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.
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.