Contemporary things that will seem amusingly dated 15+ years hence

[Martino Knockavelli]

I have been going through boxes of crap post-decorating and found some photos from my uni days (circa 2001-5). It all looks dated now - clothes, haircuts, the other misc. bits of semiotic detritus that inhabit the margins. It officially belongs to a different era, like a parachute pant wearing man from the 1980s, or a shell suit clad East 17 cast off from the 1990s. Looking at this stuff made me feel old, obviously, but it also made me think about the here and now, leading me to ponder which bits and bobs of our current world and its various aesthetic tics will jump out as comical and archaic at a similar temporal remove. What are the things that the 2016-set remake of Life on Mars would use as a shorthand for the period? What will Michael MacIntyre Jr be LOL-ing at on I Love the 2010s?

My suggestion: the irritating and distinctive nomenclature of tech companies and their products: iPhone, iPad, vowel averse apps (Flickr, Tumblr etc), everything-ly and everything-ify.

WHAT ELSE?

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

Skinny jeans

 

[blade1889]

Skinny jeans

I love my skinny jeans so much.

Reckon the piercing phase we seem to be going through (especially with guys and the septum piercings) will look dated soon...says the guy that's just gotten one (not septum mind).

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

I love my skinny jeans so much.

Reckon the piercing phase we seem to be going through (especially with guys and the septum piercings) will look dated soon...says the guy that's just gotten one (not septum mind).

I loved my shell suit.

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

Hipster beards?

 

[Aber gas]

I love my skinny jeans so much.

Reckon the piercing phase we seem to be going through (especially with guys and the septum piercings) will look dated soon...says the guy that's just gotten one (not septum mind).

Well, it's been going since the mid 90's so I can't see it stopping.

 

[Renegade]

Hipster beards?

Hipster everything.

The hat, the glasses, the shirt, the bag, the jeans, the shoes. All will be ridiculed. Heads will hang in shame. </pagnell>

Oh, and manbuns.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

The near omnipresence of beards is a good one.

 

[Stevencc]

Cutting-edge production as featured in tracks like this...

 

[mnb089mnb]

Oh, and manbuns.

The ultimate insult.

 

[Stevencc]

Twerking.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

Yes! Plus contemporary juke/footwork (unlikely to be talked about by Michael MacIntyre Jr, granted). Dances, from the charleston to the twist to breakdancing, are always very evocative of a specific era, aren't they.

 

[blade1889]

Hopefully the Kardashians

 

[MagpieBee]

Football Forums.

 

[mnb089mnb]

Have you ever watched a Wham video from the 80s? No one suspected George Michael was gay.

That, but Leicester City and doping.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

That, but Leicester City and doping.

Are you alleging something specific?

 

[Jockney]

 

[mnb089mnb]

Are you alleging something specific?

George Michael is a homosexual.

 

[Stevencc]

Stop beating around the bush.

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

"Remember that thing, yeah? Like how we had the 1970s and all the incredulity to metanarratives stuff? But then like in the 2010s we just had.... like... nothing? Instead... well, it was like... an infinite metascape of rogue nodes farting out white noise for smaller and smaller and increasingly atomised audiences interested only in consuming "content" which confirmed their pre-existing weltanschauung. What was THAT all about mate!!!"

 

[mnb089mnb]

Perhaps they'll reminisce about all the talking head programmes we used to have.

 

[mnb089mnb]

Energy Drinks

 

[Martino Knockavelli]

On reflection those talking heads programs are already an obsolete artefact aren't they. The young uns now have "YOU KNOW YOUR A 90S KID IF..." memes on Twitter or whatever social media network they actually use to facilitate the kind of hijinks I did not nor will ever experience.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

say u need a tree felled in an emergency how do u actually identify a lumberjack with this mass appropriation and preponderance of bushy beards and flannel shirts

 

[Murphy]

Ben Shepherd.

 

[PaulHaddock]

Protein shakes.

 

[Ebeneezer Goode]

high street shops

 

[Stevencc]

ISIS.

 

[blade1889]

Religion

 

[silkyman]

Hipster beards?

Definately. Anyone who looks at pictures of their dads in the 70s and laughs at their moustaches will be in for a shock.

Spent this week in London and they seem to be everywhere. But mainly on wankers who wear scarves (tied in that utterly wrong way) and walk down the street talking into their phone on speaker like they are on the apprentice.