Well the new year has rolled around, seeing is it is now 2011 of course. It had struck me that I'm not exactly sure what the previous decade was defined as, and to be quite honest, why anyone would ever have wanted to live in it. That may sound harsh or irrational, but let me explain.
A time period is told in two things, events, and individuals perceptions of events. These events can be big or small, doesn't matter, what matters about it is how it influenced culture at the time. Look at the 1940's through the 1980's. These decades are easily defined in a broad view from people who never even lived in them, this is of course because of the iconic images that their culture painted. For example, look at pictures from the 1940's and 1950's, almost every adult wore a suit with a fedora hat in a non formal setting, almost every single one. There is so much you could say about these decades that defined them, but as far as the culture goes, the perception of it is quite universal, this is likely because of the lack of numerous media entities and the control politicians and others had over the media, film studios, and publishing companies, this was all people had to read, and America was truly defined by it, at least that is what I would argue, I will explain why further on.
Even if the perceptions are incorrect, which is probably untrue for these decades as their aren't generally a vast number of drastically different perceptions from the common population, it is still the way the decade is perceived that defines how it is remembered. What will this previous decade, 2000 to 2010 of course, be defined by? I would say it would depend on what aspect of culture you are talking about. I think largely this decade was defined by two things, technology and individualism. This is because the internet is so prevalent that anyone can access anything and there are so many detailed ideas floating out there that one could spend a lifetime researching them all and would have barely scratched the surface, this promotes individualism because what you read isn't controlled by a select group, rather it is controlled by anyone and everyone, and of course advancements in technology would define the decade, if you remember dial up internet or the first cell phone texting you know what I am talking about.
The problem I see is here, once the perceptions of a decade define its remembrance, especially to those who didn't live it, our decade will be perceived mainly by technology, terrorism and the wars in the Middle East, and somewhat a sense of individualism. Technology I think will be the main thing to be perceived though, by a long shot, because of this I would argue that even if you want to bring terrorism into it and individualism that is caused by technology, there is no reason to believe that our decade holds any real uniqueness. We might as well be like the 1870's, who remembers them? We hold no uniqueness or desire to live in because if it is about technology, terrorism, and individualism, all of which caused by advancements in technology, you might as well rather live in this current decade or the one after that, so you can be insured that you have the best technology available. Would you rather have an Xbox original or an Xbox 360, would you rather have a cell phone from 2000 or a cell phone from 2010? It doesn't matter what the yearly comparison is, anytime more in the future or closer to the present if you're looking back on the decade, is just a better time to live in technologically. That's just the way things are.
Tell me what you think defined the decade, give me you're thoughts, and thanks for reading!
