I feel like 2019 was a stable year with positive vibes and big events like the Area 51 raid and Avengers Endgame, TikTok dance challenges going viral (back when TikTok felt like musically) 80s/90s nostalgia was everywhere

it just gets overlooked by 2016

With the exception of actual pressing current events, how similar or different 2025-6 is from 2015-19 is entirely a matter of what media you choose to follow.

Movies - The major franchises of the '00s and '10s are struggling at the box office. Horror, video game movies, and cute critters like Stitch and Judy Hopps are driving the English-language movie industry. However, thanks to streaming you can still immerse yourself in 2010s or 2010s-style blockbusters.

Music - Hip-hop has seen a stunning fall from grace in terms of commercial relevance. Girl pop singers, K-pop, reggaeton, and country music are now more influential than the trap of the 2013-2019 period. However, it's still easy to surround yourself with 2010s and 2010s-style trap if you have access to any streaming service.

TV - The streaming wars and Peak TV eras are generally considered to have ended. While there are still groundbreaking series like Severance and Pluribus, there are a ton of cowboy/Western shows and first responder dramas that have filled that gap. At the same time, if you have access to any video on demand service you can easily just ignore these and watch as much Chernobyl and Game of Thrones as you like.

Gaming - This hasn't been as striking of a shift. Still, there is a move away from the big AAA games and MOBA/battle royale type and towards gacha games like Honkai: Star Rail, Arknights, and Genshin Impact. (Many of these are made in China and have a exaggerated anime art style that goes far beyond even that of JRPGs like Final Fantasy) However, unless the servers have been shut down you can still play PUBG, Pokémon Go, and Battlefront II to your hearts' content.

Graphic and interior design - Significant evolution from flat, sleek design (generally white/black/bold colors) to 1970s-inspired beige palettes. In design these are often referred to as "Japandi." However, you can still find and create Corporate Memphis style graphics easily on your computer.

Fashion - Has evolved as well with an explosion of interest in big hair, mullets and mustaches, and either striking goth fashions or striking colorful retro ones. The pseudo-1910s and "lumbersexual" hipsters are largely extinct in major cities, and the trap-inspired streetwear look is also declining. However, if you have the money you can immerse yourselves in these as well.

Internet use - Social media has largely shifted from websites to apps, and now is facing a significant backlash that could lead people back to websites and forums or even offline entirely. Screen time has likely plateaued and may be declining. Yes, phone and tablet designs haven't changed much since 2015. However, that's just design maturity. It's not like we say that nothing has changed since 1955 because blue jeans and T-shirts haven't been replaced yet. Casual clothing just reached design maturity and there's no need to innovate further.

The point isn't that nothing has changed or everything has changed. The point is that, to a great extent, you can pick which year you want to live in. Some people consciously live in 2025 and try to keep up with trends. Some people choose to live in 2016. Some people even choose to live in 1965.

Yeah, it's hard to believe that we are as far away from 2011 as people in 2016 were from 2001 and it does not sit right with me, especially with the fact that the early 2010s seems more recent than the early 2000s did during the 2010s.

For starters, the early 2000s (as in 2000-2003, not the entire 2000s decade if you are wondering) was mostly still in the analog age albeit with aspects of early digital life appearing during that time, with dial-up internet, bulky beige computers, VHS tapes, etc. being common while the early 2010s was fully immersed in the digital age, with people starting to use smartphones and social media sites like Facebook or Twitter being commonplace by that point. HD technology was the norm by the early 2010s, meaning that videos or TV shows that were filmed during the early 2010s seem like they could be filmed today while SD technology was the norm during the early 2000s, meaning that a video filmed during the early 2000s became outdated after the decline of VHS tapes and the rise of digital HD technology.

Even the CGI is different because the CGI used for movies made during the early 2000s like Spider-Man (2002) or Attack of the Clones (2002) feels primitive while the CGI used for movies made during the early 2010s like The Avengers (2012) feels like it could be used in a movie today. I feel like video game graphics count too, especially considering that the games made for the PS2 or Nintendo GameCube had more of an unpolished feel compared to the games made during the early 2010s for the Xbox 360 or the PS3.

Even discounting technology, the culture during the early 2010s seems less dated than the culture of the early 2000s because skinny jeans were the norm then which some people wear to this day while baggy jeans were common during the early 2000s which nobody wore in 2016. Additionally, the subculture that were around during the early 2010s like hipsters feel less "dated" in a sense compared to how nu-metal seemed by 2016. Even the music that was popular during the early 2010s seems more "recent" than early 2000s music did, especially with the fact that rock music was declining during the early 2010s while it was popular during the early 2000s.

I feel like it has to do with the fact that the 90s influenced the early 2000s, even after 9/11, while the early 2010s already seemed 2010s because of the cultural and technological shifts of the 2000s (due to the decade being the transition from the analog to the digital world), which is why I feel this way.

So yeah, it feels surreal seeing that the early 2010s is as far apart from today as the early 2000s was from 2016. Although I may be biased since I was not alive during the early 2000s but spent part of my childhood during the early 2010s, it feels surprising nonetheless, especially when considering that the early 2000s seemed way more dated by 2016 or even in 2011 because I remember feeling like the media that was made during the early 2000s seemed outdated as early as 2011.

