In the 20th century, the year 2000 was, to put it lightly, kind of a big deal.
As io9 summed up better than I can, the year 2000 was such a big deal, humanity kept using it as a blank sheet, hung on a dorm room wall, to project its illegally downloaded dreams and fears upon.
Our vision of the future is always changing. In the year 1910, we imagined that the year 2000 would be filled with airships and multi-armed robotic helpers. In the 1960s, manned trips to Mars seemed in our grasp.
And when the year 2000 actually came?
It was kind of a letdown.
Y2K didn’t send us into an apocalypse and even worse, we could no longer sing “party like it’s 1999” without it being a nostalgic, almost ironic anthem.
Throughout the 20th century, the year 2000 served as a goalpost, a time on which we could project our dreams for changing fashions and technologies. Even as we got closer to that year, we continued to imagine what it might be like and what wonderful surprises it might hold.
Because of how disappointing January 1st, 2000 was, I now think our simulation is lagging just a bit and the year 2020 is actually what people thought the year 2000 would be.
I mean, we truly seem to be heading towards the end of days, in almost every important category: economically, politically, environmentally…
But that’s our every day, terribly world.
Why not have a little more fun (while we still can) and look at all the things that didn’t exist in the “real” year 2000 that we now have in the year “2020”?
#1 This Flying Frenchman
I mean, everything from the past said this is what the future would look like, right?
Rocketeer anyone?
#2 We Now Have Virtual Reality
…as evidenced by this citizen playing what appears to be a Birdbox VR game
#3. We have Smartphones
aka Computers in our pockets and palms
#4. These were video game graphics in the year 2000
These are video game graphics in the year 2020
If you were to ask someone from the past to point out the graphics from the year 2000, which games would they pick?
#6. The Multi-Culturalness of America’s #1 TV Drama
The cast of TV’s #1 Drama in 1999
The cast of TV’s #1 Drama in 2019
However, the #1 sitcom in 1999 was Friends and the #1 sitcom of 2019 is The Big Bang Theory which has a total of one person of color and one woman in it’s top billing. So not as white as Friends but not exactly a progressive show especially when you consider how dangerous it’s trope of “adorkable” misogyny can be.
#7. Food Has Entered it’s Dada Phase
This is how food should have looked…
#8 This Apple Commercial About Privacy
We float through a downtown. Buildings shimmer. Small people in small boxes of glass and steel. All of them alone.
A disembodied voice speaks.
“Your location”
“Your messages”
“Your heart rate after a run”
“These are private things”
The implication being that, yes, these are your private things but also, we know all of them because we made your phone, but also, don’t worry, we’ll keep it all private….from other companies.
It’s a commercial that sums up the bizarro-world humanity finds itself in: we have endless information and entertainment at our fingertips that we pay for with our privacy, and the end result is this kind of comfy-but-nauseating blanket of digital warmth that hugs us and tells us we’re not lonely because someone liked our tweet about the Golden Globes.
What’s more turn of the millennia than that?
#9 Lady Gaga’s Met Gala Entrance
For over 16 minutes, Lady Gaga entered the Met Gala in the year 2019.
The theme was Camp, and what better theme to represent the ACTUAL turn of the millennia than self-awareness dialed up to 11 and performed by the 21st century’s greatest pop persona?
#10 Our Most Popular New Pop Artist Dresses Like This
And The Biggest Rapper of the Year Dresses Like This
So there it is.
I’m sure there are other reasons 2020 is actually 2000.
Like this 60 minutes piece about our ability to edit genes, or this futurist piece about how most jobs as we know them will vanish as the divide between tech-skilled and non-tech-skilled workers grows wider.
Or the fact that, like, do we really know when Jesus was born or murdered?
Despite all those fancy scientists with their genes and predictions, gifs are the true language of the new millennia. The millennia that’s just starting. In like 2 weeks. And definitely did NOT happen 20 years ago.
So as you get ready for this year’s ball drop, turn up the Prince, stow the soup cans and bottled water, and let the hunger games begin!