After reading this article in my local paper, I just had to share with my blog friends.
50 THINGS THAT CHANGED OUR LIVES IN THE AUGHTS
By JOCELYN NOVECK, AP National Writer
NEW
YORK – Was it only a decade ago that a blackberry was a mere summer
fruit? That green was, well, a color, and reality TV was that one show
sandwiched between music videos on MTV?
There
were, of course, huge political and social upheavals that roiled our
world in the past decade. But there were also the gradual lifestyle
changes that you don't always notice when they're happening — kind of
like watching a child grow older. Here's an alphabetical look at 50
things that changed our lives since the beginning of the millennium:
AIRPORTS:
Remember when you didn't have to take your shoes off before getting on
a plane? Remember when you could bring a bottled drink on board?
Terrorism changed all that.
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: From acupuncture to herbal supplements to alternative ways of treating cancer, alternative medicine became more mainstream than ever.
APPS: There's an app for that! The phrase comes from Apple iPhone advertising,
but could apply to the entire decade's gadget explosion, from laptops
to GPS systems (want your car to give you directions to Mom's house in
Chinese, or by a Frenchwoman named Virginie? There was an app for that.)
AARP cards ... for boomers! Some prominent Americans turned 50 this decade: Madonna. Prince. Ellen DeGeneres. The Smurfs. Michael Jackson — who also died at 50. And some prominent "early boomers" turned 60: Bruce Springsteen and Meryl Streep, for example.
AGING:
Nobody seemed to look their age anymore: Clothes for 50-year-old women
started looking more like clothes for 18-year-olds, tweens looked more
like teens, long hair was popular for all ages, and in many ways
women's fashion seemed to morph into one single age group.
BLOG:
I blog, you blog, he blogs ... How did we spend our time before
blogging? There are more than 100 million of these Web logs out there
in cyberspace.
BLACKBERRIES: Considered
essential by corporate CEOs and moms planning playdates. Introduced in
2002, the smartphone version is now used by more than 28 million
people, according to its maker, Research In Motion Ltd.
BOOK CLUBS: Thanks in part to Oprah Winfrey, the decade saw not only a profusion in book discussion clubs but a growing reliance on them by publishers.
CABLE:
Cable 24-hour news made the evening network news seem quaint, cable
dramas reaped Emmys ... and at decade's end, even Oprah was making the
move to cable.
CAMERAS: Remember those
trips to get film developed? Nope? Even your grandmother has a digital
camera, and she's probably e-mailing you photos right now or uploading
them to a photo-sharing site.
CELEBRITY
CULTURE: Celebrity magazines fed a growing obsession with celebrities
and the everyday minutiae of their lives. By decade's end, we were
still obsessed, though Britney Spears and Angelina Jolie had ceded many covers to reality stars like Jon and Kate Gosselin. Celebrity Web sites like TMZ took hold mid-decade.
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