The premiere and finale of HBO’s Game of Thrones, two royal weddings, endless superhero movies and kneeling protests are all significant events that occurred during the 2010s.
In the second decade of the third millennium, the rise of smartphones and social media took place, same-sex marriage became legal in the United States and several natural disasters affected countless countries around the world.
With the decade coming to an end, Seton Hall students reflected on their favorite moments of the last 10 years.
“My experience at the Astroworld concerts. I had a great time and was able to get on the roller coaster at one of [Travis Scott’s] shows,” Paul Oburu, a sophomore computer science major, said. Scott’s Astroworld album was the second-best-selling rap album of 2018.
“For me, I think film in this decade was pretty good, Marvel movies especially,” Justin Matthews, a sophomore computer science major, said.
'Avengers: Endgame' surpassed 'Avatar', which came out in 2009, for the highest-grossing film of all time in 2019, reaching $2.79 billion at the global box office, according to Variety.
“One of my favorite moments during this decade was definitely the 2014 World Cup. It was a very exciting World Cup, lots of things happened,” Candan Nixon, a sophomore biology major, said.
The 2014 World Cup was the first time a European nation had won the World Cup in the Americas, as Germany defeated Argentina 1-0 in the World Cup Final.
When asked what changes she had seen since the beginning of the decade, Jade Knight, a sophomore political science major said, “Fashion and people are more woke. I feel like as far as politics go, there is intense polarization.”
Donald Trump was inaugurated in 2017.
Nixon added, “There has definitely been a lot of changes in politics, a lot of polarization, but I hope that things can improve.”
A lot of students said the change they want to see in the next decade is people continuing to be more accepting of one another.
Matthews said, “people are generally more accepting of each other” and thinks “we’re just going to keep improving as a culture.”
The Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015.
On top of becoming a more welcoming society, Oburu said he is interested in seeing what happens in the world of technology.
“I definitely see an improvement in how we are going to live, in terms of technology, cars are going to look very interesting,” Oburu said.
Technology like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa were both released during the decade. The Verge wrote in 2018 that nearly a quarter of homes in the United States own a smart speaker.
Common among students was their goal for the next decade, is that they wanted to graduate from Seton Hall and get a well-paying job. Oburu said he would like to get in shape and work on his future goals and aspirations.
Knight said, “Graduating college, going to law school and taking over the world,” and Nixon said, “I would like to graduate from school here and eventually become a doctor.”
Jorie Mickens can be reached at jorie.mickens@student.shu.edu.
