a lot of people said, but to throw in a few more pop culture references, I think of the 2000s as the age of hip hop music, self-tanning, and AOL Instant Messenger. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/48 "2019-09-12T16:19:18Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I personally found the 90s the most optimistic decade of my lifetime, speaking as an American. Cold War just ended, economy was booming, web browsers were invented and the internet just got introduced to the average person. It seemed a time with endless possibilities–the thread of the Cold War over, money to be made, and the world’s information at our fingertips. Then, a lot of that optimism came to a crashing halt with the bursting of the dot com bubble, the events of 9/11, the housing market crash, the deep recession. > > It’s hard for me to find more optimism in the 00s than the 90s. Yeah, that was a bizarre statement. The '90s were glum? The '00s were \*more \*optimistic? The fuck? The 2000s had barely started when we had 9/11. I don’t know how someone could possibly say the 2000s was an optimistic decade. The 1990s is the \*last \*optimistic decade before it all turned to terrorism, war & pessimism in the 2000s. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/49 "2019-09-12T18:43:49Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/50 "2019-09-12T19:22:13Z")
I spent most of the 90s in higher education and had a wonderful time, personally. But the music of the 1990s was largely grunge. Only a few people listened to EDM and Britpop. Hip hop and rap became popular a little later in the decade. But, yeah, politically every decade since the 70s has been getting a little more unfriendly. Terrorism, however, did not define the 00s. And the terrorists did not win much. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/51 "2019-09-12T19:46:23Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Terrorism, however, did not define the 00s. 😕 How did it _not_? Terrorism (the fear of it, the fight against it, etc.) was a Big Deal in the 2000s. All of those “I Love the 2000s” type shows had as their main focus 9/11, Bush, Iraq, Al Qaeda, etc. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/52 "2019-09-12T21:55:31Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > 😕 How did it _not_? Terrorism (the fear of it, the fight against it, etc.) was a Big Deal in the 2000s. > > All of those “I Love the 2000s” type shows had as their main focus 9/11, Bush, Iraq, Al Qaeda, etc. Agreed. It was one of _the_ defining moments, like it or not (and I understand now wanting to give the terrorists the credit) of the 2000s. I mean, one of the names for Gen Z is [the Homeland Generation](https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilhowe/2014/10/27/introducing-the-homeland-generation-part-1-of-2/#792b95a62bd6) – it was that defining a moment. We went from having no existential threat after the end of the Cold War in the 90s, to having the War on Terrorism replace the Cold War in the 00s. The 90s were a time where we felt (or at least I and all my peers did) that the world was back on track, nothing but sunshine and roses ahead, and then 9/11 hit (along with all the other events in my post.) Now it’s back to War on Terror, Russia being an enemy, China being an existential threat, North Korea playing games, etc. These sorts of worries were largely absent from the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2019, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806/53 "2019-09-13T13:32:45Z")
It’s hard to reduce a whole decade to a few points. Of course, 9/11 was an unprecedented event with a lot of influence on politics, government policy, law and foreign policy. It was one of the defining events of the decade. But what were the terrorists trying to accomplish? To sow disorder, to turn Americans against their Moslem neighbours, to attract imitators and overturn the world order in the name of misguided dogma. The lesson is that these things didn’t happen. That they were remarkably few other terrorist events in America and none in my country of Canada. That thousands of professionals did their jobs to maintain the peace. That terrorism proved ineffective, despite constant anxiety and fearmongering from the media and politicians. Sowing disorder had to wait a few years for a new president. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-characterize-the-2000s/839806.md?page=2)