We are now , already , two decades deep into the 21st 100 . In the preceding 20 years , earthly concern - shaking , judgment - bending , being - vary change have upended the way we live and work . We eat other than . We run otherwise . We communicate other than . We , in many , many ways , simplyaredifferent from how we were in thelast days of the recent 20th century . At this rate , we wo n’t even realize our world in 2040 .
Things have changed , all right ; some for the better and some , undoubtedly , for the worse . Here are 20 innovational evolution of the first two decades in the 21st century , in no particular order .
Smartphones Are Everywhere
Apple wander out its firstsmartphone — a hand - restrain electronic computer and fluid phone chat up into one — in 2007 . Since the iPhone ’s introduction , ( the first Android smartphone debuted a class later ) smartphones have grown bigger , more advanced , smart and more ubiquitous than anyone would have imagined . Your average smartphone hasmore than 100,000 times the processing powerof the computer that maneuver Apollo 11 to the moon . In the preceding decade in America , the pct of people who expend a smartphone hasmore than tripled , to more than 71 per centum . Already , more than 3.2 billion people worldwideuse smartphones … closing in on half the human race .
Social Media Sites Take Off
With the availability of a computer in our scoop , social mediabecame the method of communication for billions around the globe . The big social meshwork , Facebook , establish in 2005 and now has2.45 billionmonthly combat-ready users worldwide . Twitter now has330 millionmonthly active users . Instant messaging service WhatsApp has1.6 billion . Chinese message app WeChat boasts more than1 billion . And do n’t block online dating sites . harmonize to eHarmony,40 percent of Americansuse online go steady websites . The social media good : a more coordinated world . The unsound : misinformation , intimidation and a red ink of privacy .
We Now Connect Via WiFi
" We stand , " declaredWired magazinein 2003 , " at the brink of a transformation . " The clause was titled " The Wi - Fi Revolution , " and the technology , indeed , was ground - shake . The ability to take hard - wire internet from an net service supplier ( ISP ) and enter the web without being physically plugged in — via radio wave on a local connection — start the cyberspace to go mobile , whether in your home ( a laptop on the couch ) , in the local coffee berry store ( your smartphone in the quoin John Wilkes Booth ) , or at schooltime ( in the back row watching video ) . Even with the rise of increasinglyfaster cellular technologies , WiFi pattern . According to theWi - Fi Alliance , WiFi is the most commonly used wireless technology in the world and the primary way the cyberspace is access globally . Some 13 billion WiFi devices were in use in 2018 .
Memes and Emojis Spread Like Wildfire
That smiley face , thatshrugging guy , the finger gun , the tears of joy . We know them like the alphabet now . In fact , they often exchange parole in our digital - centrical lifestyles . Emojis started in the late 1990s in Japan and are now stock issue on every smartphone in the world . Texting your approving of something ? utilise a thumbs - up . Think something stinks ? The smile pile of tail is always popular . Related to emojis in an Instagram / Twitter kind of way is the internet meme , an frequently - doctored , meant - to - be - shared short picture or graphic designed to recognize , poke fun at , or otherwise comment on the in style cultural radar target . TheNancy Pelosi clap . Sad Keanu . cry Michael Jordan . TheDistracted Boyfriend . Sometimes , words are n’t enough .
Streaming Takes Over the Airways
The power to send all variety of media to consumers via the internet took its first buffering , counterfoil - toed stepsin the tardy 1990s . Since the turn of the twenty-first one C , though , streaming not only has learned to walk , it ’s also learned to fly . Music overhaul ( Pandora , Spotify , Apple Music , etc . ) have all butknee - capped the sale of compact disk . The same is genuine for TV banner ( YouTube , Netflix , Hulu , Disney+ , etc . ) and the sales of DVDs , the viewership come ofmore traditional TV , and the wellness of themovie diligence . Netflix commence as a chain mail - purchase order DVD society but turned to streaming in 2007 . It then produce itsfirst full - length feature filmin 2017 , and now has more than158 million paid membership worldwide .
GPS Goes Mainstream
TheGlobal Positioning Systemused to be strictly the realm of the U.S. political science , run by the Air Force . But in 2000 , President Bill Clinton tell that a feature article of it that fuzzied the film for nongovernment types be lay off . Now , GPS ( among othermore unconventional uses ) shows us the means while we ’re driving , tells us where we arewhen we ’re lose , place out the closest coffee store , pass on us the yardage to the pivot on the golf game course , and secernate us how long it ’ll take us to get space . The configuration of at least 24 satellites provide worldwide coverage . Once a GPS twist homes in on a signal from at least four of those satellites , it can determine where you are in longitude , latitude and height .
9/11 Sparks the War on Terror
The novel century had barely begun when an unthinkable horror shook the world and fundamentally spay the mode that we live . When al - Qaida - linked terrorist hijacked four commercial-grade airplanes onSept . 11 , 2001 , and used them as weapons to pour down almost 3,000 Americans , a so - called war on scourge launched across the ball , centrally in Iraq ( 2003 - 11 ) and in a conflict inAfghanistanthat go along today . The campaigncost the U.S. gazillion of dollar . 1000 more have pass , personal privateness and human rightfield have been strained , yet al - Qaida remains potent today , despite the killing of 9/11 mastermind , Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALS in Pakistan on May 2 , 2011 .
