Anyone else agree with this? So many people complain about how bad the 2010s are but I think we forget just how much of a train wreck the 2000s were. 9/11, total collapse of the economy, etc. If those things happened in the age of social media, it would seem like the world was ending. So yeah...the 2000s were depressing as hell but I think the 2010s take the cake for being just...odd. Trump is president, some people think the earth is flat, we have really strange and obscure memes, and the way people consume media has done a complete 180 from the previous century. I just think back to events like the Area 51 Raid and think about how weird it all is. If that were to happen in the 2000s, people would be like wtf?? But previously weird sheesh is so normal now.

Anyone else agree with this? So many people complain about how bad the 2010s are but I think we forget just how much of a train wreck the 2000s were. 9/11, total collapse of the economy, etc. If those things happened in the age of social media, it would seem like the world was ending. So yeah...the 2000s were depressing as hell but I think the 2010s take the cake for being just...odd. Trump is president, some people think the earth is flat, we have really strange and obscure memes, and the way people consume media has done a complete 180 from the previous century. I just think back to events like the Area 51 Raid and think about how weird it all is. If that were to happen in the 2000s, people would be like wtf?? But previously weird sheesh is so normal now.

The 2010s will definitely be regarded by future historians as one of the most surreal decades in human history.

The early-mid half had a relatively positive atmosphere (aside from Islamic terrorist attacks and the Arab Spring protests), but good god, pop culture took a weird and dreary turn at the end of the decade (memes got more surreal, mumble rap became a phenomenon, dark trap beats, etc). So I do agree that the 2000s is depressing for world events, but the 2010s (at least the late part) had more depressing surrealism.

The 2010s were more depressing in the UK imo due to the pervasive terror threat from 2015 to 2017. We had the London bombings in 2005 but there wasn’t a long-lasting sense of unease or panic afterwards, perhaps due to a significantly smaller social media presence so people largely just got on with life.

After the succession of terror attacks in Europe from 2015 to 2017, it felt like everyone was on edge - I remember numerous instances of mass panic and hysteria breaking out due to the sound of random bangs or misunderstandings that just snowballed into stampedes of terrified people. There was an incident in 2017 in London where someone tweeted about an active shooter in a department store and to get out, people shared it and everyone in the store then panicked and stampeded out, screaming ‘there’s a man with a gun’. Turned out to be no shooter, or anyone at all. Shows you what influence social media can have. That just didn’t exist 15 years ago. The mid 2010s were the first time in my life I was actually concerned about terrorism.

I get the feeling that’s how the US felt immediately after 9/11.

Anyway, the real depressing post-war decade has to be the 1970s, at least here. ‘Returning to the 1970s’ is used as a negative thing in British politics because the 70s were so chaotic, and our economy  was so bad we almost needed a bailout from the IMF.

The 2010s were more depressing in the UK imo due to the pervasive terror threat from 2015 to 2017. We had the London bombings in 2005 but there wasn’t a long-lasting sense of unease or panic afterwards, perhaps due to a significantly smaller social media presence so people largely just got on with life.

After the succession of terror attacks in Europe from 2015 to 2017, it felt like everyone was on edge - I remember numerous instances of mass panic and hysteria breaking out due to the sound of random bangs or misunderstandings that just snowballed into stampedes of terrified people. There was an incident in 2017 in London where someone tweeted about an active shooter in a department store and to get out, people shared it and everyone in the store then panicked and stampeded out, screaming ‘there’s a man with a gun’. Turned out to be no shooter, or anyone at all. Shows you what influence social media can have. That just didn’t exist 15 years ago. The mid 2010s were the first time in my life I was actually concerned about terrorism.

I get the feeling that’s how the US felt after 9/11.

Anyway, the real depressing post-war decade has to be the 1970s.

Social media really opened up a lot of people's eyes on world events like they've never seen before, so maybe that's why people are more reactive than ever.

Social media really opened up a lot of people's eyes on world events like they've never seen before, so maybe that's why people are more reactive than ever.

