did the world change more in the 2000s or the 2010s?

[cursed knowledge]

was talking to some friends that i play valorant with earlier today and they were like "damn, world really changed in the 2010s" and a older guy from the US said "yeah you haven't seen shit, the 2000s was the real change" and we were like "uh ok..."

i realized later it makes sense to think that because 9/11 was a really big deal in everyday life in the US (and i assume in other countries too, to some extent?) and the internet gettin out of baby steps etc

but i can't agree since social media and smartphones are wayyyy bigger than everything that the internet brought to people before (and honestly, the internet wasn't even that huge in my country in the years that i remember in late 00s)

i even argued that sociological and political changes in the mid/late 10s makes the 2000s feel like the 90s v2 (neofascism and late stage capitalism getting at its peak)

but as always i'm bored so i thought, let me ask this to era since they always know everything

i know some ppl are going to argue that 2020 is part of the 2010s and talk about covid. please don't lol

 

[Lulu]

9/11 and the release of the iPhone make this an easy answer

 

[Seesaw15]

but i can't agree since social media and smartphones are wayyyy bigger than everything that the internet brought to people before (and honestly, the internet wasn't even that huge in my country in the years that i remember in late 00s)

Click to shrink...

You do realize smartphones and social media were a 2000's thing OP.

The 00's( in the US )changed so much just by electing a black President.Drove every racist person crazy. Legit took away all the dog whistles in our political system that used to exist before.

 

[Sign My Guestbook!]

9/11, the Iraq War, the recession, the smart phone and social media... that was a full-ass decade.

2010s' change was more gradual. The 20s gonna suck though. Give the 2000s a real run for its money, like grab its ass and dash for the hills.

 

[cursed knowledge]

9/11 and the release of the iPhone make this an easy answer

Click to shrink...

you really think the iPhone changed the world more in 2007-2009 than later? lol

You do realize smartphones and social media were a 2000's thing OP.

Click to shrink...

obviously but it's wrong to think facebook/myspace/iphones were common things for billions of people in the 2000s

 

[GamerJM]

I started college in 2012, and graduated in 2018. After I graduated I was unemployed for a couple of months or so, and would spend time thinking about random things. One day I asked myself what the major ways in which the world changed while I was away at college were. I spent a couple hours looking up things and thinking of events and could come up with shockingly few things. A lot of the things that did change already had their seeds of change planted years prior. The modern alt-right movement for example was the result of culture that started on 4chan in the 2000s.

Meanwhile, the 2000s had the smartphone revolution, 9/11, and multiple huge cultural shifts. So to me, the answers seem obvious.

 

[Nola]

I started college in 2012, and graduated in 2018. After I graduated I was unemployed for a couple of months or so, and would spend time thinking about random things. One day I asked myself what the major ways in which the world changed while I was away at college were. I spent a couple hours looking up things and thinking of events and could come up with shockingly few things. A lot of the things that did change already had their seeds of change planted years prior. The modern alt-right movement for example was the result of culture that started on 4chan in the 2000s.

Meanwhile, the 2000s had the smartphone revolution, 9/11, and multiple huge cultural shifts. So to me, the answers seem obvious.

Click to shrink...

And to the point about the alt right, the shift and enormous rise in right wing extremist groups coincided with Obama's election.

It's really not even a contest imo

 

[Ashes of Dreams]

Yeah the 2010s feel like they had a lot of major shifts but most of them were the fruits born from seeds planted in the 2000s.

 

[acheron_xl]

The more I think about it the closer I think they are. Hard question.

 

[CitizenVectron]

Sounds like OP is maybe younger and therefore suffers from recency bias. Same reason why young people in every era think the current music is the best, movies are the best, etc, because they didn't have a larger perception of things as they happened in earlier eras.

 

[i hate cheaters]

depends how you look at it

for me, the 2010s challenged the idea that the future would always be better (and not just socio/political stuff). that paradigm shift might be a bigger change than the 2000's innovations

 

[Watchtower]

I would agree that it's the 2000s but I do think the 2010s changes are being undersold a bit. The Web 2.0 and smartphone revolutions are just as big as the dot.com and cell phone revolutions and while a lot of the social justice movement, anti-social justice counter-movements, and the overall partisan shift was first seeded by Obama's win in 2008 it really doesn't bear fruit until 2011-2012. I can say as a high-school student at the time, the cultural shift from "90s 2.0" to "social justice" was very swift.

Ultimately however nothing's yet to beat 9/11 in terms of global impact. 9/11 irreversibly changed America, and through that changed the world forever.

