Ways the World is Better Than it Was in 2010

[Maquise]

A pretty simple question, but one I think that we should take time to answer. In what ways do you folk of the Playground think that the world is an objectively, or even subjectively, better place than it was on this day ten years ago?

Personally, I think the rising popularity of electric vehicles is something to be optimistic about.

[Imbalance]

Guns 'N Roses got back together.

[The Fury]

I think I'm better than I was in 2010. In 2010, I worked in a call center, had recently gotten kicked out of an artists' group, had ended a relationship, gave up RPGs in order to be more "productive," and was generally pretty miserable.

Now I've gotten training as a mechanic and currently work with cars. I've also gotten help with my mental health and have been around more accepting people. I wouldn't say that I'm recovered, but I do feel a lot better. Sorry to gush, but I feel like dropping in the GITP forums and being around y'all did help me quite a lot and I need to say thank you, so thank you.

[Rogar Demonblud]

My wife and I adopted twin girls. The world is way better since they came into my life.

[Khedrac]

Medically there are a lot of diseases and/or conditions that can now be treated far more successfully than in 2010.
Notably treatement for a lot of cancers and diseases like HIV fall into this category.

Environmentally, the fact that a much higher proportion of the population recognise the need to stop polluting the planet and control effects like climate change are a good thing - whether it will be enough is a different question.

[Liquor Box]

There's lots of stuff. It's better now than it was in 2010, and better of then than it was in prior decades.

It's a little USA-centric, but this article gives a fair summary of how things have improved in the last ten years:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/12/29/20-things-that-have-changed-for-the-better-since-2010/40879239/

[JNAProductions]

My wife and I adopted twin girls. The world is way better since they came into my life.

Aw. That’s great! Hope they grow up to be awesome ladies!

[Sermil]

Well, in 2010, over 15% of the world lived in extreme poverty. By 2015, it was 10% and falling, so probably well under 10% today.

So, over 300 million people have gotten out of extreme poverty over the last decade. I'd call that a ****ing win for the good guys.

Source (http://povertydata.worldbank.org/Poverty/Home)

[Scarlet Knight]

According to a recent NY Times article "In the long arc of human history, 2019 has been the best year ever". It then provided numbers that along with poverty, childhood mortality has decreased while literacy has increased.

[danzibr]

I think I'm better than I was in 2010. In 2010, I worked in a call center, had recently gotten kicked out of an artists' group, had ended a relationship, gave up RPGs in order to be more "productive," and was generally pretty miserable.

Now I've gotten training as a mechanic and currently work with cars. I've also gotten help with my mental health and have been around more accepting people. I wouldn't say that I'm recovered, but I do feel a lot better. Sorry to gush, but I feel like dropping in the GITP forums and being around y'all did help me quite a lot and I need to say thank you, so thank you.
Pick RPGs back up?

This thread is inspiring btw.

While I don’t have anything to add on a humanity level (except science is cool), my life is going the right direction. Got married, 3 children, great job. Also a doctorate I don’t use.

[Telonius]

Subjectively:

In 2010, only Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and The Incredible Hulk existed. Thor onward did not.

Also:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/00/The_Child_aka_Baby_Yoda_%28Star_Wars%29.jpg/220px-The_Child_aka_Baby_Yoda_%28Star_Wars%29.jpg

[The Fury]

Pick RPGs back up?

This thread is inspiring btw.

While I don’t have anything to add on a humanity level (except science is cool), my life is going the right direction. Got married, 3 children, great job. Also a doctorate I don’t use.

On and off, yes. That's why I ended up joining these forums in 2013. I think what I didn't understand in 2010 is that I'm allowed to do things I enjoy just because I enjoy them.

Also, congrats on starting a family.

[Vinyadan]

I think it depends on where you live. Overall, I don't think that this was a decade to be proud of. Most of the good things came from decisions taken in the past.

Good things: environmentalism expanded so much that commons sense drowns out the crazies, electric cars, many people made a massive leap in acceptance, continuing expansion of healthcare, sanitation, clean water and electricity. Sexual harassment is far less tolerated.

While I think that the Marvel and DC productions are tying up immense resources for films that mostly have minimal worth (exceptions: Shazam, Winter Soldier, Days of a Future Past, Aquaman, probably a couple more; they didn't make history, but they were good) there now are more studios like Netflix and Amazon that have enough money to make movies, but not enough money to make blockbusters, so they create an opening for independent film-makers.
Lady Bird is a perfect film. Music availability has exploded, which makes up for the radio passing songs mostly written by the same 4-5 people.

[Lemmy]

I finished college, got a job and adopted my cat, who is probably the main responsible for keeping my sanity, so that's nice.

