12/30/2009
In a Word, the Decade
A Little Year-End Word Game
Years come and go, but we’ve reached the end of a decade. With that in mind, I looked back over the decades I can recall and tried to sum them up in one word. If you had to sum up a decade in one word … what word would it be? There are no right or wrong answers, obviously, but I thought it might be fun to share our ideas. Please leave your comments, or write a post, let me know, and I’ll link back to you.
Here are my selections.
1960s – Viet Nam
1970s – Disco
1980s – Reagan
1990s – Seinfeld
2000s – Internet
There’s a lot going on in any decade, so it’s tough to boil things down to one word. Other words that came to mind for the ’60s were The Beatles and Turmoil. For me, the ’70s could have been many things, but I can’t get those awful disco tunes out of my head even now. Seinfeld may seem like a strange choice, but besides being perhaps the best TV comedy ever, it captured the frivolity, assured prosperity, inward focus, and frequent absurdity of the period. The Internet seems like an obvious choice for the ’00s, as influential a technology as the printing press or the automobile. And no, I’m not old enough to remember the introduction of either of those.
What did the decades of old mean to you?
21 Responses to In a Word, the Decade
In a Word, the Decade http://goo.gl/fb/Ib14
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Brad-
Being that I’ve only lived through 2.5 decades, technically, I don’t feel privy to the same spring of experience you drew from in this post. Nonetheless, I’ll go ahead and call the 2000s the Reality TV decade. Cheapened our culture in every sense of the word, IMHO. And yes, I like to watch the same shows on occasion. But I don’t feel clean after!
In a Word, the Decade (from @bradshorr) http://bit.ly/7VvyCd
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Hi Ian, The Reality TV Decade has a definite ring to it. I’ve avoided these programs like the plague: the few that I’ve seen strike me as being anything but “real”. Do you these shows will survive The Tens?
How would you describe the ’00s? The ’90’s? The ’80s? A little year end word fun. http://ow.ly/R7oM
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Great post Brad, I am going with 60s – started international career with gusto, 70s daughter born, 80s questioned flawed learning and leading systems, 90′s completed PhD to offer innovation insights, 00s more possibilities for growth and innovative change because flaws grew more evident. That’s how it looks from my small corner of the world. Let’s make the 00s an era to celebrate!
You nailed it RT @bradshorr How would you describe the ’00s? The ’90’s? The ’80s? A little year end word fun. http://ow.ly/R7oM
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Hi Ellen, Flaws persist through the ages: no matter what our field, I think we can all agree with that. Kudos for your stamina and passion. Those qualities are certainly evident in your blogging.
Hi Brad, what an excellent exercise.
I just wrote the first thing that came into my head for each decade:
60′s: Apollo program
70′s: Led Zeppelin
80′s: Berlin Wall
90′s: World Wide Web
00′s: Barack Obama
10′s: Massive possibilities
Brad, I just wanted to wish you and your loved ones a very happy New Year and prosperous decade!
Best, Robin
I can remember exactly where I was when this awful decade came into being. Believe it or not, when I rang in the new year on January 1, 2000, not only was I stone-cold sober – I was at church! My then-girlfriend and I attended a special midnight mass at the local Catholic church to welcome in, not only a new decade, but a new century and a new millennium. I remember feeling filled with optimism. By entering this new era, I felt, we could wipe the slate clean. Maybe this would be a new age of peace, love, brother and sisterhood. EVERYBODY SING!
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius!
Age of Aquarius!
Aquariusuuuuus!
How utterly naive on my part, huh? By year’s end, all of that hope was out the window and into the toilet. In December of 2000, an ideologically perverted Supreme Court would assist in a stolen election by stopping the vote count in the state of Florida, installing a corrupt little frat boy with the I.Q. of a half-eaten box of Milk Duds as president of the United States. It was all downhill from that moment on. From the birth of “Reality Television” to the worst attack on American soil since the Civil War, it was quite a strange ten years to say the least. Thankfully this awful decade is a mere three days away from being forever consigned to history’s scrap heap. Hallelujah.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
In a word, the decade http://ow.ly/Rl2v year end word game from @bradshorr
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Robin, Happy New Year to you & family as well. Based on your conception of the 70′s I think you’d really get along with my sister.
Tom, Every decade has its share of awful moments and wonderful moments. I don’t think that’s going to change. I also believe that a pendulum political swing such as the one we’re experiencing now is just exchanging one set of problems for another, one type of progress for another.
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Brad,
I can relate a little to what Ian said about not having been around long enough to have much of an informed opinion.
Your choice of Vietnam for the sixties was interesting – I recently had a chance to spend just over a week in Vietnam – very interesting country.
For the seventies, I’ll go with Star Wars (I’m not sure when the original came out – was it in the seventies?)
I reckon Seinfeld is not a bad choice for the nineties – that and The Simpsons are two of the greatest comedies ever!
The 2000s – I can’t go past your selection. The impact of the internet has been pretty awesome.
.
On second thought, I’ll change my 1990s word – Nelson Mandela.
Andrew, Thanks for adding your take to the question. Seinfeld, The Simpsons, and Mandela – shows how diverse the 90s were.
Brad, each decade means something different to each of us depending on our experiences. This is really a thoughtful way to reflect. Here are my contributions.
1960s – Kennedy assassination – Johnson era – for me college & marriage
1970s – Bee Gee’s – Saturday Night Fever, raising children
1980s – Computing age soars
1990s – Free Trade Agreement changes U.S. landscape
2000s – Decade of the Brain & my PhD
Hi Robyn, Thanks for participating, and Happy New Year! Interesting that you picked the Free Trade Agreement for the ’90s. From my perspective, that was a news item that I never consciously felt affect me in any way. I would love to know more. Are you planning to move beyond the brain in the 2010s? You’ve got me wondering now!