 

[chefbags]

Was pretty young in the 2000's so barring 9/11 I don't think it was a big a change as 2010's. For me 2010's I've seen bigger change, especially the increase of mass shootings up to now.

 

[SeanM]

Easily the 2000s.

- 9/11 and all the after effects goes without saying

- Music industry changed completely after Napster and piracy exploded in the early 2000's followed by iPod and iTunes, iTunes Store, DRM free music, and Spotify launching in like 2008 and popularizing streaming music which is now the norm.

- Console industry had its last major shakeup with Sega discontinuing the Dreamcast and Microsoft introducing the Xbox in the same year. Online gaming got really popular with Xbox Live and PSN.

- iPhone in 2007 revolutionizing smart phones.

- TV industry had high definition TV's becoming mainstream along with DVR's popularizing time shifting. It was the peak of broadcast in terms of viewership and cable took off in a massive way. Also had services like Hulu and Prime Video launch, and Netflix transitioned from DVD's by mail to streaming in the late 2000s. Probably the last major physical media format with Blu-Ray's launch.

- Internet changed dramatically with WordPress and the rise of blogs. Wikipedia. Podcasting was introduced and blew up. Social media exploded (FB launched in 05, Twitter in 06). Firefox and Chrome launched. Services like Gmail, Google Maps and Street View. H264 video killing Flash and YouTube launch changing the way we watch videos online. Broadband became mainstream.


I'm struggling to think of anything as big as those in the 2010s.

 

[Cruxist]

It's the 2000's. Not only were the actual events significant (2000 election, 9/11, iPhone, 2008 recession, facebook…) the seeds planted in that decade have had just world-shifting consequences that nobody would've guessed at the time. Obviously there's an argument that so much of this was rooted in the decade before, because that's just how time works but still.

That's not to say what happened int the 2010's is any less significant, but we're still living those changes now.

 

[Deleted member 50498]

The 2000 election and the controversy surrounding "hanging chads," 9/11, Iraq war, the Great Recession, and rise of the alt-right makes this an easy answer imo.

I was in college during the Great Recession. A lot of students on campus looked completely lost and demoralized. Right then and there, I was convinced financial stress is just as bad if not worse than combat-PTSD.

One classmate had to drop out because her parents lost their home. The recession destroyed the middle-class when the housing bubble popped, while wiping out trillions in retirement accounts. Retirees and near-retirees were hit pretty bad as well. Headlines of suicide were common during that time.

The iPhone and social media had a huge impact. I still remember one of my classmates created a Wordpress blog so that he can earn some extra money from Google AdSense.

 

[JaseMath]

9/11, the '08 recession, and gay marriage are multi-generation defining events whose aftermath put people like Trump into power. I say the 2000s.

 

[elLOaSTy]

I feel like its a bit early but 2020s might blow them out of the water based on how it's going

 

[Ashodin]

Easily the 2000s.

- 9/11 and all the after effects goes without saying

- Music industry changed completely after Napster and piracy exploded in the early 2000's followed by iPod and iTunes, iTunes Store, DRM free music, and Spotify launching in like 2008 and popularizing streaming music which is now the norm.

- Console industry had its last major shakeup with Sega discontinuing the Dreamcast and Microsoft introducing the Xbox in the same year. Online gaming got really popular with Xbox Live and PSN.

- iPhone in 2007 revolutionizing smart phones.

- TV industry had high definition TV's becoming mainstream along with DVR's popularizing time shifting. It was the peak of broadcast in terms of viewership and cable took off in a massive way. Also had services like Hulu and Prime Video launch, and Netflix transitioned from DVD's by mail to streaming in the late 2000s. Probably the last major physical media format with Blu-Ray's launch.

- Internet changed dramatically with WordPress and the rise of blogs. Wikipedia. Podcasting was introduced and blew up. Social media exploded (FB launched in 05, Twitter in 06). Firefox and Chrome launched. Services like Gmail, Google Maps and Street View. H264 video killing Flash and YouTube launch changing the way we watch videos online. Broadband became mainstream.


I'm struggling to think of anything as big as those in the 2010s.

Click to shrink...

HD graphics hit before the end of the decade too.

 

[Autumn]

05-15 was the big change, almost a new world.

 

[mbpm]

2010s' change was more gradual. The 20s gonna suck though. Give the 2000s a real run for its money, like grab its ass and dash for the hills.

Click to shrink...

We are cursed to live in interesting times

 

[tapedeck]

Everything was different post 9/11.

