Past Decade Marked by Cellphones, Employment and Social Media

What has changed in the United States, and changed the country, in the past decade? Among those things at the top of the list is record unemployment, the rise of wireless devices, the ubiquity of social media and the increase in America’s nonwhite population, according to a major new study from research firm Pew.

The darkest mark of the Great Recession may have been the millions of people who were thrown out of work. This changed whether Americans could afford a home, altered the ability of many to afford basics as simple as food, crippled a sense of self-worth and marked the collapse of major industries like car manufacturing. At the start of the decade, unemployment was close to 10%. The figure is at a multidecade low of 3.5% now. The inability of some industries and companies to find workers is evidence of this change. It also has gone hand in hand with rebuilt gross domestic product and consumer confidence, as well as a surge in real estate prices.

At the start of the decade, Facebook was barely five years old. The same was true of YouTube. Facebook’s membership worldwide is almost 2.5 billion. Close to 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every day. Many people believe that Facebook has become the largest source of news, at least in America. Pew reports that “Around half of all U.S. adults (52%) now say they get news there.” The downside of this is that a large number of people do not look at independent media. Also, Facebook has become a platform for false information, including content that may have affected the 2016 election. The federal government’s reaction is that Facebook’s activity may need to be regulated.

In 2011, 35% of Americans owned smartphones. That figure has risen to 81%. Over approximately the same period, tablet ownership has risen from 3% to 52%. Smartphones have become the hub of much of daily behavior, from communication to e-commerce, to the ability to map one’s location and chart where people want to go.

Nonwhite newborns and children who attend schools in the K-to-12 grade levels have hit nearly 53%. The extent to which America is a white country began to change long ago. This is not only true today. It will be less true in the future.

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Pew does not opine on whether these changes are for good or ill. What it does say is that America has changed, and is changing, into nothing like it was 10 years ago.

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