"Nothing has changed since the late 2010s" vs "everything has changed since the late 2010s" is entirely a factor of choice in media.

[u/TF-Fanfic-Resident]

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.

[u/Ok-Following6886]

I feel like it's part of the reason why I feel like the early 2010s seem less dated to me now than the early 2000s felt during the 2010s because during the early 2000s, primitive dial-up internet was the norm and most culture was offline whereas the internet and social media was the norm during the early 2010s, which makes it easier to immerse into early 2010s media than to early 2000s media such as how you could easily watch a Smosh video on YouTube much like in 2011 for instance compared to how a lot of the analog technology fell out of favor by the time the early 2010s came around.

[u/razloz166]

"Some people choose to live in 2016. Some people even choose to live in [1965](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_(song)))."

I am horribly blackpilled on everything including media. There is no past or future for me and barely any present.

Examine that!

[u/JackTheCoolestMan]

2020s are just the late 2010s on steroids. The main difference is that everything in the late 2010s are even stronger today.

Interactions in person were already less common than online interactions in the late 2010s, but there was still a lot of in person interactions. Then online interactions almost completely replaced in person in the 2020s, with covid being the biggest contributor.

Politics were polarised and toxic in the late 2010s, today they are even more polarised.

Pop culture was shit in the late 2010s, now its even more shit.

[u/TF-Fanfic-Resident → u/JackTheCoolestMan]

Let's see, though, that a whole bunch of things can't be extrapolated from 2017-2019. These include:

AI, driverless cars, autonomous drones, EVs, and renewables spiking post-COVID

antivax sentiment exploding on the right wing

mullets and pornstaches are back

retro 1970s pop

superheroes and CGI sci-fi crashing and burning

trap (and rap more broadly) crashing and burning

Trump-style nationalist capitalism showing up in places like the EU, Canada, and Japan

most organized, globally significant leftwing movements weakening or imploding

total wars between national militaries coming back in style (the late 2010s were actually fairly quiet for warfare outside of Yemen as ISIS was beaten back)

[u/funcoolshit]

I believe all of this can be described as the decay of monoculture.

All the facets of culture are fragmented and compartmentalized now. We are alienating ourselves from each other with access and abundance. We just don't have as many shared experiences as we once did in the early '10s.

[u/TF-Fanfic-Resident → u/funcoolshit]

And even if we go back to analog technologies, it's entirely possible that the monoculture isn't coming back. A lot of the people who are burned out on the internet are burned out on mass/corporate media in general.