 

[WereSalamander]

Imagine if the Supreme Court did not intervene and Gore had won the presidency instead of Bush. Just think how much difference that would've made.

Certainly the internet and social media proliferated in the 2010's but the bedrock for those things were laid down before that decade.

 

[Deleted member 50498]

Imagine if the Supreme Court did not intervene and Gore had won the presidency instead of Bush. Just think how much difference that would've made.

Certainly the internet and social media proliferated in the 2010's but the bedrock for those things were laid down before that decade.

Click to shrink...

I think about this a lot, probably too much if I'm being honest.

 

[Gyro Zeppeli]

9/11, broadband internet and the 2008 recession made the most impact.

 

[Deleted member 70788]

I feel like the 2000s were more change technologically and capability wise.

I feel like the 2010's were more change conceptually and how we saw our trajectory as humans with a much less hopeful trajectory

 

[echoshifting]

I think it's pretty tough to say. Yeah a lot of the big changes in the 10s were foreshadowed in the 00s but that's true of the 00s and the 90s as well so I don't think that's fair. Even 9/11 was preceded by another bombing at the same location by the same group.

The biggest standouts for me are the recession of the 00s and the sharp rise of conservative authoritarianism in the 10s. Yeah the latter had seeds in the 00s but the greater impact of it is in the 10s. The introduction of the smartphone is a big one too but I think it pales next to that. Also the increased frequency of climate change-related weather events is bigger than the iPhone imo. I'm gonna go with the 10s.

 

[Forerunner]

2000s.

2020s are a big oof so far and we are only two year in...

 

[aett]

I turned 18 in 2001 and let me tell you, shit changed massively that year and a lot more happened in the next several years.

 

[TaySan]

2000's for sure. 9/11 alone changed so much

 

[bangai-o]

9/11, broadband internet and the 2008 recession made the most impact.

Click to shrink...

Wait, people were still playing StarCraft on the phone line into the 2000s?

 

[Venatio]

It's an interesting question. The 2000s seem like the clear answer, but then you realize that most of the real effects of that decade didn't manifest until the 2010s.

 

[halcali]

2000s:

smart phones
9-11
rise of China

 

[Lentic]

On first impression, it's obviously the 2000s. You can compare 2000 to 2009 and it feels like an entirely different world. There were so many changes in fashion, music, tech, etc. throughout that decade.

At the same, time it's very easy to underestimate the '10s because the changes were much more subtle. Cable cutting and video streaming took off big. Independent websites started to die off in favor of large social media sites. Even comparing YT from 2010 to 2019 is a massive shift. Suddenly, content creation has become a viable career path. There were also massive changes when it comes to activism and political awareness. The biggest change is probably the way people receive and consume information. Everything feels more decentralized, which is both a good and bad thing.

It's also very easy to underestimate the '10s if you live in a developed country. Try looking at it from the perspective of someone in a developing country. Shit changed big time. Suddenly a massive chunk of people had phones and mobile internet, even people who had never used a computer in their lifetime. Social media adoption took off like a wildfire.

Personally, I think it's the 2000s, but I could also see the case for the 2010s.

 

[Pyramid Head]

I took a katana onto a plane from Majorca to the UK in my hand luggage in 1999.

2000's.

 

[acheron_xl]

Like, the Arab Spring was in 2010'-'11. The 2016 election was absolutely cataclysmic. Saying it's the 2000's because of 9/11 is an easily reflexive call, but it's way closer than that.

 

[Pinku]

I took a katana onto a plane from Majorca to the UK in my hand luggage in 1999.

2000's.

Click to shrink...

This. The world changed a lot after 9/11. How we travel, regulations etc. Even terrorist attacks that became a regular thing in europe. That shit started in the 00's.

 

[Yoshimitsu126]

Even MCU started in 2000s.

 

[Red UFO]

yeah the iPhone came out in 2007 but it wasn't until 2010 or 2011 when it really started seeping into everyone's lives and completely changing the way we communicate and live our lives.

 

[danm999]

all the big events in the 2010s were continuations of things from the 2000s

 

[Carbon]

Having lived through both of them as an adult, I would say the 2000s. But the 10s definitely were no slouches in how much society changed (mostly due to technology's effect on our communication and social structures)
But if I specifically think about how much life changed from 2010 to 2019, vs 2000 to 2009, life at the turn of the millennium was SO much different. There was a hope that things would continue to improve, that society would continue advancing. Then 9/11 shattered that outlook, and brought fear back into the picture. And then the 2008 crash reminded us that our system was rotten to the core.

