2022 was not more impactful than 2016, and I'd say the same for 2001 and 2008.
9/11 basically birthed the surveillance state as we know it and shaped American policy for decades to come. 2016 is also pretty much the quintessential year that defined modern politics. 2022 I guess had the Roe v. Wade overturn, but guess why that happened? Guess what year laid the groundwork for that to happen? Yeah. 2016.
2001 had just one event. 2022 had the release of ChatGPT, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, yes Roe v. Wade like you mentioned, Elon Musk buying Twitter and, relatively minor but still happened, the Queen died.
2016 only really had Trump getting elected. And even so it got top 5
America is the most important country on Earth, because American foreign policy affects everyone. Destabilizing the Middle East further and doubling down on “America as the world police” has absolutely affected everyone.
This is like saying that the election of Donald Trump is just isolated to America, when anyone following the news will tell you that other countries absolutely follow US elections. Change in leadership will changes foreign policy, trade, wartime strategies, and the like. America moving Right encouraged more European nations to move to the Right, which further ripples across the planet.
Chat didn’t get big until 2023. By that metric, 2019 should be ahead of 2020 because that’s when COVID first hit China. And saying 2001 had “one event” is like saying 2020 had “one event”. 9/11 was massive, as was the election of Donald Trump (and first Brexit vote). The rise of populism globally, any number of current events, pretty much everything that happened in 2022 and so much more all exist because of that “one event” in 2016.
Populism started in the late 2000s/early 2010s with the rise of the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street following the aftermath of the 2008 recession.
2022 had the release of ChatGPT, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, yes Roe v. Wade like you mentioned, Elon Musk buying Twitter and, relatively minor but still happened, the Queen died.
If you take the impact of all these things combined, then doubled it, it would still not approach the impact of 9/11.
2022 is important due to the ChatGPT moment and Russias invasion of Ukraine setting up the modern conflicts of the 2020s and the AI Cold War we are in now. Sure 2016 set up a lot of this as well, but 2022 was still a big year globally.
Yes. Man, it's like I've only ever had some chicken nuggets in McDonalds, so now I'm an expert on chicken meat, and all my opinions ever are based on just those chicken nuggets.
What do you know about the 2010s besides you spent the entirety of it in Elementary school? Thoughts about 2013? No idea, you were 4. Thoughts about the financial crisis of 2008? Nope. What about the music scene in 2019? Ok you were 10, fair, you heard some of the songs. Covid lockdowns? Damn you were 11 years old when those happened. We lost our jobs and had to find a new one while job hunting on Zoom. You were.. again.. 11. Let's talk about Covid. Video games at home? Nice.
Look, I don't wanna be ageist, but this sub is literally about ageism.
The only thing I think when I look at this is how insane it is that we have been in the 21st century for this many years already. That list looks longer than it feels like it’s been
2025 that low????? just think about HOW many events this year had, with the trump assassination attempt, epstein files, epstein emails, charlie kirk, canadian election, german election, israel drama, and all the other things happening
2020 and 2001 could be debated for the most important.
It felt like the ripples of 9/11 had just started to settle when COVID happened, and the geopolitical aftermath of that kicked off and is still rippling
Yes im thinking of it, arab spring, death of Bin Laden, occupy wall street, tea party movement, indepedence of South Sudan, Norway attacks, Fukoshima. I would have changed them.
Why is 2009 so low, it was literally in the same shift as 2008 it was arguably was more transitonal than 08, Q1 2009 was the worst period of the recession, electropop really took of this year, MJs death, Obama's inauguration.
2018 should be the least important, hardly anything eventful happened that year
2018 had the release of TikTok in the United States, Tumblr lost users after its porn ban, e-kid culture was on the rise, you had the very early signs of retropop music, etc.. I know that 2018 was not as eventful compared to other shift years, but I would not say that 2018 was lacking because I consider it to be the first year with true 2020s infouence.
Not sure why 2020 isn’t on here but that should easily be near the top of the list because COVID changed everything. Also, at least from a US perspective, not sure why 2021 isn’t any higher than that.
arab spring and civil wars, occupy wall street, death of Bin Laden, kim jong il, and steve jobs, south sudan indepedence, Fukoshima, Norway attacks, end of the iraq war, minecraft release, etc etc.
If anything it’s the opposite, Russia invading Ukraine is important now because people are dying, ChatGPT and LLMs will be continually significant for many years, the importance of Elon buying twitter depends on your worldview
2008 to 2009 was whiplash
Every day this website surprises me with new ways of autism I never deemed possible.
lol real
This list would be better if it was labled with explanations
If you’re on the spectrum, this is hilarious. If you’re not, it’s offensive!
