Prompted by all the commencements making the news.

  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    4 months ago

    Pre-2006:

    • End of the Cold War and the USSR
    • 9/11, the war on terror, invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan
    • Cell phones, laptops, public GPS, WiFI
    • The internet, Wikipedia, Amazon, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit
    • Public awareness of global warming

    Post-2006:

    • 2008 financial crisis
    • Smart phones
    • TikTok, Instagram, Netflix
    • Covid-19
    • LLMs, generative AI

    I’m sure I’m overlooking some things, but the pre-2006 decades seem like a more drastic change overall.

  • chunes@lemmy.world
    10·
    4 months ago

    The computers of today are far closer to 2006 than the computers of 2006 were to 1986.

    From 1986 to 2006, computers were improving in capabilities so rapidly that you would have to update your hardware every other year to keep up. That more or less stopped by 2009 or so.

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
    9·
    4 months ago

    Even ignoring computer technology, which took a light-year leap from 1986-2006 compared to 2006-2026, the fall of the Soviet Union in late 1991 was a massive upheaval and the following years had several countries having to readapt.

    Nothing of such scale has happened in the last 2 decades, though the current decay of the USA is an event of its own.

  • fireweed@lemmy.world
    6·
    4 months ago

    Climate change, political extremism/division, and technology all made insane leaps from 2006 to 2026, as did many other things like economic inequality (in the first world anyway). Like yes, between 1986 and 2006 the Internet was invented, but between 2006 and 2026 it became an inescapable, completely integrated part of life on a worldwide scale.

      • BedSharkPal@lemmy.ca
        2·
        4 months ago

        Social media, influencers, disinformation, financial crisis, surveillance state, climate change, erosion of civility, eorsion of trusted institutions, growing monopolies, citizens united, rules based order collapse, housing crisis, wealth inequality, opioid crisis, loneliness epidemic, COVID etc. etc.

  • TheOrcWhoWrites@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 months ago

    I believe medicine and technology changed more from 2006 to 2026. I mean we practically have very effective treatments for cancer and other diseases. We were able to manufacture vaccines not too long after COVID hit. As far as technology, the evidence is obvious. Plus the move form the age of information to the age of AI. I remember learning that out future was AI in the early 2000s when I was in middle school. This is so much of an advancement. You could say medicine and technology improved exponentially so that would make the latter of the two more of a difference.

  • GuyFawkesV@lemmy.world
    2·
    4 months ago

    I kinda feel like the death of democracy beats everything else. In the 80’s they were worried about it; in the 2020’s they made it happen.