The world we live in today moves at a rapid pace . Our newfound ability to instantaneously share information combined with rapid technological innovations has turned us into passive observers of some of the world’s greatest paradigm shifts .
This is especially significant when it comes to dissecting some of the biggest pop cultural moments of the new millennium. So have a look below and check out these pop culture moments that are over a decade old but feel like they happened just yesterday .
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‘The Office’ invades America.
It was all the way back in 2007 when North American TV audiences at large were first introduced to the likes of Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute. To this day, The Office remains one of the most popular series across streaming platforms.
The iPhone revolutionizes the way in which we communicate.
It’s hard to imagine a time when we all didn’t have iPhones at our fingertips, but the revolutionary technology is only a couple generations old. The first iPhone was released on June 29th, 2007 .
Stephenie Meyer forever changes people’s perceptions of vampires with “Twilight.”
Absolutely nobody reads anymore, so to captivate the hearts and minds of an entire generation of young girls (and boys) is no easy feat. The movies may have been polarizing, but the “Twilight” novels don’t miss.
Furbies were flying off the shelves.
The historic ‘Harry Potter’ film franchise comes to an end.
Few film franchises in history have ever reached the level of global popularity as Harry Potter . Although it seems like only yesterday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 brought the series to a close back in 2011.
Heath Ledger receives his posthumous “Best Supporting Actor” Oscar for ‘The Dark Knight’.
Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker still sends chills up my spine. It is unquestionably the greatest portrayal of the villain we’ve ever seen (sorry Joaquin) and has become the standard of comparison for all subsequent iterations.
Beyoncé Knowles leaves Destiny’s Child and begins her solo career.
Prior to her departure, Destiny’s Child was one of the biggest pop/R&B groups on the planet. It was considered a huge risk at the time for Queen Bey to step out on her own — a risk that wound up paying dividends .
‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ makes its worldwide premiere.
There have been a small handful of series that have helped to forever change the landscape of reality TV: Survivor, American Idol, and Keeping Up with the Kardashians . The way in which the Kardashian/Jenner clan was able to entrance audiences was truly unprecedented.
The infamous Fyre Festival takes place.
There have been several documentaries released in subsequent years that go into excruciating detail about what took place at the failed Fyre Festival. If you haven’t yet seen FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened , it is absolutely mindblowing and a must-watch.
Carly Rae Jepsen releases “Call Me Maybe.”
Regardless of how young or old you are, chances are that you know all the words to Carly Rae Jepsen’s immortal earworm, “Call Me Maybe.” This song was a true banger and infiltrated the airwaves all the world over.
Antoine Dodson instructs the world to “Hide yo kids, hide yo wife.”
The Gregory Brothers are responsible for some of the catchiest internet crazes of the past few decades. They recently released “It’s Corn!” to great avail, but it never would’ve been possible without the “Bed Intruder Song.”
TV audiences said goodbye to their favorite ‘Friends’.
I try to rewatch the entire Friends series at least once a year, so to me it doesn’t feel like they ever left. It’s mindblowing how the last episode aired more than 12 years ago.
The world at large is introduced to the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros in ‘Game Of Thrones’.
Now that House of the Dragon is in full swing, it seems as if Game of Thrones never left. However, the very first episode of the HBO flagship series aired on April 17th, 2011.
Y2K makes the world go insane.
As hard as it might be to believe, there was actually a time when a rather large minority of people all over the globe were utterly convinced that the world was going to return to the stoneage once the clock struck twelve on Decemeber 31st, 1999.
Millions of Tamagotchis all over the world perished due to neglect.
Tamagotchi was the world’s first digital pet. Absolutely every kid on the playground had to have one for fear of being ostracized from the pack. Yet no matter how much attention you gave them, they always inevitably died.
The birth of Instagram.
Instagram is one of the most widely used social media platforms and it’s hard now to recall a time when it wasn’t around. However, in reality, Instagram isn’t even 15 years old — how crazy is that!?
‘The Avengers’ assemble for the very first time on the big screen.
Iron Man may have been the film to launch the MCU, but the shared universe wouldn’t exist were it not for The Avengers . The film remains one of the most ambitious movie feats in cinematic history.
The September 11th attack on the World Trade Center.
The attack on the Twin Towers was the worst attack made on US soil since Pearl Harbor . The image of a hi-jacked plane crashing into the World Trade Center remains indelibly on the minds of an entire generation.
Netflix makes its foray into the world of streaming.
I’m so old that I can still remember a time when the Netflix business model was mail-ordered DVDs sent directly to your home. At the time, the company was nearing bankruptcy and pivoted into streaming services as a last-ditch effort to remain relevant.
Prince William marries Kate Middleton.
Very few royal weddings have ever been as joyous or impactful as Prince William and Kate Middleton’s. now that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has passed on, the country and the world at large look to these two to continue her legacy.
Let me Google that for you…
What in the world did we ever do before Google came around? The global search engine has more than 4.3 billion users worldwide and has infiltrated every aspect of our daily lives — from e-mail to personal finance.
