#pre 2010s

[happybirthdayxalbum]

happy 20st birthday to...

MM.. FOOD by MF DOOM!!

[valtharr]

Y’know, it’s 2021, and I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that society as a whole usually gets nostalgic about the decade that was 20 years ago, so whatever, I’m in the mood to reminisce about the 2000s. The pre-2010s.

Because honestly, looking back at them, as someone who was born in the early 90s and therefore spent most of my formative years in the pre-2010s...it was kind of a weird time.

It was this interesting transitional period. It was the decade that the iPhone (and by extension smartphones in general) was released, but I also remember getting excited over having a flip phone. And before that, just having a phone with a color display. And before that, just having a cell phone at all.

I remember watching and recording a lot of VHS tapes, but I also remember watching a lot of DVDs.

While I was too young to really experience the jump from 2D games to 3D games on home consoles, I do remember being blown away by the fact that handhelds like the PSP and DS could give me 3D games one the go!

The biggest thing was of course the internet. It, too, went through this weird transitional stage. In the 90s, a lot of it was just static websites that maybe got updated every now and then. They were basically blogs before the word “blog” existed, and run entirely by enthusiasts. But the 2000s was the time when the web becaem more and more about actually communicating with people. But again, it was this transitional thing between the internet that was just computer geeks doing their thing, and the internet where everyone seemingly only uses the same handful of platforms. The term “social media” didn’t actually exist yet, and the idea of having one or two websites where you could feasibly interact with anyone who shared your interests was unheard of. You like Pokémon? Then you’re probably spending your time talking about it on one forum that’s focused on Pokémon, and being run by a random guy who’s also into Pokémon. You’re also into Yu-Gi-Oh? Then you either also have an entirely separate account on an entirely separate forum where you interact with completely different people, or you relegate your Yu-Gi-Oh talk entirely to that one Yu-Gi-Oh thread someone - maybe yourself - made in the forum’s “Off-Topic” section. Oh, and if you wanted to post fanfiction or fanart and such, you probably posted it to that forum, as well. It’s not like there weren’t any large corporations with a web presence, but the idea of your primary outlet online being owned by a corporation was absurd. God, I could probably make an entire post about how different 2000s online culture was compared to today. And I probably will.

Then there’s things that might sound absolutely ridiculous to the people who were too young to experience them. Like...TV commercials for ringtones. I don’t know about other countries, but a huge part of the German Millennial identity is probably sitting in front of a TV screen and having a disembodied voice tell you to send “COW1” to 55555, so you can get a ringtone of a cow “singing” I Like To Move It, while also ordering a subscription that would cost you 3.99€ a month. For a ringtone.

There’s probably more I’m forgetting right now...