Absolutely. I remember checking Twitter religiously after every terror attack. I obviously wasn’t doing that in 2005 - I saw it on the news briefly but that’s it.

What about the 80s and 90s, just curious to hear your opinion on those decades

I think the 2010s were boring honestly. Whether you liked it or not, more things happened in the 2000s and more changes occurred. I think the 2000s are a superior decade to the 2010s.

I can agree, the 2010s has an odd sense of aesthetic.

I think the 2010s were boring honestly. Whether you liked it or not, more things happened in the 2000s and more changes occurred. I think the 2000s are a superior decade to the 2010s.


Sounds baised and subjective asf tbh

I think the 2010s were boring honestly. Whether you liked it or not, more things happened in the 2000s and more changes occurred. I think the 2000s are a superior decade to the 2010s.

More things happened and more changes occurred? Can you elaborate on those things and changes if you don't mind?

What about the 80s and 90s, just curious to hear your opinion on those decades


I’m only 21 so I can’t speak much on those decades. 90s seemed pretty chill tho 

So I do agree that the 2000s is depressing for world events, but the 2010s (at least the late part) had more depressing surrealism.

All the more reason to cherish the late 00s and early 10s. I disregard most of pop culture from the 9/11 and late 10s eras.

Can't help but view it in reverse order.

Can't help but view it in reverse order.


I agree, should be the other way round, though I definitely prefer the 2000s, way more interesting and changeful.

Can't help but view it in reverse order.


Really? What makes the 2000s weird?  ???

Really? What makes the 2000s weird?  ???


If one of them is weird and the other is depressing, then the 2000s decade has to be the weird one.

There's nothing more depressing than having the same exact images, poorly edited at best, with only slightly different text over them masquerading as anything at all creative. Well... Except for the fact that we're even closer to seeing the Arctic and Antarctic (and now the rainforests) disappear, or that we really haven't recovered from the Recession that started either in 2007 or 2008.

Creativity is at an all-time low there needs to be something to kickstart creativity again because in the 2010s it declined a lot.

Creativity is at an all-time low there needs to be something to kickstart creativity again because in the 2010s it declined a lot.
I blame restrictive copyright law but if not that, I blame the fact that culture has been turned into a commodity, as a product. There should be something to encourage culture from not turning into this. I don't know what you think about anarchy, but to me it looks more and more like the only appropriate solution to a variety of problems we face today.

I blame restrictive copyright law but if not that, I blame the fact that culture has been turned into a commodity, as a product. There should be something to encourage culture from not turning into this. I don't know what you think about anarchy, but to me it looks more and more like the only appropriate solution to a variety of problems we face today.


Nah, 'cause we'd eventually be an all-out war with riots, murders and other crimes skyrocketing. It'd be more of a sh**show, if you ask me.

Creativity is at an all-time low there needs to be something to kickstart creativity again because in the 2010s it declined a lot.


Weed legalization will help.

Nah, 'cause we'd eventually be an all-out war with riots, murders and other crimes skyrocketing. It'd be more of a sh**show, if you ask me.

Plus, racist attacks will skyrocket to the max.

Plus, racist attacks will skyrocket to the max.

Nah, 'cause we'd eventually be an all-out war with riots, murders and other crimes skyrocketing. It'd be more of a sh**show, if you ask me.

Anarchists believe that it's unjust that only the state, military and companies are allowed to act violently (especially to further their own interests), and that white supremacists and the police regularly act in favor of each others' interests, as exemplified by this article (content warning: contains a mention of the n-word).
The bar crawl meandered through Midtown, a sea of red MAGA hats two-dozen strong chanting pro-Trump slogans along the sidewalk. We stopped at Faces and Names on West 54th Street, and then The Irish Pub across the street. There a uniformed cop approached Sal smiling and requested he stop tweeting our location, to avoid trouble from antifascists. Sal obliged. Later, a plainclothes cop approached a heavily intoxicated Sal, flashing his badge, and asked if the Proud Boys were having fun. Sal slurred yes, and the cop replied:

“Let us know if you need anything.”
Anarchists also believe that humans are capable of organizing themselves without coercion. The biggest obstacle to realizing it is that many people still hold highly repressive beliefs.
If not that, sometimes I'd rather those in power were just brutally honest with what they wanted - then people won't be deceived into voting those who will bring hell on earth.
"Oh, just give us money even if you'll hate what we put out, it's the only way we can survive so you s***s keep us on top and making money".

