It's safe to say that the first decade of the 21st century was packed with all types of events that changed the world as we knew it forever. If you put it into perspective, the generations that were born in the 21st century are already becoming teenagers and for them everything that happened in the last 10 years is the norm.
If you already were a thinking adult human being before the year 2000 I know you can relate to this article even more because you know how different the world was before the big Y2K. Life was in a sense simpler before many of the things that happened after the last decade of the 21st century took place.
I clearly remember how the buzz before the year 2000 was that the potential for all computers and electronics to go bad after December 31st 1999 was imminent. Well, that moment came and went and thankfully nothing "destroyed" our world or our technology for that matter.
But events that took place on the 1st decade of this century surely blew away many things that before weren't even relevant to our daily lives. Just keep in mind that even having a computer or access to the internet wasn't as common in the 90's mostly in less developed countries.
So what happened between the year 2000 and the year 2009 that without a doubt changed the world forever? I'm sure you can come up with some things yourself. But which happenings were ultimately the most important for humanity as a whole?
One of the first things that happened and changed our lives in more than one way was the 9/11 attacks. Yes, I know that in the 90's there were some attempts to attack America, but nothing in our history had been as big as the 9/11 events. One of the main things that made this event so big in history as a whole, was that everyone in the world was able to see the events on TV. The fact that we as a world are so connected through satellites facilitated things to make this a worldwide event.
The sadness and the fear that this event caused amongst people marked the world forever, but because of this attack we also got into a war that ultimately has helped destroy our economy, and this event also affected our freedom in a sense, because when this happened we willingly gave many rights that if this hadn't happened we wouldn't have even considered giving up those rights.
Today, we still see the repercussions of that one attack in our national security and the way we have become a police state that has gotten to the point of adding body scanners to airports, parks, etc... clear proof that this one attack still affect us today.
Another thing that changed our world forever in the first decade of the current century was the internet. We certainly were familiar with emails and even chatting online before the 21st century arrived but after Y2K social networking took a drastic turn with websites like MySpace, Facebook, twitter and many others.
All of the sudden the whole world was 100% connected through the screen of a computer monitor. Communicating with relatives, friends or people from all over the world became second nature as well. Reconnecting with people you knew from your past became easier, and socializing with complete strangers on the internet became almost like a hobby to many.
Because of the creation of these sites and services, the world will forever be connected through the internet, and staying in touch with people from all over the globe will never be as tough as it was before.
Other technology that also changed our world forever was then evolution of cellular phones. We went from devices that were specifically made to talk to other people, to devices that are so advanced that you can go on the web and look anything up in a second, you can also email, text message, send pictures, videos and even get GPS for your location. Currently some phones have applications that allow you to perform so many tasks that I would have to write something specifically about this subject to really give you a full insight of how developed this technology is.
It is amazing if you think about how ten years ago this was something that the average Joe couldn't even conceive, and now this technology is just normal to us.
With Such an Interesting 1st Decade, What Can We Expect from the 2nd One?
MP3 players and iPods have also revolutionized the technological industry. 30 years ago if someone had told some baby boomer that someday they would be able to have thousands of songs, videos, movies and even books on a small device like an iPod, I'm sure they would've thought about it almost being impossible, just the concept of it would've been hard to grasp if you think about it.
Today this is no big deal, you see people running or walking with their players all over the place, main reason why this entertainment device has changed our world forever. From now on, we will be able to carry all of our music collection, our movies, books and other things wherever we go without a hassle. Not like before with the disc man or even walk man where you had to carry all your cassettes or CD's if you wanted to be able to listen to your albums. Even thinking about it sounds old, but that technology was also just brought in at the end of the 20th century which shows how much we evolved in just 20 years.
Some of the best things about these devices are that we are connected so well with the world that if something is happening in our area we can record it and share live with anyone, a good example of this was in the Iranian elections where people started to share all of the violence and corruption that was going on in the streets using their cell phones and posting their videos on social networks like Facebook.
This is a prime example of how two fairly new technologies worked together to help the people in a situation that needed the attention of others in the world, so it could be counteracted. I could go over many examples of how technology has become helpful to humanity but this is one that paints the picture quite well.
When it comes down to cinema entertainment we also evolved quite a bit. We went from those big TV boxes to what we call now HD TV's. High definition TV's whether plasma or not have changed the way we look at TV forever. Once you get that clear and crisp picture you never want to go back. It is like it should've always been like that.
The ball didn't stop with TV's though, because a technology called Blue Ray was also introduced. Blue Ray discs are an experience that has changed the way movies are viewed. The image on the screen is so clear that you can almost feel the movie coming to live. This technology has without a doubt changed the way we are entertained forever and that's why it made it to this list.
Social events that changed our world forever where also a big thing in the first decade. The first one was in 2008 with economic collapse. This collapse set the ground for many things to happen in the next decade and unfortunately not all of them are good.
The collapse made many snap out of it and become more responsible with their finances. Because of so much advancement, and having everything catered to us, we have become lazy, and we are all guilty of becoming a little more materialistic as well so spending money that we didn't have
became a bad habit. The collapse wasn't our fault, but if many people would've been responsible they wouldn't have taken such a big hit when thing collapsed.
This financial collapse made us pick it up and set goals on becoming more energy efficient and taking better care of our resources which is the good side of it. But on the bad side, this new decade will surely pay the consequences of the many irresponsible actions that went down in the first decade. Even though many financial forecasters predict seriously bad times, I think that only time will really tell exactly what the consequences will be for us and our lifestyles on this decade.
The one event in the first decade of the 21st century that forever changed the world was the election of Barak Obama. For the first time ever, a black man became the president of the United States of America. How much that changes the world can't really be measured, but this event surely expresses how much we have evolved as a people and mostly shows that we are all evolving together regardless of race.
Not only was the election of Barak Obama historical, but it is also the first election ever in which the whole world felt the need to be involved. This shows how much closer we all are nations wise, it also shows how aware people are of everything that happens worldwide but it really showed how much people all over the world want to participate in events as important such as this one.
So what can we expect for the second decade? I know that many things are already changing and they are giving us a glimpse of what's potentially coming our way. As far as technology, it seems that we will go from HD TV's to HD 3D TV's, all I can say is, wow!!
Movies in Hollywood are also changing and a glimpse of this was Avatar, so this is another thing to keep an eye on. The internet keeps evolving and what will be the next hot trend only time will tell, but we can expect it to be out of this world.
As far as social events, there are many talks of a new world order, so who knows if this is something that is coming soon. Wars and the war on terror don't seem to be going away, so we will see how we deal with this on this decade and it all unravels.
What I know is that if you thought the first decade was crazy, fasten your seat belt because by what I can see, many things will change our world forever in this 2nd decade of the 21st century.
Herman Cruz, http://www.TheGurusInformant.com
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