It's true that society is unraveling quicker than it ever has thanks to the growth of social media and smart phone usage in the Teens. But we don't get to where we are now without the fundamental bedrock shaking events of the Aughts. And now the 20s look like they are on a speedrun trying to change the world for the worse.

 

[OtisSpunkmeijer]

As awful as the 2010's were, and as shit as the 20's are looking, I gotta give the award to the 2000's. Right from the start the decade was just... God damn.

EDIT: although the 20's may beat the 2000's at this rate.

 

[Cass_Se]

all the big events in the 2010s were continuations of things from the 2000s

Click to shrink...

Yeah sure, but I think the question is tricky because while a lot of these events started in the 00s their full impact was not felt until the 10s. Yeah, iPhone launched in 2007, but the proliferation of smartphones mostly happened in the 10s. Yeah, Facebook was already a known quantity in 2010 (to the point Fincher already made a film about it then), but it didn't tear society apart until the 10s. Yeah, MAGA is the continuation of the trend of the past three decades and backlash to 2008 election, but it's fully in the 10s.

If we're talking purely about societal changes I don't think it's that clear cut, though 2000s do get to have the more major events. But yeah, they both seem to pale to 2020s it seems

 

[B.K.]

Don't forget that COVID appeared in 2019, when consider the 2010s.

 

[danm999]

Yeah sure, but I think the question is tricky because while a lot of these events started in the 00s their full impact was not felt until the 10s. Yeah, iPhone launched in 2007, but the proliferation of smartphones mostly happened in the 10s. Yeah, Facebook was already a known quantity in 2010 (to the point Fincher already made a film about it then), but it didn't tear society apart until the 10s. Yeah, MAGA is the continuation of the trend of the past three decades and backlash to 2008 election, but it's fully in the 10s.

If we're talking purely about societal changes I don't think it's that clear cut, though 2000s do get to have the more major events. But yeah, they both seem to pale to 2020s it seems

Click to shrink...

See I judge the iPhone or social media as the "change" to the world, whereas the impacts and fallout from that change is something else that occurs later as a result of the change.

 

[PSOreo]

Everything everyone has mentioned so far definitely strengths my view the 2000s featured the biggest world change. You went from society's belief of safety in the Western world to daily fears of terror attacks changing the political landscape and travel. Technology grew rapidly starting out from texting and calling people on the move to having the first popularised smartphone we know today by the end of the decade. The internet blew up too with the rise of social media. It was all monumental shifts that set the groundwork of globalisation and communication changes to come.

 

[Yahsper]

Yeah sure, but I think the question is tricky because while a lot of these events started in the 00s their full impact was not felt until the 10s. Yeah, iPhone launched in 2007, but the proliferation of smartphones mostly happened in the 10s. Yeah, Facebook was already a known quantity in 2010 (to the point Fincher already made a film about it then), but it didn't tear society apart until the 10s. Yeah, MAGA is the continuation of the trend of the past three decades and backlash to 2008 election, but it's fully in the 10s.

If we're talking purely about societal changes I don't think it's that clear cut, though 2000s do get to have the more major events. But yeah, they both seem to pale to 2020s it seems

Click to shrink...

When in doubt, just think how a time traveller would feel. Someone from 1999 suddenly teleported to 2009 would feel like they're in a completely different world that's hardly recognizable.

But someone from 2009 teleported to 2019? Meh, things got worse for sure but I don't think there'd be any huge surprises. Donald Trump maybe but Sarah Palin and the Tea Party already planted that seed.

 

[Flygon]

2001 through 2007 set the stage for 2016 onward.

I'm voting 00s, simply because they set up the 10s.
Of course, with the entire 80s setting those both up, and the poor mishandling of the Soviet collapse by the West through the 90s...

It's all interconnected.

 

[danm999]

When in doubt, just think how a time traveller would feel. Someone from 1999 suddenly teleported to 2009 would feel like they're in a completely different world that's hardly recognizable.

But someone from 2009 teleported to 2019? Meh, things got worse for sure but I don't think there'd be any huge surprises. Donald Trump maybe but Sarah Palin and the Tea Party already planted that seed.

Click to shrink...

you could be like to the 2009 traveller:

don't worry, they're releasing the iPhone 11, Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers are still charting, they're still making Batman and Marvel movies and the Simpsons, and there's still a war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

[Supreme Bean]

00's definitely.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union & the good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland the 90s was a fairly optimistic time. With leaders like Clinton and Blair etc it felt (at the time) that there was a tilt towards more progressive politics after the right wing 80s.
With the election of Bush and then 9/11 I don't think the optimism has ever returned.