Are we becoming culturally stagnant?
 

A thought has been nagging at me as of late; is it just me, or does it seem like not much changes anymore in terms of pop culture and design?

Compare some 20 year spans; for instance, 1949, 1969, and 1989.

In terms of nearly anything visual, clothing, automobiles, movies, television, even interior design, you probably get a pretty clear distinction between those eras. No one is going to confuse a movie made in 1989 with one made in 1969, for example. Video quality aside, everything simply looks different. Clothes, hairstyles, furniture, etc, it's all different.

Now compare 2020 with 2000.

What has changed? I came across a TV show the other night that I thought was new; it was from 2004. Last summer when I stopped at a traffic light, someone asked me if my (semi-exotic) car was something new, but it's from 2003. I haven't really kept up with pop music in the post-Napster era, but again... with few exceptions, it sounds the same to me. No way would you confuse current music in 1989 with classic rock from the 60's.

Is it just me, or am I just getting too old to appreciate the nuances?

We reached peak of technology so not much place for innovation.

2000 is drastically different from 2020

2000 - 2020

Cab - Uber

Nokia - smart phone

Aol - google

Still the Paul era - Instagram thot era

Etc... Especially the fashion, hair, music etc

I think it's just you!

I was wondering if innovation is slowing down. The whole world is watching Rick and Morty etc at the same time. Lots of countries are seeing their local movie production dry up as Hollywood and the USA is kicking out so much do to competing streaming. We are becoming one culture. We buy the same designer brands, same phones, same everything.

Nope!

You are living in a "box"; we all do.

Get out of your box; there is all kinds of new stuff going on.

:2 cents:

I remember the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s.

The difference between the 40s and the 90s is staggering. But after that its just been more plastic junk, more homosexuality, and a huge drop in the collective IQ of society.

Crap like Internet and smart phones just isn't what I consider culture.

Everything has changed.

Look at the clothes we wear. The shirt I am wearing right now didn't exist ten years ago. (I am wearing one of those lightweight workout shirts.) Women wear yoga pants and thongs daily.

Entertainment is completely different. I no longer have a cable company, and get all of my tv / movies on demand.

My cell phone does everything a computer an.

sure tech has changed alot, certainly not denying that; 20 years ago mobile internet was something only for eggheads and nothing like what we have today. "under the hood", automobiles have changed more in the last 15 years than they did in the previous 50. there's tons of examples of that sort of thing. self driving cars, wireless connections to everything, etc.

my point was more in terms of visual cues.

if I look at a group photo from the year 2000 and from now the only thing that would really tip me off as to when each was taken, would be if there were more people with exposed tattoos and piercings.

maybe I'm just not paying attention to the subtleties as much as I used to :)