As an American, it has to be Septemer 11, 2001.
Y2K had been a mostly smooth transition, thanks to a lot of hardworking cowboys. But the terrorist attack and response to it were such a sharp break from the world we lived in before it, in a way that still dominates media, culture, and politics today.
So yeah, to me, all of AD 2000, and most of 2001, were still the old millenium, still the 90’s, and for me personally still mostly my childhood in many ways.
Everything began to break after this date, I shit you not.
We didn’t…? I recall that it was deemed too risky an experiment and it was soon abandoned.
When it’s got a new number at the top, it’s the beginning. 2000 is an amazing change. 2001 an after thought.
As an American, it has to be Septemer 11, 2001.
I think that day changed a lot of things for everyone around the world, not just for America. Everything that came after felt very different. 9-11 shaped our society and media in a way we can still see today.
The 90s were a pretty optimistic decade up until the year 2000. 2006 and 2009 were great individual years regardless.
9/11 for sure makes a lot of sense. But I think it’s what followed it that marks the break. The Iraq war and the lack of WMDs and all that that implies and all the tremors that set forth through the democracies of the time. The nationalistic and racial energies drummed up. Conspiracy theories etc.
Along with YouTube breaking through into the mainstream and Time magazine putting a mirror (IE “you”) as its person of the year, I’d say 2006, also in part because of Colbert’s evisceration of Bush at the White House correspondents dinner.