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  • Australia, Canada, and the Scandinavian countries consistently top worldwide quality of life rankings and surveys.
  • The vast proliferation of information technology and digital media leads to many cultural paradigm shifts as people grapple with information overload.
  • Millennials are commonly thought of as adept at, or even socially dependent on, these technological developments.
  • Reality television becomes a well-established sector of the television programming industry for most of the early 2000s, switching to more traditional programming starting in the year 2004.
  • Nightly news broadcasts continue to lose viewership to 24-hour internet and cable news broadcasts.
  • Changing television habits that involve increased use of the internet, telephone, and video games and the preponderance of DVR devices make marketers rethink the paradigm of the 30-second TV ad.
  • Viral marketing, and product placement within reality television shows and movies are some increasingly used alternatives.
  • Spam is used as an alternative, irritating many.
  • European, Japanese, Australian and New Zealand's society continues to become more secular; in contrast, religious groups increase their political influence in the Middle East and to a lesser extent in the United States.
  • The divisive US presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 leads to commentators describing the country as split between Red States and Blue States.
  • April 2, 2005: Pope John Paul II dies at age 84; succeeded by Pope Benedict XVI on April 19.
  • Same-sex marriage becomes a major cultural issue in developed countries.
  • In 2001, the Netherlands becomes the first country to allow homosexual couples to wed.
  • This is followed by Belgium in 2003, and by Canada, Spain, New Zealand, and South Africa in 2005.
  • Many countries now permit civil unions or a variation of them, which often allow exactly the same rights as marriage (Germany, France, Great Britain, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Luxembourg, Finland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Czech Republic).
  • In 2004, homosexual marriage, previously banned throughout the United States (sometimes by explicit mention in statute, other times by omission in statute), becomes legalized in Massachusetts, the first state to do so.
  • Interracial relationships and/or marriages increase considerably in numbers and visibility as the decade progresses in multi-cultural societies such as North America and Australia.
  • Generation Y twenty-somethings generally propel this demographic,where the majority generally have little or no prejudice in partner selection simply based upon race.
  • Legalization of marijuana becomes a topic of discussion in US, from medicinal marijuana being permitted in California to the city of Denver, Colorado legalizing the possession of up to an ounce of marijuana.
  • In the United States, DIY alternative culture is facilitated by the internet and spreads local chapters of national confederations of all-female roller derby, lucha libre wrestling, Flicker Film Festivals, improvisational brass and marching bands, and DJs.
  • There is an increased awareness of global poverty through campaigns such as ONE.

