What stereotypical image do you think will come to define the early 21st Century in the future?
I think we all know that there is a certain iconic image of periods like the "Mid 20th Century" (Let's say 1945-1965), which is roughly imagined as the modern aesthetic of the 1950s and guided and influenced chiefly by the GI Generation and early Silent Generation. Whether one is nostalgic for or critical of the era the image persists of suburban homes, nuclear families, cultural stability/conformity, early rock and roll, naive earnestness, poodle-skirt+bobby Sox, clean-cut swagger, etc.
This is of course, something of a stereotype, assembled from bits and pieces of what was actually present then and things people have exaggerated or invented. But it is very interesting and powerful imagery and basically unshakable now.
I've long been curious about the formation of such an image and how it may occur in my lifetime. What will people bring up in sort of a lazy way when they want to hand wave about how old fashioned and corny the current era is, or when they want to selectively nostalgize it?
I feel like it might roughly center on the 2010s, focus on Late Gen X, Millenials and early Gen Z, (especially Millennials; "Millennial" has been the byword for 'young person' for most of this century so far). It will probably be some mix of hipster aesthetics, swag aesthetics, early (particularly Vista era) internet aesthetics, mocking cynicism, Disney adults, forced whimsy, the curly hair+big glasses+septum piercing look, the Jack Doherty sort of t-shirt+chains+shorts look, and probably some currently derided stuff like McMansions or the Corporate Memphis/GloboHomo artstyle.
I'm interested in other opinions. What do you think it will be?