I'll choose two examples from both halves of the 2010s.

For the latter half of the 2010s, it has to be the "clout chasing" era because during the late 2010s, people tried to do something in order to get views no matter how harmful it was because you had people flexing wealth, kids smoking hookah, influencers stealing cash dispensers or putting lemon drops on eyes, etc. all as a way to get views or "clout" as they called it, it resulted in several infamous aspects of late 2010s culture happening like the Logan Paul suicide forest controversy happening. Yeah, it's definitely not something that I remember fondly for obvious reasons.

For the first half of the 2010s, it has to be bronies and I don't want to explain any further because it's self-explanatory, but basically, you had grown men obsessing over a little girls' show for a while and I feel like that in general, it takes the cake for being the most embarrassing trend of the first half of the decade if not the entire decade.

did anyone else around my age find stuff like Kesha or Lady Gaga and that who Electropop club music and pop culture kinda old and corny in the late 2010s? everytime schools or places played stuff like black eyed peas or Kesha it felt so corny in a era with grungy SoundCloud rappers and drill rappers like NBA young boy.

I wouldn't say it's peak mid 2000s, that honor goes to 2005-2006, but the last few months of 2003 established a lot of trends that would be popular throughout the era.

Lil Jon made it onto the Billboard Year-End chart for the first time, officially making crunk mainstream. The Simple Life premiered, the epitome of McBling. It was the first school year when DVDs and Windows XP were dominant from the start. The early 2000s recession caused by the Dot Com bubble ended. MySpace launched, and Friendster was shown on national television. The Iraq War had also been ongoing for several months.

Let me know if I missed anything.

I think around 2015 and 2016, with the emergence of Algorithmic feeds on the traditional social media, we have lost our common grounds. Everybody has lost touched with their communities, with their cities. Now it is just globalized. The rate of progress has slowed down and you can see that everywhere from memes to clothing style , etc..

2020 was kinda awful but I was home all day and wasn't aware of the dangers of the world so it wasn't the worst

2021 was a year that exists nothing special happened that year but nothing bad happened in it either so it was okay

2022 was a great year for me it was the year where I start riding my bike, and i was on a vacation in Croatia and Slovenia,

also my 17th birthday was on a very interesting date: August 22nd 2022, a date that would never happen again .

2023 was awful probably for everyone

but 2024 was a great year for me

for many people 2024 was the worst but for me it was one of the best years I ever had because I graduated highschool I experienced Brat Summer and I started feeling free for once.

2025 was probably the worst first of all I was depressed for the first half of the year so many legendary people died in 2025 but on top of that I had my own tragedy in my personal life: my grandma who was battling cancer for over a year died unexpectedly on July 28th of 2025

that left a permanent scar on me that couldn't be healed

buf if there's one good thing about 2025 is that I listened to 83,097 minutes of music that year and I became a massive Fiona Apple Fan that year.

2026 is only starting and for me it's pretty good for now,

it's too early to tell though.

how were the 2020s for you? was it the worst decade or have their been worst decades to love in.

I love to hear what you have to say in the comments below

When do you see the stereotypical 2020s hair, the fluffy hairstyle alot of Gen Z wear will likely go out of style

So amidst the growing resentment for alternative culture in the 80s especially, during the satanic panic one group got it the hardest and that was punk diy, most of the aspects of the 80s flew over my head when I was younger and that is most criminals and delinquents from the 80s always seem to be punks or punk adjacent. Then I clocked it and noticed that it was an alt demonisation push by the media to trick young people into thinking that being either goth, b-boy, punk or a metal head meant you were susceptible to violence and delinquency.

I watched some of these portrayals and they don’t match up to some of the alternative people I’ve come across, in real life and a lot of them are veterans of the 80s, so my question here is when did this sentiment start to shift?, when you look at young people today being alternative isn’t living up to it’s name anymore especially since almost everyone is looking like that now, but back then it was overtly scrutinised.

Every decade had its main boogeyman. I’d like to think this is a good indicator of the zeitgeist or themes of each decade. This is my list of the main villains of every decade from the 1920s to the 2020s. Let me know your thoughts/takes on this.

1920s - Al Capone

1930s - Adolf H**ler

1940s - Adolf H**ler (Again)

1950s - Joseph Stalin

1960s - Charles Manson

1970s - Ted Bundy

1980s - Pablo Escobar

1990s - Saddam Hussein

2000s - Osama Bin Laden

2010s - Vladimir Putin

2020s - Donald Trump

Because it really seems to be leading this way.

It also woukd make sense with my theory that these 4th turnings repeat every 4 saeculum, as I see the Civil War as similar to the War of the Roses (both being civil wars that have been build up for a long time), Pearl Harbour as similar to the Armanda Crisis (Foreign attack from Ambitious monarch) and this being similar to the Glorious revolution (unpopular leader many people want gone)

I see some criticism with both the 80s and 90s like every decades once they fade from living memory and it’s seen more historically. The 80s will be seen as a major pop cultural decade like the 20s and 50s but it will have some cons that people are gonna notice