Anarchists believe that it's unjust that only the state, military and companies are allowed to act violently (especially to further their own interests), and that white supremacists and the police regularly act in favor of each others' interests, as exemplified by this article (content warning: contains a mention of the n-word).Anarchists also believe that humans are capable of organizing themselves without coercion. The biggest obstacle to realizing it is that many people still hold highly repressive beliefs.
If not that, sometimes I'd rather those in power were just brutally honest with what they wanted - then people won't be deceived into voting those who will bring hell on earth.
"Oh, just give us money even if you'll hate what we put out, it's the only way we can survive so you s***s keep us on top and making money".


https://media0.giphy.com/media/3o6Zt1S65IMxMUimyY/giphy.gif


I'm still not on board with your idea.

Plus, racist attacks will skyrocket to the max.


Pop culture would improve though.

Pop culture would improve though.


Yeah, emphasis on the "POP", because you'd hear explosions near and far.

A better description for the two decades would be:

The 2000s were chaotic, the 2010s were dreadful

The 2000s may had been depressing in many aspects with events like 9/11, Katrina, and the Housing Bubble. However, looking back they were also surprisingly pretty progressive if you think about it, between the rapid acceptance of Gay Marriage & LGBT rights in general. There were MAJOR technological advances (that I still think put even the 2010s to the shame) such as the acceptance of Web 2.0, social media, cell phones and the subsequent release of smartphones by the end, High-Definition television sets, robotic technology becoming more advanced, safety features in cars, etc. etc. The election of the nation's first Black President by the very end. Not to mention television being in a renaissance period, of sorts, with programs like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Wire, Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Office, among others, not to mention the continuation of sitcoms being popular (from the 80s & 90s era) like F*R*I*E*N*D*S, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Will & Grace, among others.

The 2000s were just more bi-polar if you ask me, while the 2010s felt like things.... just.... existed. Besides Gay Marriage becoming law of the land, Trump's election and Brexit, nothing really exciting happened on a grand political scale, for better or worse, in comparison to the 2000s. The television's renaissance period continued into the 2010s, but there were still elements of the 2000s television period (sitcoms, animation, some bombastic elements in reality tv, etc.) that were just laking in the 2010s, even if the shows themselves in the 2010s may had been better. You can make the argument that Game of Thrones was a much better show than The Sorpranos, but then at the same time 2010s television as a whole had this post-ironic essence about it, even if it wasn't necessarily meant to be portrayed that way intentionally. You weren't no longer allowed to joke about obscene and outlandish things without it being critically analyzed in a borderline/fourth-wall breaking kind of way. Sitcoms, and comedy in general, I just felt suffered in the 2010s because of that, perhaps people were more into the dark & moody shows, and perhaps that was more evident of the times we were living in. People were more nihilistic in the 2010s, so it was reflected in our entertainment (a show stylistically like Rick & Mordy, as an example, would not be able to exist in a time prior to the 2010s). Even other aspects of our culture, from our politics (gridlock and austerity galore for much of politics for the West, the rise of 'Fake News' and privacy concerns reaching new levels of 'Big Brother' fears), technology (the release of a new smartphone every year becoming less & less exciting), fashion (everything looking like it's been influenced by the 80s or 90s), film (superhero films galore and predictable horror movie cliches, yay.....?), anti-consumer practices in the video game industry (micro-transactions, drm, patches, lack of major graphical leaps, and the controversy surrounding 'Gamergate' and journalistic ethics), I could go on and on.