  • 2002–2003: SARS virus outbreak, most notably in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Toronto.
  • In August 2003 over 18,000 French die in a heat wave coinciding with the summer holidays when the bulk of France's medical and aged care staff are off-duty.
  • Other spikes in mortality amongst the aged and infirm occur across Europe.
  • February 1, 2003: The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry, killing all seven astronauts onboard, prompting investigation into NASA communication abilities and safety.
  • Space shuttle flight resumes in late 2005, only to be suspended again.
  • In 2003, a major earthquake rocks the ancient city of Bam, in Iran.
  • Cost over 50,000 lives.
  • On December 26, 2004, a major earthquake and ensuing tsunami causes devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean.
  • As of January 2005 the death toll is estimated to be nearly 290,000, prompting the largest humanitarian response for a natural disaster in history.
  • Methamphetamine use skyrockets while crime rates in the U.S. reach the lowest rate in 40 years as of 2005 and use of most other drugs drops.
  • Extended alcohol sales becomes popular public policy in US and UK.
  • Underage consumption of alcohol under supervision of a parent or legal guardian is legalized in many states in the US in early 2005.
  • Bird flu spreads through South East Asia; countries begin preparing for a potential bird flu epidemic, fearing that it could mutate into a form that could transfer easily from person to person and kill millions of people.
  • Bird flu spreads rapidly into Europe in October 2005.
  • Criticism of Vladimir Putin's governmental policies and reforms mount and a backlash of Soviet-nostalgia occurs in Russia.
  • On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina strikes southeastern Louisiana, U.S., with winds up to 125 mph, killing more than 1,400 people and devastating the city New Orleans and the Mississippi coast, making this hurricane one of the costliest hurricanes in known World History.
  • People and life later return to New Orleans, but many analysts expect that New Orleans will never return to its prior state.
  • A major earthquake in Kashmir kills close to 80,000 people on October 8, 2005, devastating Kashmir and forcing the mass evacuation of mountain towns as winter approaches.
  • Arctic sea ice cover reaches record lows; global warming continues to be a major concern.
  • (see environmentalism)
  • The 2005 Atlantic Basin Hurricane Season becomes the most active on record.
  • First use of the Greek naming system after traditional names exhausted.
  • Martha Stewart was sentenced to 5 months in prison and 2 years probation after 'insider trading' of her ImClone Systems stock.
  • In Eastern Germany and other ex-Communist countries there was for a short time a growth in nostalgia for former Communist times (Ostalgie) (2002).
  • Because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the politics of U.S. president George W.
  • Bush, there has been a surge of anti-Americanism, especially in Western Europe.
  • From early in the decade, mobile phones are largely seen as a necessary accessory, even for the majority of children as young as 10 years old.
  • Ownership approaches 100% of the population in most Western European countries.
  • Fashion and cosmetic surgery become more mainstream; an increase in interest is most notable in men, influenced by fashion-conscious celebrities such as David Beckham.
  • Chav culture in the United Kingdom becomes a significant fashion/lifestyle choice, especially amongst those in the working class.
  • Formal wear such as sun dresses and evening gowns become more popular amongst the younger generations in Europe, especially in the latter part of the decade.
  • Clothing origially from the 1980s become popular, including chunky plastic jewelery, leggings (known as footless tights), ankle boots, legwarmers, 50s colours and patterns (like polka dots) and the stiletto heel.
  • The Internet becomes a major source of all types of media, from music to movies, thanks to file-sharing P2P programs such as KaZaA and Limewire.
  • The debate continues over the ethics of file-sharing.
  • As people become more used to the Internet during this decade it begins to be spelled lower-cased, called simply "the internet" or "internet" as opposed to "Internet" or "The Internet" which were used almost exclusively during the 1990s.
  • Similarly "E-mail" became "email" and "Web sites" became "websites".
  • The diverse and spontaneous nature of the internet allows an internet culture to form.
  • Online projects such as hamsterdance, YTMND and Homestar Runner become international trends within short periods of time due to word of mouth on and off the web, with little or no promotion required from their creators.
  • Internet phenomena and jokes spread quickly through out mainstream internet and sometimes off-internet culture from sources such as the Something Awful Forums, 4chan, and Albino Blacksheep.
  • (A good example of this would be Chuck Norris Facts.) Some music acts, such as Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen became well-known almost entirely from the use of the internet.
  • Legal music download services such as iTunes and the re-designed Napster open up a new market of digital downloading.
  • Napster, even its current version, becomes the number one music swapping enterprise of all time.
  • Popular video shorts of the 2000s include Star Wars Gangsta Rap, D.R.A.F.T., and the SNL skit Lazy Sunday, which was controversially removed from YouTube in early 2006.
  • The film Snakes on a Plane, starring Samuel L.
  • Jackson, becomes an Internet phenomenon prior its August 18, 2006 release.
  • Television and Internet begin to merge as networks start streaming shows online.
  • Craigslist.org, a popular online classified site, saps over 50 million dollars a year from newspaper revenues, with a staff of only 16 people in San Francisco.
  • Cell phones gain the ability to access the Internet.
  • Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol(VoIP) telephones and the Internet slowly begin to merge: Examples are Vonage and Skype.
  • Webcomics by amateur cartoonists begin to surpass the popularity of traditional print comic books and newspaper strips.
  • Flash movies and Fan Fiction also become popular.
  • Re-cut trailers become popular in the mid-2000s, largely due to the many parody trailers of Brokeback Mountain during the 2005-2006 winter.
  • Popular examples include "Brokeback to the Future", , and the Sleepless in Seattle trailer cut into a horror movie.
  • Social networking programs such as MySpace, Xanga, Facebook, Friendster, and MyYearbook become extremely popular among teens and twenty-somethings inspiring others to share and trade personal information via online.
  • These sites are criticized by many for safety concerns such as their use by pedophiles to exploit the younger generations.
  • MySpace seems to be improving in safety and security as the decade progresses.
  • Informational and educational web sites abruptly decline as the internet becomes more of a place for advertising and other types of media, such as the use of such chat boards including MySpace and Facebook.
  • The interactivity of the internet becomes more prominent with websites such as Wikipedia, YouTube and somewhat MySpace where users can become contributors without a specialized knowledge in HTML technology.

    • Television in the 2000s saw the increase in popularity of reality shows, such as Survivor (2000-present) and Big Brother (2000-present).
  • The decade has since seen a steady decline in the number of sitcoms and an increase in reality shows, such as American Idol (2002-present), crime and medical shows, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-present) and Grey's Anatomy (2005-present), and action/drama shows, including 24 (2001-present) and Lost (2004-present).
  • The reality TV surge in the early part of the decade began to wane towards the middle of the decade, although reality TV continued to be popular.
  • Traditional network news programs have slowly waned in popularity with the increase of 24-hour cable news stations and Internet news.
  • Adult-oriented animated programming also began a sharp upturn in popularity with shows like South Park (1997-present) and Family Guy (1999-2002; 2005-present) along with the longtime running cartoon The Simpsons (1989-present).
  • Many successful sitcoms from the 1990s ended in the 2000s, such as Frasier (1993-2004), Friends (1994-2004), Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2005), and That '70s Show (1998-2006).
  • Among the most popular sitcoms that began in this decade include Malcolm in the Middle (2000-2006), Yes, Dear (2000-2006), and Grounded for Life (2001-2005).
  • There are few other sitcoms that have gained widespread popularity this decade.

    Television saw heavy censorship concerning nudity, sex, and violence in the U.S. after the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake Super Bowl incident occurred early in 2004.
  • The United States House of Representatives passed a bill to raise the maximum FCC fine penalty from USD $27,500 to $500,000 per violation.
  • The United States Senate voted to increase it to $275,000 per incident.
  • The two houses of Congress reconciled the differences in fine levels, deciding on a fine of $375,000 per violation in 2005.










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