Back in 2013 things were obviously different but I don’t think we’ve seen a huge culturale change, just an evolution of what was already coming.
In contrast to 2003-2010 were the change was largely more impactful, starting from technological advancements and huge political shifts in the west.
Sure, we have experienced technological advancements since 2013 but the internet (pretty much the same) and the devices we carry are just an improved version of what we had back then. If we take the rise of AI out of the equation.
I think 2030 will improve upon what we now have and lead us to an era which is predominantly AI dominated in the forms of communication and ease of access. Much more EV vehicles on roads for sure but I still don’t think we’ll see drastic changes when it comes to improve climate change. The oil industry will still be dominating for at least another couple decades.
The innovations we seen in the 90s and 2000s are hard to come by again. In a sense I feel like we almost reached the peak of innovation until there’s some sort of breakthrough.
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Have to disagree … things definitely changed from 2013 onwards!
Not technologically, at least in the mainstream, I agree, but culturally the West has undergone some tremors such that you’d be reasonable for thinking that you can now try to trace how the West collapses at some point in the future (IMO, a loss of a sense of purpose/morality bigger than ourselves unless you’re extremist or fanatic, all the way up and down the system).
The alignment between our cultural and economic incentive structures and what actually works or is valuable for many is now very questionable to the point that having little faith in any institution is no longer a “partisan” point of view but arguably an objectively reasonable one.
Generationally, Millennials, the second largest generation after boomers have literally grown up (2013: aged 16-30, 2023: 26-40). That’s having kids, settling into careers and getting to the point that they’ll soon be in charge of the place. Except Millennials feel that they can’t grow up yet because their world is not as forgiving as that of their parents, all to the point that they’re not really sure any of this makes sense. “Goblin mode” or whatever you want to call it, there’s a deep sense of dissatisfaction that likely goes beyond the ordinary middle-age malaise as there are a few too many structural issues involved. Chiefly, we don’t live in a world that plants trees for future generations and Millennials are noticing the lack of shade and wonder whether they’re even capable themselves of planting trees for their children. These were not normal/mainstream thoughts 10 years ago.
A major example of the above is climate change. Since 2013 it’s transitioned from a “yea, that will such, hopefully we’ll fix it before it gets here … what could I do anyway, maybe it’s just hype” to “Oh, shit … it’s here, now … weren’t ‘they’ supposed to fix it!?”. Culturally and psychologically, I think this sort of thing has enormous knock on effects, not least because the giant demonic elephant in the room is that it’s a mess caused very much by the very system we’re all completely stuck and immersed in.
That’s the stuff of natural and very difficult cognitive dissonance. The average person isn’t ready to handle that and simply put won’t do so healthily. Ultimately, because of this, I think the Millennial generation has already expired and is basically the new silent or lost generation as “survivors” of the breakdown of the post WWII/Boomer and new-internet-mass-media era but without the psychological or moral foundations to make any sense of it and strike any new paths. If true, that literally happened in the past 10 years with the pandemic highlighting it. Millennials have long lifes to live though, and there may be no major wars to reset things as there were with WW1/WW2.
While there may be external factors that contribute to the challenges faced by Millennials, individual responsibility should also be considered. Even though the circumstances may not be as forgiving as those of previous generations, Millennials have the agency to take charge of their lives and make choices that align with their long-term goals. But I feel like this is very situational and it can change in countries with different socioeconomic aspects. If we compare Europe to North America or even the entire west as opposed to other developed countries in Asia for example, we start to find differences.
In Europe student debts aren’t as crushing as they are in North America for example. I live in Canada now but I was raised in Europe (I’m a Millennial by the way) and despite having encountered many similarities between the two different groups of Millennials, there are also many differences. In Europe there’s not so much pressure to settle down, get married, have kids. I would say 90% of the Millennials I know in my home country are not married and don’t have any kids. Total opposite here in Canada where even people in their 20s are getting married and have kids, maybe pressured by society. There’s seem to be this sentiment that if an individual doesn’t have a family by the time they turn 30 years old, they either failed something in life or they’re considered the odd ones out.