I think it's why from a historical context, I look at the 2000s & 2010s in the same vein as the 1960s & 1970s. It's funny, because I tend to hear a lot of historical commentators consider the 2000s 'a modern day 1970s', but that to me is putting way too much emphasis on the decade purely based on the perspective of what the decade ultimately produced, that being the 2010s. 2010s were more of 'a modern day 1970s', because the 2010s could only exist because of the adverse consequences of the 2000s, in which that was 'a modern day 1960s', hence the common connection between the two and why many older people (particularly people over the age of 50) at times have trouble differentiating between the two. But the 2000s still offered a glimmer of hope, similar to the 1960s, despite the fears and anxieties people had about Y2K at the turn of the Millennium, to the hope and aspirations people placed onto President Obama in the midst of the Great Recession at the end of the decade. Not to mention the major technological breakthroughs from the launch of Facebook in college campuses across the country offering an innovative new way to connect with students (and not to mention the rest of the world) to even the launch of the original iPhone and the possibilities and wonders of having a 'mini PC in your pocket'. There were still straws of optimism people could grab onto in the 2000s, even if the general trajectory at times was headed in a downward spiral, the culture at the time was turbulent with many highs and many lows.

Whereas with the 2010s, it was just a continual and gradual sense of decay for the entirety of the decade, people became more cynical about the world, young people gradually lost faith in our institutions, the economy was certainly better than it was in 2008-2009 but millions of Americans were still living paycheck to paycheck, like "GREAT, we have this thing called UBER now, and it's VERY convenient to pull up the app on your phone sync your location and a ridesharing driver would be at your destination in minutes", "BUT.... it's destroying the taxi industry in the process and the sheer amount of 'UBER Drivers' we have in our society suggest that there is a much deeper systemic issue, emblematic of what is plaguing with people in not being able to attain certain things that we as Americans, not to mention humans across the globe, idealize and value. Emblematic of a growing sense of wealth inequality, and how many people in our generation may actually fare worse than their own parents did".

That to me is the main difference between the 2000s and 2010s.

A better description for the two decades would be:

The 2000s were chaotic, the 2010s were dreadful

The 2000s may had been depressing in many aspects with events like 9/11, Katrina, and the Housing Bubble. However, looking back they were also surprisingly pretty progressive if you think about it, between the rapid acceptance of Gay Marriage & LGBT rights in general. There were MAJOR technological advances (that I still think put even the 2010s to the shame) such as the acceptance of Web 2.0, social media, cell phones and the subsequent release of smartphones by the end, High-Definition television sets, robotic technology becoming more advanced, safety features in cars, etc. etc. The election of the nation's first Black President by the very end. Not to mention television being in a renaissance period, of sorts, with programs like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Wire, Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Office, among others, not to mention the continuation of sitcoms being popular (from the 80s & 90s era) like F*R*I*E*N*D*S, Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, Will & Grace, among others.

The 2000s were just more bi-polar if you ask me, while the 2010s felt like things.... just.... existed. Besides Gay Marriage becoming law of the land, Trump's election and Brexit, nothing really exciting happened on a grand political scale, for better or worse, in comparison to the 2000s. The television's renaissance period continued into the 2010s, but there were still elements of the 2000s television period (sitcoms, animation, some bombastic elements in reality tv, etc.) that were just laking in the 2010s, even if the shows themselves in the 2010s may had been better. You can make the argument that Game of Thrones was a much better show than The Sorpranos, but then at the same time 2010s television as a whole had this post-ironic essence about it, even if it wasn't necessarily meant to be portrayed that way intentionally. You weren't no longer allowed to joke about obscene and outlandish things without it being critically analyzed in a borderline/fourth-wall breaking kind of way. Sitcoms, and comedy in general, I just felt suffered in the 2010s because of that, perhaps people were more into the dark & moody shows, and perhaps that was more evident of the times we were living in. People were more nihilistic in the 2010s, so it was reflected in our entertainment (a show stylistically like Rick & Mordy, as an example, would not be able to exist in a time prior to the 2010s). Even other aspects of our culture, from our politics (gridlock and austerity galore for much of politics for the West, the rise of 'Fake News' and privacy concerns reaching new levels of 'Big Brother' fears), technology (the release of a new smartphone every year becoming less & less exciting), fashion (everything looking like it's been influenced by the 80s or 90s), film (superhero films galore and predictable horror movie cliches, yay.....?), anti-consumer practices in the video game industry (micro-transactions, drm, patches, lack of major graphical leaps, and the controversy surrounding 'Gamergate' and journalistic ethics), I could go on and on.

