I feel like the 2010s are the first decade in 100 years that doesn’t have a recognizable aesthetic or vibe.
Every decade since the Roaring Twenties had its own recognizable culture, visual aesthetic, music and so on. In the 2010s, the Internet allowed us to become cultural omnivores. It’s good that everybody had access to whatever niche subculture they enjoy but it also meant that there was no more monoculture that we all shared.
I think the need to have a shared monoculture is a deeply reactionary way of thinking that prevents us from developing human empathy. You don’t need to say “Bazinga” at the same time as another person in order for you to relate to, care for, and understand strangers. I think the yearning for monoculture in people 25-40 is a mirror of boomers who complain that they cannot relate to kids anymore because nobody really believes in the pledge of alligence or some such other “things r different” nonsense. Yeah I haven’t played Hoop and Stick 3, we don’t need to play the same video games to relate to each other.
It’s a crutch for a brutal culture where you are too scared to show a modicum of openness or vulnerability with other humans because deep down you need to be reassured that they won’t scam/harm you simply because they believe in the magic words of Burgerstan. People are uncomfortable with change and things they don’t know because we’ve built a society where change often begets material vulnerability in people, and information and even cultural media have become a weapon to be used against others.
Monoculture was never good, it simply was. Also despite this being a real aesthetic trend, you should also remember that the vast majority of consumer technology produced at the same time was not clear plastic tech. If anything the monoculture of tech products of that era was that gross beige that yellows in about a year or two. It’s just not aesthetic enough to remember, and in 10 years everything just defaulted black. I’ve actually never seen a clear plastic Dreamcast/ Dreamcast controller IRL. I’ve been a tech guy forever and despite knowing about it, I only know of 1 person that had actually experienced the Dreamcast internet. This is very much nostalgia bait vs actual how things were.
To put it into perspective for one of those phones with clear plastic, there were 10,000 of these
Sure monoculture wasn’t great, but I’m certainly not sure that our current arguably more “decentralized” culture is actually a real improvement. It’s good when there is some common ground to fight over.
Yeah I love having to watch shows that basically called me the fslur otherwise I would have no friends.
This is such a nostalgia level argument. Monoculture was supremely fucked up in the hierarchies that it allowed people to form in schools and workplaces. If you think racism and homophobia and transphobia is bad now, you aren’t ready for how they actually were in monoculture times. Not only that monoculture was in reality often anti-poor/assimilationist because monoculture is literally consumerism. So if you were poor (or an immigrant) and your parents couldn’t afford (or understand the culture and why you needed these things) the cool new JNCO jeans or to take you to see a Starwar then you were fucked socially twice over once for being poor (or “weird”) and once for not watching the latest thing.
Videogames weren’t monoculture until like Xbox 360. You were considered a massive dork for being a gamer most of my childhood.
Also god forbid you had a different taste than other people and had opinions. When the first Iron Man came out and half way through the movie in theater I felt like I was at the Nuremberg rally. Y’all don’t remember everyone pretending bad movies were good. The argument that there was “common ground to fight over” isn’t real. Monoculture meant that the battles were settled before they started, everyone looked at you like a redditor when you started doing anything close to AKSHUALLY LUKE SKYWALKER AND THE REBELS ARE VIETKONG. All these nostalgia media analysis things feel cute and trite now but socially they weren’t really welcome, they only became exposed to normie circles because the monoculture was dissolving.
LMAO Hoop and Stick 3
Since you’re in tech, you should know how for the 2010s, we went from skeuomorphism to flat design ie Windows 7 vs Windows 8. OP is really off base.
Haha yeah. I remember the first one where it went from flat to skeuomorphic, that was OS/2 and System 6 to Windows 3 and System 7.
I just got a little fixated on the Dreamcast being representative of monoculture.