Well there’s individual agency and cultural differences all the way down. But we’re talking about the decades of the world here … so I’m happy with gross generalisations!
And while there are differences between the Anglosphere and the “continent”, I’d wonder how many common threads there also are, especially economically where differences can be more marginal.
Apart from family making expectations … what other differences would be generally relevant to my post?
Apart from family making expectations … what other differences would be generally relevant to my post?
Compared to 10 years ago we’ve seen an increase in mental health awareness, especially regarding men. Mental health issues are now more socially accepted and talked about more openly than in the previous decade. Millennials have been at the forefront of this conversation and are strongly advocating for destigmatization.
Social dynamics. We started to see shifts in social norms. There’s a great emphasis on inclusivity and gender equality as a more accepting environment for LGBTQ+ individuals.
Considering the progress made from a decade ago, I feel like we started witnessing this growth gradually starting at the beginning of the 2010s. Even when considering topics such as mental health and the LGBTQ+ community and we compare directly the progress made from 2013-2023 and the decade prior, it’s undeniably huge. Back in 2003 for example, the LGBTQ+ community wasn’t even remotely as accepted as it was in 2013 and was heavily stigmatized (I don’t even believe the acronym even existed back in 2003).
The point I’m making here is that yes, we’ve grown a lot since the last decade but I believe we’ve only improved on what was already there for us to improve upon on a much linear scale compared to the years prior 2013, in almost all aspects. The difference in progress made from 2003-2013 is greater than the one made from 2013-2023.
In 2003 those factors weren’t even on the table, yet in 2013 it looked like a completely different world. Millennials left a huge footprint we often tend to ignore.
I think I agree with you, and that in a way we might be kinda saying the same thing (?)
In a way, I was saying that a stagnation or persistence of certain things has come to the fore in the 2013-2023 period in a way that hadn’t before, and it was this sort of “realisation” that was the change I was talking about. Meanwhile, the point you make about the relative differences in progress is something I’m inclined to agree with, and I’d even be inclined to cast those comparisons back over the decades and ask whether some general regressions/stagnations have been made recently. I think the points go together well though. Against what happened in the recent past, the present can feel kinda gloomy.
I don’t know about 2013, but I think we’ve had a big cultural shift from 2010-ish onwards due to social media. Around 2010, Facebook was about bringing friends together. You organized birthday parties, played FarmVille, “poked” each other, shared a couple pictures from said birthday party, and that was about it. It was after that that we had a business shift towards “engagement” across all platforms, which means social media became less about connecting people and more about promoting divisive and/or false news stories.
The pandemic has also led to permanent work-from-home and sometimes study-from-home behaviour, or some hybrid between WFH and the old traditional way of seeing people.
I think the effects of online socialization have been quite large. We work online, socialize online, and the majority of us even find romantic partners online. And the online platforms we use increasingly divide us into little echo chambers.
My suspicion is that as generative AI gets better, the echo chambers will become smaller and more divided from each other. We’re arguably already in a “post-truth” world and I think generative AI will improve upon that. We will have Wikipedia-like knowledge bases generated to conform to certain ideas. Those who wish to rebel and seek out the “real truth” will find that even official government sources have been manipulated by generative and transformative AI.
I agree with you about electric cars everywhere and not having a huge effect on climate (though probably a little bit). I suspect climate change will just push us even harder to stay indoors.
It was after that that we had a business shift towards “engagement” across all platforms, which means social media became less about connecting people and more about promoting divisive and/or false news stories.
I think we started seeing the shift towards it as early as 2013-2014, maybe not to the current levels but it definitely started to slowly take place. As far as I can remember.
AI will shape our future for sure, the process already started and we can see it. There’s no place in the techworld where AI isn’t a discussed topic, it’s something we have no choice but to accept it to be a permanent part of our future, I just hope we can make the best use of AI.
I agree with you about electric cars everywhere and not having a huge effect on climate (though probably a little bit). I suspect climate change will just push us even harder to stay indoors.
As long coal is used to generate energy in order to charge electric vehicles, we won’t see a real change in climate. To do that we would need to completely rely on green energy (nuclear, solar, wind). We could but there’s too much money and politics involved.