I think it's why from a historical context, I look at the 2000s & 2010s in the same vein as the 1960s & 1970s. It's funny, because I tend to hear a lot of historical commentators consider the 2000s 'a modern day 1970s', but that to me is putting way too much emphasis on the decade purely based on the perspective of what the decade ultimately produced, that being the 2010s. 2010s were more of 'a modern day 1970s', because the 2010s could only exist because of the adverse consequences of the 2000s, in which that was 'a modern day 1960s', hence the common connection between the two and why many older people (particularly people over the age of 50) at times have trouble differentiating between the two. But the 2000s still offered a glimmer of hope, similar to the 1960s, despite the fears and anxieties people had about Y2K at the turn of the Millennium, to the hope and aspirations people placed onto President Obama in the midst of the Great Recession at the end of the decade. Not to mention the major technological breakthroughs from the launch of Facebook in college campuses across the country offering an innovative new way to connect with students (and not to mention the rest of the world) to even the launch of the original iPhone and the possibilities and wonders of having a 'mini PC in your pocket'. There were still straws of optimism people could grab onto in the 2000s, even if the general trajectory at times was headed in a downward spiral, the culture at the time was turbulent with many highs and many lows.

Whereas with the 2010s, it was just a continual and gradual sense of decay for the entirety of the decade, people became more cynical about the world, young people gradually lost faith in our institutions, the economy was certainly better than it was in 2008-2009 but millions of Americans were still living paycheck to paycheck, like "GREAT, we have this thing called UBER now, and it's VERY convenient to pull up the app on your phone sync your location and a ridesharing driver would be at your destination in minutes", "BUT.... it's destroying the taxi industry in the process and the sheer amount of 'UBER Drivers' we have in our society suggest that there is a much deeper systemic issue, emblematic of what is plaguing with people in not being able to attain certain things that we as Americans, not to mention humans across the globe, idealize and value. Emblematic of a growing sense of wealth inequality, and how many people in our generation may actually fare worse than their own parents did".

That to me is the main difference between the 2000s and 2010s.
Says the neoliberal shill.  :P
I don't think we've ever truly recovered from the recession.

Says the neoliberal shill.  :P
I don't think we've ever truly recovered from the recession.


Neo-Liberal schill ???. Lol, but in all seriousness though, I do agree in many aspects. Many people are still struggling, hence why populism has been on the rise in the last 5-10 years.

Neo-Liberal schill ???. Lol, but in all seriousness though, I do agree in many aspects. Many people are still struggling, hence why populism has been on the rise in the last 5-10 years.


I agree. Populism really has risen from both political sides, from the Occupy movement and the Tea Party in the early 2010s, to the Progressive Left and Third-Wave New Right in the late 2010s. 2010s political occurrences in general can be contributed from two events, the recession and Arab Spring. The Arab Spring had anti-government protests across the Middle East, which gave way to ISIS and the ongoing Syrian Civil War, and the recession made people energized to speak out against social and income inequality and financial entities like Wall Street.

There was also Black Lives Matter, the Climate Strike, March for our Lives, Women's March, Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, Yellow Vests, etc. It was a decade of protests.

I agree. Populism really has risen from both political sides, from the Occupy movement and the Tea Party in the early 2010s, to the Progressive Left and Third-Wave New Right in the late 2010s. 2010s political occurrences in general can be contributed from two events, the recession and Arab Spring. The Arab Spring had anti-government protests across the Middle East, which gave way to ISIS and the ongoing Syrian Civil War, and the recession made people energized to speak out against social and income inequality and financial entities like Wall Street.

