Our Changing World
Our Changing World
Was it only a decade ago that a blackberry was a mere summer fruit? That green was just a colour, 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 happening – quite like watching a child grow older. It is hard to believe how much the world has transformed in the past decade. So what has changed? Technology has gotten unimaginably smaller and better - just look at the differences between an iMac in 2000 and an iPhone in 2010. The world's population has increased to seven billion and for the first time, more people live in cities than in rural areas. China's electricity consumption has quadrupled and the costs of technology are becoming more apparent than before.
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.
AGING: Nobody seems to look their age anymore. 50-year-old women have started wearing clothes that look more like clothes for 18-year-olds and children look more like teens
CAMERAS: Remember those trips to get film developed? Nope? Even your grandmother has a digital camera, and she's probably emailing you photos right now or uploading them to a photo-sharing site.
CELLPHONES: Cell phones are now used by more than 85 per cent of the U.S. population and for some have replaced land lines entirely. On the downside, they've made cheating on a spouse more difficult – just ask Tiger Woods.
FACEBOOK: Can you believe this social networking site was once limited only to Harvard students? Now it's a time-dwindling obsession for more than 300 million users globally and a whole new form of social etiquette: Who to friend on Facebook?
TWITTER: The new social network introduced tweets, retweets, follows and trending
Was it only a decade ago that a blackberry was a mere summer fruit? That green was just a colour, 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 happening – quite like watching a child grow older. It is hard to believe how much the world has transformed in the past decade. So what has changed? Technology has gotten unimaginably smaller and better - just look at the differences between an iMac in 2000 and an iPhone in 2010. The world's population has increased to seven billion and for the first time, more people live in cities than in rural areas. China's electricity consumption has quadrupled and the costs of technology are becoming more apparent than before.
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.
AGING: Nobody seems to look their age anymore. 50-year-old women have started wearing clothes that look more like clothes for 18-year-olds and children look more like teens
CAMERAS: Remember those trips to get film developed? Nope? Even your grandmother has a digital camera, and she's probably emailing you photos right now or uploading them to a photo-sharing site.
CELLPHONES: Cell phones are now used by more than 85 per cent of the U.S. population and for some have replaced land lines entirely. On the downside, they've made cheating on a spouse more difficult – just ask Tiger Woods.
FACEBOOK: Can you believe this social networking site was once limited only to Harvard students? Now it's a time-dwindling obsession for more than 300 million users globally and a whole new form of social etiquette: Who to friend on Facebook?
TWITTER: The new social network introduced tweets, retweets, follows and trending