The Great Recession Almost Breaks Us
When it comes down to it , greed was the root causal agent of the greatest fiscal crisis since the Great Depression . " [ I]t was the collapse of the living accommodations bubble — fuel by low interest rate , easy and available credit , light regulation and toxic mortgages — that was the spark that ignited a string of case , which led to a full - fumble crisis … , " an prescribed regime reportin 2011 concluded . The dandy recess ( late-2007 to mid-2009 ) was not just an American phenomenon ; it produced fiscal ripple throughout the world . But theunemployment ratein the U.S. jumped from 5 per centum to 9.5 percent . Almost 8.7 million job were lost . Home prices fall by 30 percent , and the S&P 500 plump by 57 percent . Though the U.S. is now enjoying the longest run of economic growth in its history , the computer storage of the Great Recession is never far from anyone ’s mind .
The Sharing Economy Helps Us Rebound
If you had too much to drink at a party in 2008 , you had only so many choice to get home . Then , in 2009 , the ride - deal company Uber come along — all you have to do is bolt down on your smartphone and buy a ride in someone ’s personal car — stunning taxicab companiesand jumping - starting the " sharing economic system . " require a position to stay put , or have a room to rent ? ( Airbnb , establish in 2008 . ) Need to buy some junk , or betray it ? ( EBay , which begin in the later 1990s . ) Rent your railway car , or someone else ’s ? ( Getaround , 2009 . ) Crafts to bribe or trade ? ( Etsy , 2005 . ) The possibilities are eternal . These peer - to - compeer companies put about $ 14 billion into the economy in 2014.The Brookings Institutionexpects that to jump to as much as $ 335 billion by 2025 .
The U.S. Elects a New Kind of President
On a January day in 2008 , almost 219 years after George Washington became the first Chief Executive of the United States , a Senator from Illinois , Barack Hussein Obama , was swear in as the United States ' first African - American chairman . In a country still grip with the smear of slaveholding , Obama ’s rise to America ’s gamey office marked for many a high percentage point of hope . " I have asserted a firm sentence , a conviction rout in my faith in God and my faith in the American people , " Obama enjoin in afamous speech on raceduring his campaign , " that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial injury , and that in fact we have no choice if we are to preserve on the path of a more thoroughgoing pairing . " He was re - elected to a 2nd term in 2012 .
More Women Are in Power Politically
After Obama ’s historical election , the U.S. just miss out on another history making election : voting its first female Chief Executive into situation in 2016 . But even though Hillary Clinton was defeated in the U.S. , morewomen politicians worldwide are on the move up . A 2017Pew Research Centerstudy showed that the number of countries with female leader has more than double since 2000 , led by Germany’sAngela Merkel , widely regard as the most powerful woman in the humankind . Merkel has been chancellor since 2005 , making her the longest - serving incumbent leader in the European Union . And back in the U.S. , 126 women are currently serving in either the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives , an all - time in high spirits . That ’s an melioration , but woman still make up just 23.6 percent of the entire seats in Congress .
Same-sex Marriage Becomes Legal
In 2019 , order dead body in Northern Ireland , Austria , Ecuador and Taiwan all legalized same - sexual urge marriage , adding to agrowing listof rural area to OK the legal spousal relationship of married person disregardless of sex . As of late 2019 , 30 countries around the earthly concern have granted effectual marital right to same - sexual urge couples , a movement that begin in The Netherlands in 2000 . ( The U.S. legalise same - sex man and wife in 2015 , after a Supreme Court ruling.)Notable holdoutsinclude all of Central and Eastern Europe , Italy , Switzerland , all of Africa ( except South Africa ) and almost all of Asia .
People Are Still Food Insecure
We’reeating morethan we did even a few year ago — no surprisal there — yet , still , some795 million peoplein the mankind do n’t have enough to eat . In 2018,9.2 per centum of the world populationwas severely food insecure , mean they did n’t have regular access to nutritious and sufficient food . thirstiness is most prevalent — and increasing — in almost all subregions of Africa , Latin America and Western Asia . But hunger also feign 8 percent of the populations of Northern America and Europe . In October 2015 , the Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to end world hunger by sharpen on rural exploitation , and investing in agriculture , let in crops , farm animal , forestry , fisheries and aquaculture .
The International Space Station Goes Online
In November 2000 , cosmonaut Bill Shepherd join spaceman Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev as the first work party to dwell theInternational Space Station . The ISS is a coaction between five space agencies represent 15 countries that began with an edict in 1984 from President Ronald Reagan . The ISS has been continually occupied since the turn of the 21st 100 . As of later 2019,some 239 multitude from 19 countrieshad spent time on the outer - quad station , which boasts six bedrooms , two bathroomsand a gym , where astronauts work out at least two hours a Clarence Day in gild to lessen the effect that weightlessness has on heftiness and off-white mint .
