I feel like maybe around 2012 the whole concept of eras died.
Like I can clearly visualize items/people/media from the 60s/70s/80s/90s/00’s, but everything is homogenized now and there’s really no “style of the time” either. I think everything from 2013+ will just be remembered as a malaise era, if anything. Maybe the style of the 2050’s will be post cyberpunk apocalyptic? I have no idea.
Nothing ever unfolded neatly by the decade, but a themepark version could be compiled after the fact. It’s harder when you can’t even talk about “the 00s” gracefully, though. How do you say that?
I’m pretty sure this is a Randall Monroe observation that I’m just repeating. Relevant XKCD, from 2017.
It’s harder when you can’t even talk about “the 00s” gracefully, though. How do you say that?
The aughts/oughts/noughts/noughties, depending on where you’re from.
Yeah, and none of them have really fully caught on. In real life I have to say “two-thousands” to definitely be understood, and even then people misread it as the century sometimes and are confused.
No, not at all. It’s just easier to draw lines on where things start and stop once they change, so you may not feel like you’re “in” an era.
We’re in the era of misinformation.
pre-2020 and post-2020 definitely feels like a different era.
(The pandemic and the global shift towards being more authoritarian)
Yeah I’d almost say the 2020s are the best defined era, everything literally changed overnight.
I agree. The 1970s were disco, the 1980s were punk, the 1990s was New Wave, and the 2000’s was the 2000’s.
I’m old enough to remember Spice Girl mania.
People who never brought a record knew all the songs, because they were played on the radio, and every store and restaurant played local stations. They were in the newspapers and in magazines. They were mentioned on the local news shows.
I’ve never heard a Taylor Swift song played in public. All the stores and restaurants that have radio play dedicated oldies stations. No new music at all. I haven’t watched the local news in years, and newspapers and magazines are gone.
I think you’re going to see smaller and smaller groups getting excited by niche interests. You’re not going to see Beatlemania ever again.
nah, new wave was very 80s, I’d divide the 90s between grunge and rave
Nope, you just can’t put your finger on what’s distinct now and you lack the contrast of what the future brings.
Hair styles, fashion, design, colors, music, phones and other devices, all of that will be different in 10 years.
Remember, facebook was all the rage in a different era and is now uncool. Same for twitter. That’s era defining as well.
No.
You say the Facebook Ear has past, but there are still literally billions of people logging in everyday.
Your small set of friends might have passed on Facebook, but it hasn’t gone away.
Moreover, when I say “hippie era” you think of certain clothes, certain music, etc etc.
There’s no one style that defines the ‘Facebook Era.’
You’re forgetting about all of the AI slop
A lot of us still manage to live in the real world and the clothing real people wear and the way they style their hair and makeup isn’t really an “AI slop” thing.
If you want to define the 2020’s by AI you’re self categorizing as “extremely online/terminally online/chronically online.”
Definitely not. I am playing timeguesser and there is distinct change pre 2020 and post 2020
Ah well I guess we will just be known as the ai slop and facism age that welcomed the downfall of civilization then.
I’ve been thinking about exactly this lately, and I’m open to the possibility that I’m just getting old and just falling into the “everything new is all the same crap!”
But… Imagine what you would wear to a 70s themed party, how about 80s, 90s?
I’m confident three distinct styles popped in your head.
But what about a 2010s party? Sure, some trends come and go, but I don’t feel like the 10s party would look much different from a 2020 or 2000s party.
Feel free to tell me if I’m just old.
Im not even that old. And I still recognized it like you did.
A huge part of it is likely just tech. Tech plateaud around 2010 ish, 99% of things a normal person does with computers could be done fine on a 2010 computer (if sites weren’t total bogged java slop now which is just dev laziness but anyway)
2000s was very emo-/scene-heavy. Lots of bracelets and mixing of black and neon.
2010s are the best argument for you, probably. It was more of a blend of things 🤷♂️ hipsters and preppy looks got pretty big, but nowhere near as homogenous
2020s will be COVID themed with broccoli hair
All that can be said has been said. All that can be done has been done. Nothing is new under the Sun.
You’re just old.
Doesn’t take much to convince me of that!
Hey we’re all old here, ain’t no shame in the aging game.
I think you’re wrong because there were things unique to those decades, but I think what makes your argument hold weight is that not everyone would agree what was the most relevant, especially depending on what social niche you were apart of.
Post 00s, we have a lot of subcultures and much less of a monoculture for nations as a whole, so you could have, say, a 00s or 10s Anime/Game cosplay night, but if you ask everyone to wear “average clothes for the time” there would be no predictable pattern.
The subculture is a good point. I would not have been paying close enough attention to those to really appreciate their nuances.
We are probably just completely out of touch with youth culture
Older Gen Z here, it’s just a consequence of everyone in a social niche now. There’s no one theme to unite them all, so it’s hard to picture in your head a theme, although I can think of what I was a part of in the 00s and 10s.
That almost seems changing. TikTok seems to enforce some sense of monoculture now. I’m seeing 67 gestures from people aged 22 to 6.
I’m curious if the 2010s were the most social niche disjointed and we end up moving back to more monoculture (Yeezy slides, ice cream, broccoli hair is a good 2020s representation that I just can’t think of for 2010s)
In the age of broadcast media, that is of TV, newspaper, etc., there is a common perspective and culture being set. Now we’re in the “feed” age. There is greater variety and speed.
I feel like maybe around 2012 the whole concept of eras died.
It’s the end of an era.
Fascism sure draws a line in the sand.
I’d call this the “late stage capitalism era”.
Stylistically, I’d give the 2010s to hipsters. Damn I do not miss skinny jeans.
Item and sociologically? The smartphone is now ubiquitous.
Sadly, I think the late 10s + a bit will be known as the trump/covid era. (Or, if things get much worse, the beginning of the end.)
