I have a weird theory. Every 7 years seems to be a significant shift year. Subtract 7 from all the years starting from 2020 and you'll see what I mean.

...as in the seven year itch?

Sorry Slim but in my humble opinion there is no such thing as 1999/2006/2013/etc. shift. You can turn any year into a shift year if you try hard enough. But the truth is changes build up gradually over several years and trends fall out of fashion as quickly as they came in.


Ever look at the clouds and try to guess their shapes? That cloud looks like a whale, that cloud is definitely an octopus, that one looks like a chicken nugget, that one could be Jesus etc. But in reality they are just clouds. They don't have a shape, they are formless blobs of vapour. The human brain is very good at finding patterns where there aren't any.


The 2020 shift on the other hand is for real. This is perhaps the biggest global event since WW2. The world after is nothing like the world begoremThe course of human history has changed forever and people will talk of it for many years if not decades to come.

Do you think we're in a 15 year parallel or 16 year? In other words, would 2020 be more comparable to 2004 or 2005? Lol. All joking aside I would say neither with our current situation. The only thing remotely comparable in recent history was 9/11. Regarding shifts, my theory is every 4 years as it seems to coincide with presidential terms. If it weren't for the pandemic, the next shift would have been in 2021. COVID interrupted order in the universe.

7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is a prime number, and is often considered lucky in Western culture, and is often seen as highly symbolic.

There's no such thing as a cyclical shift.

Things just happen and don't follow any preconceived order.

There's no such thing as a cyclical shift.

Things just happen and don't follow any preconceived order.


Yep, pretty much.

I’m sorry but this is not a good theory. I agree with Slowpoke that there was no significant shift in 1998, 2006, 2013. A shift implies that society is transforming into another era in a drastic way that the previous era felt like another world. 2006 didn’t feel very different from 2004 and same thing with 2013 and 2011. It’s just that new trends have been coming in those years but it didn’t make life super different. I can agree with 2020 and maybe 2008/9 but I don’t see a real shift in 2006 or 2013.

I have to agree with others saying there was no big shift in 2006, 1999, etc. You could find countless of reasons for why a year is a cultural shift. It’s not about how many cultural shifts, it’s about their IMPACT. 2020 is a legit 100% cultural shift like we’ve never seen before. It’s basically the late 2006 shift but unironically.  ;D

I agree with what everyone says pretty much. Both socially/politically and culturally, the 7 year cycle doesn't exist. There's no big change to politics in 2013 at all, it happened in 2014/15 with SJW's and LGBT marriage legalization. Obama wasn't elected in 2006 either, 2008 sounds more like it. However, you were kinda right about 2001, 2008, and 2015, although that only applied for the 3 years with politics, 2001 with 9/11, 2008 with Obama's election & great recession, 2015, etc. However, there's also major changes in between, 2000 with George's election, 2003 Iraq invasions, 2016 with Brexit, etc.

In pop culture, the 7 year cycle barely makes any sense. Pop culture usually changes every 2-3 years with minor developments in between. But if you're talking about nostalgia, you'd be looking for the 10, 20, 30, and 40 year nostalgia cycles (Seems like I got a new idea for a project on this lol)

There was a great divide between 2006/2007, at least.