There was also Black Lives Matter, the Climate Strike, March for our Lives, Women's March, Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, Yellow Vests, etc. It was a decade of protests.


I agree. In that sense, the 2010s were very similar to the 1960s, a decade of Protest. However, there was a lot of protests in the 2000s too. You should look up the London protests just prior to the US/UK Invasion of Iraq in 2003. It was the largest mass demonstration in human history, and I still think it has yet to have been topped (although the Climate Strikes last year came strikingly close).

I guess the difference back then was, that there was still this semblance of 'innocence' people had back then. Bush's approval ratings were through the roof, as I vividly remember that if you criticized Bush you were seen as 'anti-American'. There were American flags being flown at every 'Mom & Pop' shop. A lot of patriotic/'f*ck yea, AMERICA!!!' fashion/culture, with Trucker hats being big, and gas guzzling Hummers (& to a lesser extent, Escalades) being the 'it' car of choice. So when Bush and his cronies were gearing up to invade a country that didn't attack us, for millions they were still under the impression that the Administration had good intentions. However, for millions others, they immediately woke up and realized what exactly was going on. I was a child during this time, but I do vividly remember how quickly the public turned against Bush during his second term in office, while in his first term he had a very similar cult-like status to Trump or Reagan in many ways.

The 2000s' protests against Iraq, thus, while more mobilized and conceited than a lot of the protests in the 2010s (due to how many there were in the 2010s, suggesting how 'splintered' things were in the 2010s), seemed more 'innocent' looking back. I guess because this was still before the Great Recession, and people still had this sense of hope that 'things would turn around'. However, by the 2010s it seemed like almost all hope had been lost. In that sense, it makes sense how the 2000s were similar to the 'idealistic' 1960s, and how the 2010s were similar to the 'pessimistic' 1970s.

From the way I see it, the 2000s had the worst historical events in them and the 2010s were 10 times more memorable, but not as exciting to live in as the 2000s were.

From the way I see it, the 2000s had the worst historical events in them and the 2010s were 10 times more memorable, but not as exciting to live in as the 2000s were.


Maybe the 10s are more memorable because they only ended a few months ago? Though I disagree I think the 2000s had way more memorable moments good or bad.

I agree that the 10s weren’t (and still aren’t) exciting to live in as the 2000s were.

Maybe the 10s are more memorable because they only ended a few months ago? Though I disagree I think the 2000s had way more memorable moments good or bad.

I agree that the 10s weren’t (and still aren’t) exciting to live in as the 2000s were.


There’s not much to associate with the 2000s but the emo scene and bling phase. With the 2010s, you have the jogger look, yoga look,  the hipsters, hype beasts (streetwear), Alt-Right ensemble (MAGA hats), VSCO girls,
e-boys and e-girls.

The fads of the 2010s come to me a lot easier than those of the 2000s. The 2010s had Angry Birds in the early 10s, emojis in the mid 10s, fidget spinners and Fortnite in the late 10s. Pokèmon was the only largest pop culture phenomenon of the 2000s and Millennials refer to Pokémon as a 1998 thing (which it was, but it was huge in 1999 to 2000).

I love the 2000s for all of the gossip spread in the mid 2000s (Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, George W Bush, and Lindsay Lohan stuff was a real eye opener) and  Disney Channel shows we all watched during downtime. There wasn’t anything else going on. Barack Obama’s election was the greatest change to happen in the 21st century so far, nonetheless.

Aren't those trends you listed more the second half of the 2010s, like after mid 2014? 2010-2013 were still heavily 2000s influenced for ex. longer hair for guys.

Aren't those lools you listed more the second half of the 2010s, like after mid 2014?


Yeah.

Yeah.

Please don't erase the early 2010s culture with the bad late 10s culture. It was miles better! Heck, even 2015 was better than 2019-2020 and I think 2010-2014 were miles better than 2015.

The 2000s and 2010s are both equally good

Hot take right here

The 2000s and 2010s are both equally good

Hot take right here


If you don’t mind living in the 21st century, that is.