Can't believe the decade is almost over. What will people think of when they look back on the 2000s? Funny to think it's another 10 years of history and culture to be filed alongside the swinging 60s, the discontented 80s, et cetera.

If you ask someone whats been most memorable about the decade they might find it hard to give you an answer. People will moan that nothing new has happened. Oh,they'll cry, all we've done is rehash the last few decades. Apart from, y'know, that stupid emo trend, and chavs, and that dubstep music... When the 90s ended, people had much the same attitude. They didn't think there was anything significant about the decade they'd just lived through, if anything, they figured it was quite unremarkable. Now we look back on the 1990s as being just as rich as any other decade. 90s fashion has made a surprise (or not so surprising?) resurgence, we've got grunge and shoegaze revival movements. I never thought we'd look back fondly on rave, but hey.

Yes, there's been a lot of recycling recently. A good deal of movies are remakes, fashion seems to be drawing increasingly on the past. If anything, i actually think new culture has diversified tenfold. The youth of today have wildly different taste in music and clothes... what we once saw as 'indie' (cardigans and jangly rock music) has hit the mainstream, so those indie kids are having to burrow further underground for a fittingly 'independent' image. Anime culture has gone huge, just one look at the front page of this website and you can see the influence it's had on western culture. I'm sure people thought grunge was naff back in the 90s, but is it any different to how we view post-hardcore 'emo' kids today? Will the critics of the future look back on it fondly? Indeed, many of us will have grown up with it. Video games have become as much a part of mainstream culture as music and film. The movements i've mentioned are just the tip of the iceberg.

Of course, one thing we'll all remember is the social media boom. Anyone can find anyone in seconds; i should know, if it wasn't for Facebook i would never have met my half brother. I can't name a band that you couldn't be checking out in a minute, heck, i'm typing this out on a social art website - where would i have mused before? We can all see the effects of social media. Everyone's connected and everyday tasks are much easier now than ever before. Online user-produced content on sites like youtube, myspace music and newgrounds has connected people like never before - people have much easier access to quality independently produced material, and people have a much greater incentive to create stuff themselves. The big media companies dont decide what we have access to. We're seeing a return to very oldvalues - we're making our own entertainment.

So. Sooner than we think, people will be hosting 2000s parties. 9/11 will be funny. Topman will have a range of retro 'emo!' tees and hoodies. Some band will use subbass drops and half time drum beats and people will think it's old school. Kids will have to write essays on the dreaded recession of 2008 and the presidency of Barack Obama. The world will look back fondly.

It's in retrospect that we can see what makes a decade - seeing the fads and events of the past through the lens of the present. If you're one of types who thought the 2000s were boring, look at them again in a few years. The teenagers of today will grow up to recognise it for what it is. (ahem.) take any 10 years of human history, crazy shit is bound to go down. We're restless souls.

Here's to the 2010s. They'll be great, i promise. You'll be there.