06-10-2021, 11:54 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-10-2021, 01:10 PM by Eric the Green.)
(06-09-2021, 04:08 AM)Captain Genet Wrote:(06-07-2021, 03:09 PM)galaxy Wrote: *you could argue that the last unambiguous Millennials are the youngest ones who remember 9/11, probably born in 1998, but personally, I really doubt the significance of that event as a major generational marker. It's the "alienating event," corresponding to probably either WWI or the recession of 1920-1921. Though it looms large in people's memories, and there were a few big changes (such as the source of the name of the "Homeland Generation,") the reality is that everyday life in America wasn't really that especially different between 1999 and 2004. The difference between 2008 and 2013 is far more dramatic, with the current ongoing period of political realignment beginning with the 2008 election (analogous to 1968) and the social media/internet revolution taking place from roughly 2010 to 2015.
I insists that the changes started in 2006:
-The Iraqi civil war made the public mood swing in anti-war direction, anti-neocon direction.
-MySpace became fashionable, marking the beginning of internet revolution. In early 2000s it was still commonplace to say computers are only for nerds.
-changes in musical trends, e.g. Amy Winehouse became popular and she was an important figure for early wave millennials
Or you can push it back and say the 3T started to evaporate after Katrina.
The personal computer revolution began in 1984 with the MacIntosh and the commercial in which Steve Jobs showed someone breaking through 1984. The internet got going in the 1980s and the web in 1993. Graphical user interface from apple was further spread and developed with Windows 95. Social media started in 2003 and was just a further use of the internet and personal computers. No, the 3T was the computer boom and the dot come boom. We were all nerds in the 3T.
And the entire 2000s pop was dominated by sexy videos and parties in the USA songs. Justin Bieber came along in 2009 and made pop more musical again for a little while at least, for the younger millennials. He had many imitators too, and sponsored Carly Rae Jepsen. Soon afterward Pharrell became more than a rap artist and put out some real songs too for a while, and One Direction brought back boyband sounds and song styles from the 70s and 80s. There hasn't been much change from 3T pop trends though, really, except that the sex is less overt. The girl singers are doing real well. Rap is still a thing.
The anti-Iraq War sentiment got going from the start of the war. Huge demonstrations, and the biggest ones ever in Europe, preceded the war and delayed it by a month, and a flood of literature followed. John Kerry campaigned against it in 2004 and got a huge millennial vote. 6th-year congressional elections always go against the party occupying the White House, and congress didn't do anything about the war anyway, so the 2006 election was insignificant from a turning point of view. But in 2008 the USA was going over a financial cliff leading to a great depression, and only lessons learned after 1929 limited the crash to a great recession-- which the Republicans manage to prolong indefinitely with their neo-liberal obstruction and their tea party.
Look for the 1T to start in 2028-29, and not a moment before. But I think, though things will still be very unsettled, with a possible civil war and a new foreign involvement breaking out in 2025, consensus will be building. So I expect we'll have a thread here entitled "Are we in the 1T yet?" Just like we had threads about whether we were in the 4T yet, and people still disagree about the date it started.