I don't always agree with Kevin Drum, but I agree with him on this one. The defining characteristic of the 2010s was the domination of the smartphone. Although smartphones came out at the end of the prior decade (the first iPhone came out in 2007), it wasn't until the beginning of the 2010s that that smartphone went from a gadget for early adopters and rich people to a necessity for almost everyone. Smartphones became central to most people's lives early in the decade and have remained central ever since. They were the biggest agent of change in our culture, bigger than Trump (indeed they arguably contributed to Trump because of Twitter). I think the best illustration of how smartphones took over the world are these two pictures of Vatican Square when Pope Benedict was inaugurated in 2005 (top) and Vatican Square when Pope Francis was inaugurated in 2013 (bottom).
