The 2000s: Season 1

This CNN documentary provided a cursory but solid look back at the decade before this one. It was much more interesting than I thought it would be, having lived through it all. This was the decade in which I came of age (entered at 11, exited at 21), and thus the first one in which I was really "aware" of politics, current affairs, and international events. So this seven-part look back didn't really give me any new information or insight.

What it did do, however, was really organize the moments and events I recall into a narrative of sorts, if that makes sense. (Of course it makes sense - look at me, describing what "history" is.) You've got the weird Bush-Gore election, you've got 9/11 and Afghanistan and Iraq, you've got Katrina and Bush's second term failures. Then you've got the Obama campaign, alongside the financial collapse, and then the very early Obama presidency and the rise of the tea party. Alongside all of this, you've got an explosion of communications technology - we enter the decade reading newspapers, dialing up to connect to the Internet, we spend the decade growing more comfortable with memes and viral videos and social networking, and we close the decade with always-online, hyper-connected sleek computer-phones in our pockets. TV? It gets incredible. Music? The entire industry struggles with the death of the CD and emergence of the MP3, hip hop dominates, rock more or less dies, country enjoys a jingoistic resurgence.

I dunno, a lot happened! And yet, so little seemed to happen. The 2000s represent this weird cultural nadir in my mind, especially in the early part of the decade. I mean go ahead and Google something like "2003 Teen Choice Awards" or "2004 Big Brother Cast Photo" to get a sense of the prevailing, uh, fashion. When I think of that era I think of H2s and velour tracksuits and frosted tips. Spray tans and tube tops and acid-washed jeans. Flip phones and shitty HTML websites. I think of how the entire culture of the time seemed to be a direct response to 9/11, a loud and proud and emphatically "free country, bitch!" thumb in the eye of, shit, I dunno, taste and decency? But also clearly I existed in my own dumb bubble back then, this suburban white high school American mindset getting style tips from Mean Girls and The OC. Because while my dumb ass was focused on these things - I swear there was one winter where every girl I knew wore headbands and long sweaters and tights and ballet flats, which still blows my mind to consider - there was a six-year span that included 9/11 and the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina and the collapse of the global economy, not to mention a golden age for digital information and communication technology.

Weird decade, man. But aren't they all?