2020s could be a rip-roaring good time

When my co-worker asked if I was excited about 2020, I almost forgot it was the end of a decade. I admit, it will be kind of cool to have two 20s in the year's title. I'll enjoy that, at least for the first few months. But as far as being excited? 

New Year’s Eve of 1999, now that was exciting. We weren’t sure if the world was going to end. As it turned out, the whole Y2K scare was a bit of a dud. My computer still booted up the next morning. 

I don’t think we have to worry about any major computer malfunctions this time, other than the fear of being hacked, having your personal information stolen, or forgetting your password. That’s normal. 

Technological advancements have become a hallmark of the last decade, perhaps the most prominent being the rise of the smart phone. The iPhone revolution has given us a new generation of kids that are dependent on an instant digital feed, a dependency that most of us “older people” never had growing up. 

I don’t consider myself old (hey, I'm no boomer), but we only got a computer when I was 10 – and other than word processing, it didn’t do much. I remember playing a lot in the bale stacks on our farm growing up. My town friends would play a lot in the bush around the railway tracks (I’m sure it was safe). We also pulled tire tubes behind snowmobiles at far too fast of speeds. 

Yes, there were video games, but Atari and Coleco Vision didn’t keep us from playing outside for long. They were our respite from the cold dark days of winter, but they didn’t have the engrossing effect of today’s life-like games. 

The last decade will have a lasting impact on our kids, but also on adults. It remains to be seen whether our fragile human brains can handle all the digital platforms that are being thrust upon us.  

Can we play together nicely, or will we rip one another apart through social shaming? Can we be ourselves, or do we need a photo-shopped image to show our Facebook friends? Can we be honest about loneliness and isolation, or do we need to break out of our man caves to admit that we need others? 

This past decade marked a new ministerial responsibility in the U.K.: Minister for Loneliness. What this tells us about our western society is damning, but I understand how it's come to this. 

We've left our social hubs, whether they be bowling clubs or churches, for time alone – sometimes of our own choice, but at times not. Our society seems driven towards independence and isolation. For those on the fringes, the elderly and socially challenged, it can be especially crippling. A man interviewed on the radio, who lives alone for much of the time in northern Saskatchewan, said he doesn’t feel any more isolated than when he lived in a city. “You can feel just as alone with thousands of people around you,” he said. 

I’m always amazed at the network of trust and connection among neighbours and relatives when I come home to the community where I grew up. It’s cliché to talk about small-town Saskatchewan this way, but everyone knows each other – their families, their habits, their problems. It may sound intrusive and lacking in privacy, but there’s a social safety net that doesn’t exist in most cities. 

This isn't to say we are on an inexorable trend towards isolation and meaningless in the 2020s. By contrast, we could regain so much as we pay more attention to the things we’ve taken for granted – friends, family, nature, even democracy. The protests in Hong Kong show how far people will go to take back the things they value. If we approach our challenges with the same fervor, the 2020s could be rip-roaring good time, just like the 1920s (remember those?) Or, at the very least, they could be better.

Even I can get excited about that.