Tik Tok: Time to go back to the future
This decade has been full on. But acts of decency will always matter.
With just two more days to go before this decade finally slips beyond the veil, this is one heck of 10-year block to look back on.
What do we make of this 2010-2019 period and what are the portents from it that could give us a clue about what life may be like in the coming years?
In 2010, the world was dealing with the fallout of a global financial crisis, the All Blacks had won the Rugby World Cup only once, and the No 1 song of the year was Tik Tok by Ke$ha.
Now, the All Blacks thankfully have that monkey off their back, economists seem to predict a financial crisis every year, and I don’t know where Ke$ha is but Tik Tok is a social media platform that embodies a general rule about the everchanging technology of our times – kids understand it fine, but adults take a while to get their heads around it.
‘‘Tech’’ could be the word of the decade.
We finally bid farewell to the beloved neighbourhood video store, and, in its place, welcomed a sea of streaming services that have transformed the entertainment landscape.
And, there’s the other technologies that have changed life as we know it. Whatsapp and Uber launched in 2009, the Apple iPad and Instagram in 2010. Seen as disruptive then, they’ve become a part of our everyday lives.
Yet, what is the guarantee that they will still be a presence in our lives 10 years from now?
I’m sure that in 2010, no-one predicted that by the end of the decade,
Donald Trump would be US president, Boris Johnson would be UK prime minister, and Scott Morrison would be in charge of Australia.
In Vox, Sean Illing wrote that the word ‘‘revolt’’ neatly sums up the decade in politics: ‘‘A revolt against elites. A revolt against liberal democracy. A revolt against the status quo. The seminal events of the 2010s felt like a collective no to the entire system.’’
And yet, in revolting against the status quo, to my mind the world’s gone back to a certain status quo when life seemed more racist and less tolerant of different people or world views.
Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard said ‘‘you live life looking forward but understand life looking backward’’.
In trying to understand the past 10 years and trying to guess how this uncertain life will unfold, it’s not stories of technology or politicians that inspire me about the future, but stories of people.
People such as Abdul Aziz, who was hailed a hero for his bravery after preventing a higher death toll at the Linwood mosque, when he attacked a cowardly gunman who allegedly killed 51 people across two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand’s deadliest mass shooting.
Yelling for others to get down, he picked up the first thing he could find, which was an eftpos machine and ran outside after the attacker.
Or the story of the 95-yearold World War II veteran John Sato, who was so moved in the wake of the Christchurch terror attacks, he caught four buses to join an anti-racism march and show solidarity for the people suffering in his country.
Stories like this show me that no matter how much our world changes or politically goes back to the bad old days, age-old values such as bravery, empathy, decency and kindness still matter in life.
‘Technologies have changed life as we know it.