If you asked a man in 1996 “What would the year 2016 look like?” it might be a little different than what it looks like now. Back to the Future came out eleven years before, which would put some (now understood) unrealistic ideas about what the following years would endure for the worlds economical, industrial, political, and technological advances.
Now, let’s say this same man, that you asked what 2016 would look like, had an unfortunate accident resulting in him falling into a coma. He falls into this coma September 15th, 1996 and wakes up August 1st, 2016. You’re the doctor. The man wakes up and chooses you. While other nurses and doctors are around him checking cords and tubes, he grabs your hand and asks what year it is. After your response of 2016 he asks what has changed outside of the walls of his tiny 320 square foot room that he had occupied for three decades. So what do you tell him?
1. Bill Clinton has moved out of the White House and, wouldn’t you know it, his wife is planning to move back in.
Since then we have had our first African American president and are in the middle of something close to the worst election year in American history. More people are liking the idea of voting for the Green Party instead of the Republican and Democratic candidates, wait for it, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. (Maybe leave this one for the tenth thing to tell him just in case he falls back into his coma after the news.)
2. We can go to Cuba!
Unless this man had a double citizenship, the chances that he had traveled to Cuba before his very long nap is slim. The diplomatic relations have been restored.
3. 12 year olds have cell phones, and no they’re not the size of a brick.
Instead they’re the size of your palm and hold, as some would argue, people’s entire lives. They’re no longer just for talking, but now texting, video chatting, checking all social media sites, emailing, and taking relatively high quality pictures.
4. High quality pictures have resulted in the kids today being “the generation of the selfie.”
Macintosh, now Apple, introduced the iPhone, and by the third version of it, added another camera to the front, facing the person using the phone. People no longer have to deal with the struggle of turning their cameras around and accidentally shooting a picture of their ear or zooming too far in and having only their eyebrow in the picture.
5. Bic made a new pen called "Bic for Her."
We don’t have to use man pens anymore and we can easily tell the difference because women’s are pink and purple. Thank goodness for that invention.
6. Today #ALLLIVESMATTER.
No matter what skin color, religion, or sexual orientation a person is, they have the same rights as the person next to them.
7. 9/11, or as Donald Trump would say, 7/11, was the day that the twin towers fell, a plane crashed into the pentagon, and the World Trade Center and White House were targets instead of national structures.
8. This year's Summer Olympics will be held in Rio.
It will be Michael Phelps’ (a swimmer who went to his first Olympics when he was 15) fifth Olympics and he was also voted the flag bearer. Rio has also had many sanitary issues, including the fact that toilet paper cannot be flushed and instead has to be put in tiny bags after it is used. Thankfully thought, they have an ungodly amount of condoms to distract them from the sanitary- issues.
9. Pluto is no more.
The famous Disney dog is still here, but the thing in space that I was told in elementary school was a planet, is not a planet, but it is. It’s a dwarf planet. Hopefully this guy doesn’t ask too many questions.
10. We found water on the moon.
Yes, the ocean is very big, yes it is very deep. But eventually there won't always be so hopefully we can figure out how to share with the aliens!
11. Everything is on the internet, everything on the internet is true.
People post statuses, pictures, selfies, and videos of themselves, friends, weird strangers, sunsets, puppies, etc. Any news that shows up in newspapers can also be found online much easier.