Yup, am autistic and can confirm it ends up like this
That doesn’t make sense
Sorry but Modern Warfare 2 dropped like a nuke in 2009 so it's more relevant than 2020
Hard agree
2022 was not more impactful than 2016, and I'd say the same for 2001 and 2008.
9/11 basically birthed the surveillance state as we know it and shaped American policy for decades to come. 2016 is also pretty much the quintessential year that defined modern politics. 2022 I guess had the Roe v. Wade overturn, but guess why that happened? Guess what year laid the groundwork for that to happen? Yeah. 2016.
2001 had just one event. 2022 had the release of ChatGPT, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, yes Roe v. Wade like you mentioned, Elon Musk buying Twitter and, relatively minor but still happened, the Queen died.
2016 only really had Trump getting elected. And even so it got top 5
That one event affected the whole world way more than the 2022 events combined tho
No, not at all.
The ripples of 9/11 were felt worldwide, every other thing you've mentioned not so much.
No, they weren't.
Anyone that thinks that 2020 and 2001 weren’t the most impactful years of the 21st century doesn’t remember all of the 21st century
OP is looking at bullet points as if they are all equal size and ignoring that the 2001 dot is pretty damn large.
Which is funny given that 2020 is likewise largely a year whose relevancy is defined by a single event, with the rest cascading down from there.
One event is capable of being that impactful.
It was one event at the end of the year. America isn't the only country on earth. And i still gave it top 3
America is the most important country on Earth, because American foreign policy affects everyone. Destabilizing the Middle East further and doubling down on “America as the world police” has absolutely affected everyone.
This is like saying that the election of Donald Trump is just isolated to America, when anyone following the news will tell you that other countries absolutely follow US elections. Change in leadership will changes foreign policy, trade, wartime strategies, and the like. America moving Right encouraged more European nations to move to the Right, which further ripples across the planet.
Ok but it doesn't make the year it happened the single most important year of the 21st century.
Also it didn't really change that much, oh no Afghanistan got invaded, like that hadn't happened a million times at that point.
You are clearly quite young.
I live in the southernmost country within America and 9/11 affected my country, it wasn't just a US thing.
How?
I live on the other side of the world
Ok
How old are you?
They're 16
How is that relevant
People asking your age to a post like this is more of a statement than a question
Brexit in 2016 as well
Chat didn’t get big until 2023. By that metric, 2019 should be ahead of 2020 because that’s when COVID first hit China. And saying 2001 had “one event” is like saying 2020 had “one event”. 9/11 was massive, as was the election of Donald Trump (and first Brexit vote). The rise of populism globally, any number of current events, pretty much everything that happened in 2022 and so much more all exist because of that “one event” in 2016.
Populism started in the late 2000s/early 2010s with the rise of the Tea Party movement and Occupy Wall Street following the aftermath of the 2008 recession.
Yeah but ChatGPT released in 2022. It was very big when it first released.
We're not looking at the influece of other events. Just the events on their own for each year.
2001 had the accession of China into the WTO, leading to the industrial and technological powerhouse that is the the China that we know today.
No? China obviously didn't become powerful because they joined the WTO.
If you take the impact of all these things combined, then doubled it, it would still not approach the impact of 9/11.
Yes they would.
nah, 2022, 2001, and 2008 were all way more impactful than 2016. even 2011 was more impactful.
Agreed. I was close to switching 2016 and 2011. 2016 only really had the election of Trump.
2016 had Brexit
id say that 2011 was a bigger political shift than 2016 too.
Yeah
I agree with this.
2022 is important due to the ChatGPT moment and Russias invasion of Ukraine setting up the modern conflicts of the 2020s and the AI Cold War we are in now. Sure 2016 set up a lot of this as well, but 2022 was still a big year globally.
2022 is the beginning of Russia-Ukraine war.
2009 was 2008's fallout and had alot of cultural impact
def not the least important
i was born in 2009 so obviously very important year
I was too
I assume most OPs in this sub. Only point of reference is the 2020s.
No?
Yes. Man, it's like I've only ever had some chicken nuggets in McDonalds, so now I'm an expert on chicken meat, and all my opinions ever are based on just those chicken nuggets.
What do you know about the 2010s besides you spent the entirety of it in Elementary school? Thoughts about 2013? No idea, you were 4. Thoughts about the financial crisis of 2008? Nope. What about the music scene in 2019? Ok you were 10, fair, you heard some of the songs. Covid lockdowns? Damn you were 11 years old when those happened. We lost our jobs and had to find a new one while job hunting on Zoom. You were.. again.. 11. Let's talk about Covid. Video games at home? Nice.
