Things that Changed our Lives this Decade

AIRPORTS
Remember when you did not have to take off your shoes before getting on a plane? Remember when you can bring bottled drink on board. Political terror has changed all that

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
From acupuncture to herbal supplements to alternative ways of treating cancer, alternative medicine became more mainstream than ever.

BLOG
A way of expressing oneself. There are more than a million of these Web logs out there.

BLACKBERRIES
Considered essential by corporate chief executives and moms planning playdates.

CABLE
Remember the time when you have to use outdoor antenna to get into the channels. Cable 24 hour news made the evening network news seem quaint.

CAMERAS
Remember those trips to get film developed? Even your grandmother has a digital camera and she is probably emailing you photos and uploading it to photosharing sites.

CELLPHONES
Remember the pagers before and now the mobile phones which you can easily communicate with the person you want to get in touch with

CHEFS
Chefs are hot. The Food Network whose viewership tripled this decade.

DATING
Dating was transformed like everything else by Internet sites, rendering other ways of meeting people obsolete. Seniors found love online too.

FACEBOOK
Can you believe that this social networking site was once limited only to Harvard students? Now it is time sucking obsession for more than 300 million users globally and a whole new form of social etiquette.

FAT
This was the decade that fat became the enemy of the state. Transfats are banned.


FOODIE
This was the decade of the foodie, when we all developed gourmet palates. Even a burger became a gourmet item as in a Daniel Boulud's truffle burger, stuffed with foie gras and short ribs.

GOING GREEN
From the kinds of light bulbs we the kind of shopping bags we carry to the cars we drive, to the products that we use.

GOOGLE
This is the decace that Google became a part of our brain function. Remember the guy who was in the movie when was it? Just Google it.

GPS
We cannot get lost anymore or at least it is pretty difficult, with the GPS systems. But you have to better type in your location carefully.


HELICOPTER PARENTING
Translation helicopters hover and so do many parents. After years of obssessive attention to safety and achievement of the youngest children some said a backlash was under way.

INSTANT GRATIFICATION
Otherwise known as being able to get anything you want within an instant. From instant noodles, instant coffee, instant oats, etc. The theme of the decade.


IPODS
An icon of the digital age, it is hard to believe this portalbe media player was launched in 2001. Six years later the 100 millionth IPOD was sold.

LIFE COACHES
Before the word coach is used in sports while now coach is used in everything so why not life itself? Some say that life coaches are merely therapists without the license or regulations.

REALITY TV
As a nation we become addicted to reality TV like the Pinoy Big Brother or Pinoy Dream Academy.

RECESSION CHIC
Fashion skewed to more severe styles, and much black, and so called "recession chic" took hold in the latter part of the decade.


STARBUCKS
It is a cliche that there is one on every block, but sometimes it seemed liked it, and millions now consider it normal to spend $4 or so on a coffee every morning.

TV SCREENS
Television screens became bigger and slimmer, making some ordinary living rooms and dens the equivalent of big studio screening rooms.

TWEEN CULTURE
Tweens, especially girls, became an economic force to be reckoned with, buying everything from clothes to electronic devices or gadgets to music concert tickets.

TWITTER
The social network introduced tweets, retweets, follows, trending topics, as long as the message fit into 140 characters.


WII
In a sea of ever more sophisticated video games, this simple console became the decade's breakout hit by appealing to the nongaming masses. It became the center of family gaming, home fitness and even senior socializing.

WIKIPEDIA
An open source encyclopedia used by lazy students, used the masses to police its entries and keep them accurate.

YOUTUBE
The video sharing site was born in 2005. You can share and view anything.