From local independence movements to national uprisings to race-based protests, to international relations, the 2010s were all about shifts in power relationships. The Arab Spring, #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Brexit, Crimea, the Refugee Crisis, the Wall, populations shifts, and the rise of China — to name just a few — all have one thing in common: they upset the status quo, and were either the cause or the result of massive power grabs or transfers.

The Arab Spring

This was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Islamic world in the early 2010s. It began in response to oppressive regimes and a low standard of living, starting with protests in Tunisia. Social media allowed the swift spread of revolution throughout the world, as new protests appeared in response to success stories shared from those taking place in other countries. But governments soon suppressed online discussion in those forums through accusing content creators of unrelated crimes or shutting down communication on specific sites or groups.

Everyone's Online

While the 2010s were a decade of great growth for social media in general, three platforms especially stand out. The number of monnthly active users on Facebook increased from 431 million in 2010 to 2.449 billion in 2019. Twitter went from 30 million monthly active users in 2010 to 330 million monthly active users in 2019. Instagram had 30 million users (and zero revenue) in 2012 when they were acquired by Facebook. By 2019 Instagram had 1 billion monthly active users.

Social Media is also where most people get their news about the world. In 2018, for the first time, social media sites surpassed print newspapers as a news source for Americans. One-in-five adults said they often get news from social media, slightly higher than the share who often did so from print newspapers (16%). Among social media sites, Facebook dominates in terms of news consumption: Around half of all U.S. adults (52%) now say they get news there.

Content-creating companies, afraid of piracy, moved to streaming services during the decade.

Climate Change Taken Seriously

The decade saw a significant uptick in the social media conversation about the health of our planet. On Twitter, there were 52.9 million mentions of either Global Warming or Climate Change in 2019, up from 1.6 million mentions in 2010. That's 33 times as many mentions compared to the beginning of the decade.

Changing Generational Relations

Millennials surpassed Generation Xers as the largest generation in the US labor force. There were 57 million Millennials (born 1981 to 1996) working or looking for work in 2018. That was more than the 53 million Gen Xers (born 1965 to 1980) and well ahead of the 38 million Baby Boomers (born 1946 to 1964).

In 2019, the phrase "OK Boomer "— an offhand dismissal of the life experiences and (sometimes unwarranted and usually unwanted) advice of Baby Boomers to Gen Xers or Gen Yers — became a flashpoint in an inter-generational social media spat. The reversal of power roles between the generations was just too much for many Boomers to handle.

The New White Minority

Nonwhites now account for the majority of the nation’s newborns, as well as the majority of K-12 students in public schools. More than half of newborn babies in the US are racial or ethnic minorities, a threshold first crossed in 2013. Nonwhite students also account for the majority of the nation’s K-12 public school students. As of fall 2018, children from racial and ethnic minority groups were projected to make up 52.9% of public K-12 students.

As with the "OK Boomer" kerfluffle, the blindness of many whites to their privilege, coupled with their incorrect assumption that respect and agency are somehow zero-sum games, led to the rise of a white nationalism/polulism movement that, among other things, led to the Trump presidency and the idea of governing through social media rather than the through the usual historical methods of legislation and the use of the judiciary.

Marriage for All

During this decade, same-sex marriage garnered the backing of a majority of US adults. In 2019, 61% of Americans favored allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally. In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, which established that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

China, the New Superpower(house)

The rise of Chinese manufacturing capabilities, tied with a huge andreadily available work force helped China to claim a central economic and political position thorughout the decase. Its massive growth, and growing influence in Africa and the Global South, wasnot without controversy. Protests in Taiwan and Hong Kong clamored for more local self-governance, but China maintained its center-first dominance throughout the decade.

