The noughties in a nutshell (especially for the UK)

The noughties - the first decade of the millennium (cue Robbie Williams's 'Millenniuuumm' single), the second decade I have lived through (fully), and the decade I received all my formal education in, (ha!)

You might want to start this decade by renting a car in Dublin and driving around Ireland. You might instead simply want to reflect on what characterised the glorious noughties. I have narrowed my list down to six key aspects of the last ten years:

1) THE INTERNET - I remember the days when you had to go and watch half an episode of F.R.I.E.N.D.S while you waited for a page to download on the internet. I must have been 14 so this inefficient way of surfing the web was rife in around 2002. Before then, the net was still a work in progress. By the mid noughties however, the great British public became spoilt. Most people now have Broadband and if you’ve got wireless as well, then you’re laughing.

Most influential online website: it’s got to be either Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia or Google. I’m gonna go for Facebook as it usurped MySpace’s place as the everyday person’s social networking site and even managed to mess up Simon Cowell’s plans for the Christmas number one this year. Google is a close second, but we had Altavista and Yahoo before then.

2) REALITY TV - Watching people sit there and do something remotely entertaining every 10 hours became popular with Big Brother. George Orwell was prophetic when he said that "Big Brother is watching you". And there’s reality TV for everyone, everyone who enjoys reality TV anyway. If you prefer the sardonic tones of Simon Cowell, you can watch The X Factor one half of the year and Britain’s Got Talent the other. If the old-fashioned, loveable cringe-factor is more up your street, watch 81-year-old Brucey strut his stuff on Strictly Come Dancing. And if you prefer viewing non-celebrities, you can tune into The Family, The Apprentice, Wife Swap, Supersize vs Superskinny… the list goes on.

Most influential reality TV programme: It’s got to be Big Brother as this was the foundation of the reality TV era. It's entirely appropriate that BB complete with Davina and her excited tones, (I am a fan though) is coming to an end in 2010. Singing competitions such as The X Factor have also gone global so this comes in respectable (hmmm debatable) second place.

3) CELEBRITY CULTURE - The above two technologies have contributed to the way celebrity culture dominates our society. And the idolisation is on a global scale. Take David Beckham as an example. People in China love the England footballer. People closer to home in the UK also love Becks, even dubbing him Golden Balls at one stage. Meanwhile, he’s living in the USA making friends with A-list Americans like Tom Cruise. He personifies celebrity culture taking over the planet.

Most influential celebrity: David Beckham or Mr Barack Obama (first African-American to be named American president in case you hadn’t heard.)

4) ISLAMOPHOBIA – 9/11, The War On Terror and 7/7 are expressions that have developed in the noughties. People think of Islam as an extremist religion although there are plenty of peaceful Muslims around. Let’s hope fascists like Nick Griffin don’t exploit any Islamophobia in the west at the moment.

Most influential Muslim: Osama Bin Laden. Barack Obama said it would be one of his priorities to find this Saudi who changed the lives of people across the globe post-9/11. No one knows where he is, but his presence remains strong.

5) THE SUPERNATURAL: Arts and literature of this decade have featured wizards, vampires and werewolves and people have been going crazy for them!! J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series thrilled adults and children alike, while the Twilight books and films have left millions of teenage girls lusting after vampires and/or werewolves. Who knows what next year's literary craze will be?

Most influential supernatural work: The Harry Potter books. These showed that people needed a bit of magic in their lives and made author J.K Rowling, who lived in council accommodation at one point, one of Britain's richest ladies.

6) OFFBEAT FASHION – the clothing of a decade becomes the theme for future fancy dress parties. The noughties’ fashion trends take most of their inspiration from the eighties with the comeback of skinny jeans, leggings and legwarmers. Topshop/Topman being the high-street store of choice in the UK indicates the fashion of the noughties to be less manic than the eighties, but still a little funky. Other than the grunger fad some of us went through, fashion trends have improved since the nineties. No question.

The clothing item of the noughties: Skinny jeans, no matter what sex you are. Crotch alerttttt if you are a man though. Be warned.