Climate Change Poses Global Threat
Humans have been wrack the planet for clip immemorial . Two 10 into the twenty-first century , the legal injury is becoming crystal clear . Because of criminal record levels of greenhouse gases — which largely get from fossil fuel and agricultural uses — we are , according to theWorld Meteorological Association , in the hot five - year and 10 - twelvemonth menses in human chronicle . Every ten since 1980 has been ardent than the previous one . That has lead to hotter seas , higher sea spirit level , a deprivation in Arctic ice , and more serious weather condition radiation pattern . " These shock make for a more unstable populace , " University of Manchester scientist Grant Allen toldThe Guardian . Many have tried to go the alert : theKyoto Protocol , which break down into effect in 2005 . " An Inconvenient Truth , " in 2006 . The 2015Paris Agreement . Many , sadly , continue unconvinced .
But Recycling Hits Its Stride
The idea of recycling waste matter stretches back well into the twentieth hundred , but the actual act of it has begun to hit its stride only over the past 20 years . According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , more than 53 million tons of substantial waste — consumer broadside — was recycled in 2000 . By 2017 that number had jumped to 67.1 million tons . Today we know it takes hundreds of years fora unmarried plastic bagto degrade , but Americans still use 100 billion of them a year . And even though individual - use plastics continue to be a scourge on the planet , only unthinking clods do n’t sleep together that it ’s better to take your own bags to the grocery , recycle those plastic feeding bottle , cans and composition , and strive for something skinny tozero waste product .
And Electric Cars Race to the Future
Convinced that the consumption of fossil fuel position a heavy scourge to life on Earth , South African engineer Elon Musk launch an galvanic automobile troupe , Tesla , in 2003 that has rattled the automotive industry . The Tesla Roadster stray out from its California factory in 2008 and by 2010 , only a few thousand electron volt were sold . But by 2018 , the number was up to 2 million worldwide , andBloomberg New Energy Financepredicts that by 2040 , more than 56 million galvanizing passenger vehicles will comprise 57 per centum of the rider vehicle sales in the world . Tesla is a drawing card in the U.S. , butChinais the planet ’s leader in manufacture and sales event . Other car manufacturer have have poster . Volkswagen ( which also owns Audi and Porsche ) is plan almost 70 new electric models by 2028 . In November 2019 , Ford launched itsfirst - ever electric Mustang , the Mach E. And Volvo says its goal is to have50 pct of its car salesto be fully electric by 2025 .
Scientists Find Water on Mars
Humankind , for millenary , has look to space in wonder . Whenphotos of gully on Marsin 2000 hint piddle at one time flowed on the open there , we turned our focal point specifically toward the red major planet . In 2018 , scientists disclose thatliquid water — not methamphetamine , not gas — still flows under the southerly ice cap of Mars . What ’s the openhanded deal ? Water , at least on Earth , means life is potential . And if climate modification does to Earth what many reverence , finding another place where human life can be sustain is critical to our very survival .
Physicists Confirm the Higgs Boson
Scientists at theLarge Hadron Collider — a 17 - mi ( 27 - kilometer ) circular tunnel under the border of France and Switzerland that physicists expend to accelerate beams filled with particles that they ruin into each other to see how they act — see in 2012 what they believe was substantiation of a long - rumor subatomic particle . The Higgs boson ( subatomic particle ) was known as the " God speck , " reportedly because it had beenso elusive . The idea that the Higgs exist was theorized in the ' 60s by Peter Higgs and François Englert . Until 2012 , the Higgs boson was the " wanting opus " of theStandard Model of particle purgative , which explains how all weigh in the universe should work . Both Higgs and Englert receive theNobel Prize in Physics 2013after the discovery .
Doctors Are Cracking the Genetic Code
The idea was hatch back in 1988 , but the goal was so overtly , audaciously challenging — the " staring mapping and understanding of all the genes in human being " — that the Human Genome Project was n’t finish until 2003 . The task , run by the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy , provides the world with a blueprint of the structure and purpose of some 20,500 human cistron . And scientists have only begun to discover what they can do with all this newfound noesis . One possibility , according to Francis Collins , the theatre director of the National Human Genome Research Institute in 2001 : " [ I]t ’s a transformative textbook of medical specialty , with insights that will give wellness precaution provider immense raw powers to treat , preclude and cure disease . "
While there ’s been no shortage of monolithic event — both ripe and bad — during the last 20 years , imagine what we can expect in the next five , 10 and 20 years . NASA says it will put anotherhuman on the moon by 2024 . Could we be hold out there soon after ? The U.S. could live a fresh industrial gyration of sort — the kind where robots and AI take our job . Cars could finally labor themselves . Deep fake videosmay one day have us conceive thing that do n’t live . superintendent - bug could become resistant to the most sinewy antibiotics , but biotechnology could allow us to create room decorator babe immune to disease . The bottom line is nobody recognize what the next 20 years could bring , but we know one thing : It will be here before you sleep together it .