Events

2010	An earthquake hits Haiti, killing an estimated 200,000 to 250,000 people and destroying the majority of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, as the last of the US brigade combat teams cross the border to Kuwait. The Affordable Care Act is passed (Obamacare). Justin Bieber is the most Googled person and entertainer of the year, largely thanks to his debut album and hit "Baby."
2011	Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of Al-Qaeda and the most-wanted fugitive on the US list, is killed by US military forces in Pakistan. The Oprah Winfrey Show, after a run of 25 years, airs its last sgow. The NASA Space Shuttle Program is officially retired. The Occupy Wall Street Protest begins. Thousands march on Wall Street in response to high unemployment, record executive bonuses, and extensive bailouts of the financial system. The last American troops are withdrawn from Iraq, ending the Iraq War. The Harry Potter movie franchise comes to a close with the last installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II.
2012	A gunnman opens fire in a crowded movie theater in Aurora, a Denver suburb, killing 12 people—the youngest a 6-year-old girl—and injuring at least 70 others. The Walt Disney Company purchases Lucasfilm Ltd. from George Lucas for $4.05 billion. Included in the deal are the rights to the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. The US Anti-Doping Agency bans former professional road racing cyclist Lance Armstrong for life and recommends he be stripped of his record seven Tour de France titles.> The US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and Consulate in Benghazi, Libya are attacked by protesters. Hurricane Sandy hits the Eastern seaboard and causes massive destruction in New Jersey and New York. A shooter kills 20 first-graders and six school employees, then kills himself, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.
2013	The Black Lives Matter movement is founded, in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot and killed an unarmed black teen, Trayvon Martin, in 2012. Pope Benedict XVI resigns the papacy, the first pope to resign since 1415. The US lifts the ban upon women in the armed forces serving in combat. Human stem cells are successfully cloned for the first time. Breaking Bad concludes its run of five seasons as the most awarded television show in history. Memes begin taking off as a cultural phenomenon, with Grumpy Cat becoming the most-searched Internet animal of the year.
2014	Ray Nagin, who was the Mayor of New Orleans, when Hurricane Katrina killed 1,577 people (most of whom drowned), is found guilty of corruption and sentenced to ten years in prison The Ice Bucket Challenge spurs donations of over $115 million to the ALS Association. The Ukrainian Revolution of 2014 begins as protesters, riot police and unknown shooters take part in violent events in the capital, Kiev, culminating in the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych. Refugees from Syria flood into Jordan, beginning the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Flint, MI switches its water source to the Flint River, beginning the ongoing Flint water crisis, causing lead poisoning in up to 12,000 people, and 15 deaths from Legionnaires disease, ultimately leading to criminal indictments against 15 people, five of whom have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
2015	Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula carries out five separate attacks across the city of Paris, the deadliest of which occurs at the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, where they they kill 12 people and injure 11 others. A 21-year-old white supremacist attends a prayer group meeting at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. After sitting quietly for nearly an hour, he stands up, pulls out a handgun, and murders nine parishioners. The Kaspersky Lab discovers the NSA's ability to hide spying software in hard drives made by several top manufacturers in the computers of users from 30 different countries. The USA Freedom Act restricts government surveillance under the Patriot Act, but does not completely end bulk collection of American phone metadata, which is collected by phone companies who may give information to the NSA voluntarily. Multiple newspapers report that oil companies knew that burning oil and gas could cause global warming since the 1970s but, nonetheless, funded deniers for years. A cell of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant commits a string of terrorist attacks across Paris, killing 131 and injuring over 400.
2016	The "Panama Papers" are published - 11.5 million confidential documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca that expose widespread illegal activities including fraud, kleptocracy, tax evasion and the violation of international sanctions by the world's elite in the world's largest ever data leak. NASA releases data showing that February 2016 was the warmest month ever recorded globally - 1.35C above the long-term average. A gunman forces his way inside Pulse, one of Orlando’s biggest nightclubs, and opens fire on the predominantly gay crowd. He kills 49 and wounds scores more. It is the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, but will be, superseded within a year. The United Kingdom votes to leave the European Union. Three genetic studies published in the journal Nature conclude that all non-Africans descended from one migration out of Africa 50-80,000 years ago. Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the US.
2017	Hurricane Harvey strikes Houston, causing over 180 billion dollars in damage. Some areas receive over 50 inches of rain in less than three days. During the 2017 football season, several National Football League players remain kneeling during the national anthem in silent protest of racial bias and the use of violence and profiling by police forces around the country. President Trump attacks the players on Twitter, sparking a further wave of protest by NFL players. A gunman opens fire on a crowd attending a country music festival in Las Vegas, killing 58 people and injuring more than 800. The death and injury tolls make this massacre the deadliest mass shooting in US history. 26 parishioners are killed and 20 others wounded when a gunamn opens fire during a service at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX. Hurricanes Irma and Maria strike Puerto Rico two weeks apart. Over 80,000 people were still without power from Irma when Maria hits, killing 499, wiping out 80% of the island's agriculture, and destroying the entire power grid. The whole island was declared a federal disaster area. The #MeToo movement begins, after a New York Times article exposes long-rumored accusations of sexual harassment and assault against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein made by dozens of women.
2018	An expelled student enters Parkland, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and opens fire, killing 17 people and wounding 17 others, in what is the deadliest shooting at a high school in US history. US authorities separate over 2,300 children from their parents at the US border with Mexico, provoking widespread international outrage until Trump ends the family separation policy by executive order in June. After posting anti-Semitic comments to an online forum, a gunman enters Chabbat morning services at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. The shooter kills eleven people and wounds six. It is the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the US. Harvey Weinstein turns himself in to police to face rape and sexual assault charges. A Pennsylvania judge sentences Bill Cosby to three to 10 years in prison after his conviction for aggravated indecent assault. Cosby was accused by over 60 women. Facebook suffers through a data mining scandal involving Russian interference in the US 2016 presidential election, Cambridge Analytica, and the sale of data from some 50 million users. The company loses $119 billion in value in a single day.
2019	Over 50 people are criminally charged in connection with Operation Varsity Blues, a massive investigation into a large-scale criminal conspiracy to influence college admissions at elite universities. Months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong begin, when more than 1 million people march to protest a bill that would allow the extradition of people to mainland China to stand trial. Simone Biles wins her twenty-fifth world medal and nineteenth gold, the most of any gymnast, male or female, in history. President Trump is impeached, for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The author of 11 novels that explored black identity in America and put the lives of black women in the spotlight, Pulitzer Prize winner and Novel Laureate Toni Morrison dies.

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