Maybe, but if it is people will still choose arbitrary boundaries like decades to create categories around even if they aren't bound under some specific properties or common experience, we're social animals and prefer inclusion even if it's just for fun. Regional dialects and accents are diminishing, but there are still linguistic changes happening across large geographical regions for example.

No, not at all. It's just easier to draw lines on where things start and stop once they change, so you may not feel like you're "in" an era.

Fascism sure draws a line in the sand.

Definitely not. I am playing timeguesser and there is distinct change pre 2020 and post 2020

I'd call this the "late stage capitalism era".

No, you're just used to things that are going on now so you don't see how it'll look in 20 years. I remember seeing people saying similar things back in, like, 2009

I think eras are less obvious when you're living through them

pre-2020 and post-2020 definitely feels like a different era.

(The pandemic and the global shift towards being more authoritarian)

In the late 1970's bell bottoms went out of style.

In the 1990's a different style of bell-bottoms became fashionable again for women in particular.

In the 1990's a popular look was the giant baggy jeans like JNCOs, which were technically a type of "bell-bottom."

In the 2020's, big giant baggy jeans like JNCOs are back in style again.

Further, did everyone forget the entire scene kid/emo kid styles of the early 2000's because that style was very unique and I don't see anyone who looks like this these days.

Haircuts like this were the thing in the early 2000's for women and men until about 2010ish when everyone put their three wolf t-shirts up in the closet and cringed at why they thought being ironic cringe was so great.

Both the 1980's and early 2000's were "skinny jeans" eras.

Just like how the broccoli headed boys are a thing for the 2020's.

And even the broccoli head boys are a natural re-occurence of the permed haircuts in the 1980's

I can think of plenty more examples but these are just a few.

Stylistically, I'd give the 2010s to hipsters. Damn I do not miss skinny jeans.

Item and sociologically? The smartphone is now ubiquitous.

Sadly, I think the late 10s + a bit will be known as the trump/covid era. (Or, if things get much worse, the beginning of the end.)

I feel like maybe around 2012 the whole concept of eras died.

It's the end of an era.

Nope, you just can't put your finger on what's distinct now and you lack the contrast of what the future brings.

Hair styles, fashion, design, colors, music, phones and other devices, all of that will be different in 10 years.

Remember, facebook was all the rage in a different era and is now uncool. Same for twitter. That's era defining as well.

I've been thinking about exactly this lately, and I'm open to the possibility that I'm just getting old and just falling into the "everything new is all the same crap!"

But... Imagine what you would wear to a 70s themed party, how about 80s, 90s?

I'm confident three distinct styles popped in your head.

But what about a 2010s party? Sure, some trends come and go, but I don't feel like the 10s party would look much different from a 2020 or 2000s party.

Feel free to tell me if I'm just old.

We are probably just completely out of touch with youth culture

Nothing ever unfolded neatly by the decade, but a themepark version could be compiled after the fact. It's harder when you can't even talk about "the 00s" gracefully, though. How do you say that?

I'm pretty sure this is a Randall Monroe observation that I'm just repeating. Relevant XKCD, from 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fashion_by_decade

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010s_in_fashion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020s_in_fashion

According to Swift, eras just became personalised, and rather than everyone entering a new one every ten years, you enter one after a breakup when you change your hairstyle.

I agree. The 1970s were disco, the 1980s were punk, the 1990s was New Wave, and the 2000's was the 2000's.

I'm old enough to remember Spice Girl mania.

People who never brought a record knew all the songs, because they were played on the radio, and every store and restaurant played local stations. They were in the newspapers and in magazines. They were mentioned on the local news shows.

I've never heard a Taylor Swift song played in public. All the stores and restaurants that have radio play dedicated oldies stations. No new music at all. I haven't watched the local news in years, and newspapers and magazines are gone.

I think you're going to see smaller and smaller groups getting excited by niche interests. You're not going to see Beatlemania ever again.

You're forgetting about all of the AI slop