LIFESTYLE COLUMN: TOP TEN DEFINING THINGS OF THE 00'S

Social Media, Science, Superheroes and Much, Much More

By: Josh Moorhead

January 10, 2010

I read a lot of top 10 decade things today. It got me thinking. I was really sleepy and tried to do a quick rough draft of the top 10 defining things of the decade, and I thought at first I’d try to do “pop” things like Entertainment Weekly did. Then I decided that was too hard and I kept wanting to fall back on other things. Anyway, for the sake of rough jotted thoughts, here’s my quick list, in no particular order, of the decade of 0ught:

1. Social Media - Facebook. MySpace. Twitter. YouTube. Blogs. The Huffington Post, etc.

2. Apple Products - Macs. iPods. iTunes. iMovie. Simple, super and trendy tech that leapt buildings in a single bound and helped take it all out of the hands of nerds and made it for everybody.

3. Political Commentary - Always has been, but now new. From Stewart’s Daily Show and SNL presidential debates to Keith Olbermann, Billo’, Rachel Maddow, columnists of The New York Times,the 24-hour cable news cycle, previously mentioned bloggers and the moment serious reporting and satire all circled back on each other to become indiscernible, Glenn Beck.

4. Superheroes - Directly because of the peril of our times, we escaped to simpler, brighter places where danger was imminent but victory was simple. Other times, we allowed these heroes to reflect our more complicated fears (The Dark Knight). Box office heroics and accepted geekdom resulted.

5. Young Adult Lit - Harry Potter. Diary of a Whimpy Kid. An abundance of less transcendentally popular but still very popular fantasy book series. And yes, God help me, the Twilight boom.

6. Reality TV- Started innocently enough with the likes of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and Survivor. Ends with Angel Moore on VH1′s Tough Love 2 (I went to high school with her).

7. Fall of Icons - From Congressional hearings for ball players to Mel Gibson to Tom Cruise and Michael Vick, all those politicians, and now Tiger Woods. The new media environment made it so all our heroes became human and fell back to Earth.

8. Science and the Human Being - Mapping of the human genome. Stem cell research. Combating SARS, H1N1, etc. Octomom. The “guy” who had a baby. The prospect of “designer babies.” Botox. How far have we come and how far will we/should we go?

9. Freedom - How we celebrated it 9/12/01. How we spread it since. How islamo-fascits oppress it. How some say we do, either at Gitmo or Abu Grahib — or how the promises of The Constitution hold up in the face of gay rights. The gung-ho optimism and (stubborn) idealism of George W. Bush. The hard practicalities and sacrifices. Liberty and security. The cowardice and combating of terrorism. “Jihad vs. McWorld”. Twittering Iranians. The crushing blows and rewards of capitalism. Bush and Obama depicted as Hitler.

10. “The End of Industry” - I wrote this first. Some friends and I were once joking around and said, “There’s nobody in the factories.” Our generation doesn’t have much interest in the work of our fathers or grandfathers. Neither does the global economy, at least not as it applies to home. Next decade better have a transporter that runs on sneezes or something, or who knows what’s going to happen? But maybe this spot should be for nature. The 2004 tsunami, Katrina, the global warming debate, the green movement and green technology.

This is a rough draft and seems a lot more dire than I meant it to, I think. We’ve seen ourselves some nonsense. Now let’s sort it out. The final draft is due many decades from now when I’m watching Family Guy repeats being streamed to my brain flying around in my spaceship that runs on sneezes, partying with all my free Iraqi mutant friends in a rain-forest on the moon. I’ll send you a Facebook invite.

Oh, and although that was ten things, there is a definitive number 1: Here.

I was there and I liked it.