And there's the usual "science makes the whole world better" thing... But that's not quite as important as cute kitties.

[NontheistCleric]

I've managed to survive a whole ten years since 2010. Not the greatest achievement, but also the only one I have, and I can't say I'm too unhappy with it, all things considered.

[Arcane_Secrets]

A pretty simple question, but one I think that we should take time to answer. In what ways do you folk of the Playground think that the world is an objectively, or even subjectively, better place than it was on this day ten years ago?

Personally, I think the rising popularity of electric vehicles is something to be optimistic about.

For the most part, its not as far as I'm concerned. The popular music is even worse, music I like (and I'm not wistfully looking back to the 1950s here as much as I'm talking about the availability of techno/electronic music and even better metal) is harder to find, there are fewer fora that I find tolerable and/or are willing to discuss much of anything I find interesting. And those are just the things that I can talk about here; in other respects I've seen nothing but appalling to disgusting to seriously even questioning why I bother even trying to have hope any more.

Videogames and at least some television are definitely better, though.

[darkrose50]

More and better variety of television and internet. It seems like there is a better understanding those that are different such as those who are homosexual, and those who have autism. I would think that this was also do to television characters that are different, and are shown on television.

[Telonius]

The pollution controls on the Potomac River have started showing some very good results; according to a Smithsonian Magazine article, dolphins are living and breeding (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dolphins-are-living-and-breeding-potomac-river-180973263/?sf110057966=1&fbclid=IwAR08crh5NPO-PivY5jsE4eS_C3OiDTki6yElfRNguxWMEl2OrOQ_dJJc9YI&utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=American+Rivers&utm_content=Dolphins+Are+Finally+Living+and+Breedi ng+in+the+Potomac+River+Again) there again.

[Mastikator]

Solar power dollar per kilowatt hour has become approximately 75% cheaper, it's even become more economically viable in some places to build solar power panels than coal. I see many more solar panels on roofs today than I did 10 years ago, those bad boys eventually pay for themselves.

[King of Nowhere]

I wouldn't put electric cars in the ups, as currently they pollute much more than regular cars. they still consume the same amount of energy to move, they consume extra energy for heating in cold climates (regular cars have free heating as a byproduct of the engine), and they are more expensive to produce.

it's good that they get researched, though, because eventually when all energy will be renewable those are what we will use. and right now we have more chances of that happening than ever. green technology made a lot of progress in the last decade. not only renewable energy keeps growing and becoming cheaper, we are pretty close to fixing the problem of floating plastic (https://theoceancleanup.com/)

one thing that no one else mentioned is also space exploration; in this decade we had many first (i'm thinking especially new horizons, rosetta, dawn), and we finally decided to move forward human exploration again with the artemis program

[Tyndmyr]

Subjectively:

In 2010, only Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and The Incredible Hulk existed. Thor onward did not.

Also:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/00/The_Child_aka_Baby_Yoda_%28Star_Wars%29.jpg/220px-The_Child_aka_Baby_Yoda_%28Star_Wars%29.jpg

Oh good, I'm glad someone beat me to these, because this was my first thought.

We have also gotten some really good TV and movies in other areas as well. The Boys, Knives Out, Jojo Rabbit, The Good Place....some excellent work has been done in entertainment.

Financially, I'm way better off. Ten years ago, I was limpin' out of a poor pre-crash housing buy that honestly wasn't a great choice, and now I've got a shiny, new way better house, a great job...

Also, I didn't know then that hedgehogs were awesome and adorable, and now i've got a couple of the wee buggers.

I wrote a few things that had some minor amounts of success/usage. Cell phones have gotten seriously cool, VR is finally starting to actually live up to the long lost dreams, private spaceflight is a thing.

Society, while never perfect, seems to have generally become more accepting of folks with various lifestyles, and that's certainly a good thing. Economically, the US is in a record long good time between crunches. All kinds of good side effects from that. I've gotten to play all sorts of fun games, and board gaming has exploded in popularity.

It's easy to get caught up in the things that aren't so great sometimes, it's nice to remember that some things are still pretty fun.

[Scarlet Knight]

...Also, I didn't know then that hedgehogs were awesome and adorable, and now i've got a couple of the wee buggers...

Sadly, things aren't better today for the hedgehogs with their habitat shrinking due to climate change and overdevelopment.

[Raimun]

It's a little USA-centric, but this article gives a fair summary of how things have improved in the last ten years:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/12/29/20-things-that-have-changed-for-the-better-since-2010/40879239/

Yeah, particularly "More U.S. sports teams are winning titles" has definitely been an improvement for the better. It's brilliant and I don't even live in the USA. Hooray!

Oh, and there were other things as well and they are probably nice too.