From Airbnb to TikTok, the things that have risen onto our radar screen in the 2010s
On June 6, 2010, under the headline “A click better than couch surfing,” freelance travel writer Terry Gardner introduced Tribune readers to Airbnb, a newfangled startup that connected travelers with property owners offering “accommodations ranging from an airbed in a living room to a real bed in a home.” Nearly 10 years and mentions in close to 500 Tribune stories later, Airbnb has become one of those terms, those brands, that need no introduction or explanation. To look back as the 2010s come to a close, I’ve made a chronological list of things — products, technologies, ideas, terms — that have become part of life since late-2009. As a proxy for common awareness I’m using the Tribune’s digital news archives (the company that became Airbnb actually launched in August 2008, for instance) and marking the first reference in our pages. And to keep the length of the list manageable, I’m not including songs, TV shows, movies or people who have risen to fame in the last 10 years. Consult other retrospectives for those.
July 19, 2010: “Siri” as the name for Apple’s digital assistant
Aug. 13, 2010: “Angry Birds”
Sept. 10, 2010: “catfish” as a verb to describe creating a fake online persona to scam a would-be romantic partner
Oct. 18, 2010: Instagram
Jan. 15, 2011: “tiger mother” as a term for aggressive parenting
Jan. 20, 2011: Venmo
June 2, 2011: “slut shaming” as a term attacking a woman for her sexual choices; and, on the same day, Fitbit
Sept. 23, 2011: Uber, the ride-hailing service
Nov. 3, 2011: selfie
Nov. 13, 2011: Bitcoin
Dec. 9, 2011: Pinterest
Jan. 17, 2012: “photo-bomb” as a term describing the effort to spoil a photo by behaving oddly in the background
March 1, 2012: man bun
March 11, 2012: “Alexa” as the name for the Amazon Echo digital assistant
March 30, 2012: humblebrag
May 10, 2012: “YOLO” as shorthand for “you only live once”
July 3, 2012: emoji
Jul 12, 2012: avocado toast
July 31, 2012: GoFundMe (the general term “crowdsourcing” dates back to May 2008)
Sept. 14, 2012: “showrooming” as a term for browsing bricks-and-mortar stores then order the items online
Oct. 10, 2012: twerking
Nov. 30, 2012: Snapchat, a social media app
Dec. 29, 2012: Lyft, the ride-hailing service
Jan. 10, 2013: 3D printing
Feb. 4, 2013: “hate-watching” as term to describe reveling in the badness of a TV show
April 14, 2013: “mansplaining” as a term to describe … oh, never mind
May 26, 2013: “FOMO” as shorthand for “fear of missing out.”
Oct. 3, 2013: revenge porn
Dec. 3, 2013: drone delivery
Jan. 28, 2014: Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets
June 1, 2014: trigger warning
June 20, 2014: Apple Watch
June 23, 2014: WeWork, the officespace rental company
Aug 15, 2014: Black Lives Matter
Oct. 15, 2014: “bae” as a slang term for sweetheart
Dec. 26, 2014: social justice warrior
May 4, 2015: “dad bod” and “body shaming” — both in the same article, appropriately enough!
Jan. 1 , 2016: Impossible Foods, makers of the plant-based Impossible Burger
Feb. 12, 2016: cryptocurrency
May 12, 2016: “nonbinary” referring to gender identity
June 29, 2016: “woke” as a slang term for awareness of social injustice
Aug. 19, 2016: virtue signaling
Apr. 2, 2017: White Claw hard seltzer
May 3, 2017: antifa
Feb. 20, 2018: Juul vaping devices
July 5, 2018: deepfake technology
Nov 28, 2018: Green New Deal (in the U.S.)
Feb. 3, 2019: TikTok, short-video social media site
Re: Tweets
The Tweet of the Week (a feature of this column that dates to April 21, 2013) is “The miracle in Miracle Whip is that anyone would buy it when there’s perfectly good mayonnaise available that doesn’t taste like sadness,” by @hermanntrude. The poll appears at chicago tribune.com/zorn, and you can receive an alert when it’s posted by signing up for the Change of Subject email newsletter at chicagotribune.com/newsletters.