Y2K

A cultural critic revives the kooky, tech-obsessed spirit of the Y2K era.

Journalist Shade scrutinizes and celebrates the new millennium with heart and a spicy sense of nostalgic humor. Drawing on inspired research interwoven with her own youthful coming-of-age memories of being obsessed with that digital, optimistic, futuristic aesthetic, the author recreates the spirited era when early personal technology was innocent fun—until it wasn’t. She laments that while those childhood days were personally carefree, things have become immeasurably worse in terms of climate change, inequality, and political instability. Shade’s new millennium time capsule, from one economic bubble in 1997 to another in 2008, includes the rise of websites, home personal computers, shimmery metallic-inspired MTV video pop and rap stars, and numerous milestones that all became tarnished by the atrocity of the 9/11 attacks, which collapsed the Y2K party with a sobering pause. The author employs the expertise of political scientists to remark on the rise of population diversity and queer visibility throughout the aughts and effectively integrates these social developments with her own maturing perception of the fast-emerging world around her as an adolescent. Countering the social justice movements was the “McBling” aesthetic, popularized by celebs like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, which became a “metonym for vacuity, excess, entitlement, and celebrity culture itself.” South Park, Starbucks’ “latte liberal” discourse, and many other influences would mark the decade with humor, hijinks, consumption, self-absorbed technology, and finally a sobering recession. Shade particularly excels with an in-depth discussion on how the techno-optimistic ascension of the internet revolutionized politics, social intercourse, and “our own individual self-perception.” With the advent of social media sites, search engines, subscription content, and “anonymous and frictionless” adult website content, she notes, modern life as we knew it would never be the same. If readers can overlook the book’s dizzying nonlinear timeline, Shade’s exploration of those indelible years creates a fun, fulfilling, and rewarding time capsule.

A reflective, nostalgic, backward glance at a bygone era some recall fondly and others regret.