The Decade With No Name

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Alex

Two thoughts immediately come to mind on that:

1. It wasn't really until after World War I that the United States began to dominate the world stage and therefore play a major role in setting the tone.

2. Mass communication and easy movement across regions is probably an important element in creating a widespread national "meme" for an age. And the late teens are when those really started to come together with radio and movies making it possible for the entire country to be simultaneously consuming the same popular culture and the cheap automobile allowing for a level of personal freedom in movement hardly dreamed at before.

Perhaps that can be pushed further to say that now that things have splintered into sub-cultures via the internet, these national memes are mostly no more.....or perhaps, that they now move so quickly that characterizing this decade will be much harder.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Perhaps that can be pushed further to say that now that things have splintered into sub-cultures via the internet, these national memes are mostly no more.....or perhaps, that they now move so quickly that characterizing this decade will be much harder.

Good point on the nichification of culture. Maybe this decade will come to be known as the Balkanizing Aughties.

[Pirate Bill]

I think this decade will be more characterized by what has occurred with social networking and media revolution due to advances made possible by technology and the internet. Some of this started in the '90s, but this is the decade where it caught on with the masses.