Look, I don't wanna be ageist, but this sub is literally about ageism.
By 2016 when OP was 7 ish years old, things looked already quite similar to today with smartphones everywhere...
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For a sub called decadeology, it's pretty much exclusively about the 2010s to now, because that's the lifespan of most users here.
https://i.redd.it/turrjx9zcs8g1.gif
What
The only thing I think when I look at this is how insane it is that we have been in the 21st century for this many years already. That list looks longer than it feels like it’s been
2025 that low????? just think about HOW many events this year had, with the trump assassination attempt, epstein files, epstein emails, charlie kirk, canadian election, german election, israel drama, and all the other things happening
German and canadian elections happen every 4 years. The first thing you mentioned was last year. "Israel drama" was also more so last year and 2023.
Phish came back in March of 2009 so it’s at minimum top 5
2001 has to be the most important
2020 and 2001 could be debated for the most important.
It felt like the ripples of 9/11 had just started to settle when COVID happened, and the geopolitical aftermath of that kicked off and is still rippling
Array.Random()
imo 2011 and 2016 should swap places
Yes im thinking of it, arab spring, death of Bin Laden, occupy wall street, tea party movement, indepedence of South Sudan, Norway attacks, Fukoshima. I would have changed them.
Why is 2009 so low, it was literally in the same shift as 2008 it was arguably was more transitonal than 08, Q1 2009 was the worst period of the recession, electropop really took of this year, MJs death, Obama's inauguration.
2018 should be the least important, hardly anything eventful happened that year
2018 had the release of TikTok in the United States, Tumblr lost users after its porn ban, e-kid culture was on the rise, you had the very early signs of retropop music, etc.. I know that 2018 was not as eventful compared to other shift years, but I would not say that 2018 was lacking because I consider it to be the first year with true 2020s infouence.
Not sure why 2020 isn’t on here but that should easily be near the top of the list because COVID changed everything. Also, at least from a US perspective, not sure why 2021 isn’t any higher than that.
if you have an iPhone the top notch blocks 2020, lol
Huh?
It’s wonky on mobile
Good ranking, I mostly agree with it.
2011?
2011 was a major shift and had a shit ton of events
2024 should be higher than 2014 but still below 2000
I still have 2001 at the top. It lead to War On Terror -> neocon discredited -> Obama -> Tea Party. Obama and Tea Party lead to Hilary and Trump.
If that is somehow butterflied away but 2020 covid still happens, it would have been very different.
Stop with the "butterfly effect" stuff. If you dl that, then it would rank in importance sequentially.
Ok so a bunch of ppl saying 2011 is important, what happened in 2011?
arab spring and civil wars, occupy wall street, death of Bin Laden, kim jong il, and steve jobs, south sudan indepedence, Fukoshima, Norway attacks, end of the iraq war, minecraft release, etc etc.
God damn yeah I see
That is so true that 2013 was a very unimportant year.
Campaigns and elections happen in odd years I hope you realize
Also more emphasis could be put on geopolitics and cultural and impact of economic impact of technological changes
Don’t know if 2011 deserves to be high. Occupy Wall Street felt more like a product of it’s time I can understand the Arab spring.
And I’m glad somebody realizes how transitional 2023 was in terms of politics and technology
2021 definitely shouldn't be that low
I'm surprised 2021 isn't higher, we were still coming out of covid and Jan 6 happened
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Because 2001 was just one event.
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The great recession and Obama's election
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Both are.
How?
9/11 is just one event
Yes but it's a way more impactful event than the recession or election.
By your logic, me waking up and eating breakfast is more impactful than 9/11 because that's two events lmao.
Not combined. That's what i mean. 2001 had one single event.
I think the great recession did that as well. It led to a major change in fiscal policy (e.g. austerity in Europe).
There was a whole ass global recession 2008 wdym 😭
2008 is far more wide reaching in it's impilactions than 9/11. Maybe for americans 2001 is more relevant but not for most of the world.
Whats Special about 22?
ChatGPT, Elon buys twitter, Russia invades Ukraine
Ok, russia invades Ukraine was indeed important
The other two things were also important tbh
Meh
Recency bias
If anything it’s the opposite, Russia invading Ukraine is important now because people are dying, ChatGPT and LLMs will be continually significant for many years, the importance of Elon buying twitter depends on your worldview
why 2022?
ChatGPT releases, Queen Elizabeth dies, Elon Musk buys Twitter, Russia invades Ukraine.
Thank you Oh right, i thought the Ruzzian invasion was in 2023.