Ten Years: Then and Now

I began this blog ten years ago today! Over the last ten years, I have blogged every Sunday, and I have made anniversary posts every May 1.

When I think about 2011, I think, "Oh, that wasn't that long ago." But when I hear ten years, I think that's a long time. How did this happen already?! For this year's anniversary, I thought I would reminisce about what the world looked like in 2011.

If you wanted to stream music, you used Pandora. That meant if you wanted to hear an entire album, you had to buy it, either digitally or on CD. CDs had declined, but most major stores still sold them. New music came out on Tuesday, not Friday.

If you turned on the radio, you would hear a lot of familiar voices: Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Adele. But many others have faded into obscurity. Remember  Owl City, the Band Perry, Enrique Iglesias, "Tonight, Tonight," "Pumped Up Kicks," "Party Rock Anthem"?

You could still shop at Shopko and Kmart!

There weren't nearly as many streaming options, so DVD and BluRay were still king. 

3D movies were still a thing.

Frozen yogurt (froyo) shops were all over, and cookie shops were rare. (I like the cookie shops better.)

Facebook was in its prime, and it was better. It didn't have as many ads in your feed. Was anyone using Instagram then? They certainly weren't using Snapchat or TikTok. 

Blogging had already declined, but a few more people were still blogging than are doing so today. 

Colorful shoes and pants were popular. I miss that.

I still used a flip phone, though plenty of people had smartphones. I still took my physical scriptures to church. In fact, I worked at the Church distribution center at the end of 2010 and the end of 2011, and we sent out lots of manuals and books for people to use in church; I think the Gospel Library app was much smaller. I imagine they don't send out nearly as much anymore. They probably don't employ as many people. But I don't know that.

Everyone scoffed at the notion of Donald Trump running for president, because [comment deleted so as not to start a fight on this commemorative post].

We were coming out of the Great Recession, which meant my dad was laid off for several months.

In my personal life, I was in my second year at BYU, and I had a custodial job.

I could spend more time listing off things from 2011, but I still have four papers to write this week. Who would have guessed that ten years later I'd still be in school. 🤷