Top 10 Things Only 2010s Kids Will Understand

It seems like every decade has its “toy.” And the 2010s – well, a few months in 2017 anyway – had the fidget spinner. Just as kids today laugh at goofy old toys like ball in a cup, so too will future generations laugh at the fidget spinner. “So, like, you just spun it with your finger over and over and over again?” Yes, that’s exactly what we did. And some people even made trick videos! These toys became so popular that one third of the United States’ largest high schools had them banned, with authorities claiming that they were distracting children. Well, yeah. Literally anything will distract a child from schoolwork!

Who knew that a toy from the '70s would become so popular with YouTubers? Slime has been around since 1976, but it took on a whole new level of popularity in the 2010s. Many famous and verified YouTubers began making videos with slime, helping the gooey toy reach a whole new generation. Playing with slime has also become a popular ASMR subgenre, and videos of YouTubers making their own slime have racked up tens of millions of views. It just goes to show that the greatest toys truly are timeless. The classics are classics for a reason, after all!

Just like popular toys, every generation has its Disney movie. And while Disney had a pretty good decade when it came to original animated movies, the 2010s undeniably belonged to “Frozen.” It seemed like you or someone you knew owned a fancy Elsa dress, and absolutely everyone knew all the words to “Let It Go”, whether it be the children who watched the movie or the parents who had to hear it blaring from their home speakers 582 times a day. Future generations will watch “Frozen,” just as we all watch movies like “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Lion King,” but only 2010s kids will understand the sheer pandemonium that the movie produced.

While things like “Sesame Street” and Barney are always kid friendly, we still need to make room for new IPs. Enter “Peppa Pig,” the hottest TV show for toddlers. The show has spawned endless pieces of merchandise, including playsets, toys, vehicles, and video games, and show’s merch was named the hottest brand in the preschool market in 2010. Many parents even reported that their children were developing British accents after endlessly binging the show, but experts have come forward and debunked those claims, saying that mimicking specific words is much different than developing an actual accent. It was also a great decade for songs, as “Baby Shark” was a bonafide phenomenon, even becoming the unofficial anthem of the Washington Nationals.

From 2010 to 2016, One Direction was the hottest boy band this side of NKoTB. Whether it was Harry, Niall, Liam, Louis, or Zayn, you fell in love with at least one of these boys and swooned over their dreaminess as they serenaded you with songs like “Perfect” and “What Makes You Beautiful”. Nowadays, the individual members are quite popular, particularly Harry, Niall, and Zayn. It’s entirely possible that the kids of future generations may simply know them for their individual careers, not as “that guy from One Direction.” Do any teens today know Mark Wahlberg as “that guy from Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch?” Exactly.

Sure, “Minecraft” may stick round for a while like “Tetris” or something. We just don’t know. But regardless of its future popularity, only 2010s kids will understand its rise to fame and weird post-release life. “Minecraft” essentially became the biggest game in the world when it was fully released in 2011, but subsequently fell into a weird slump in the mid-2010s, which was further encouraged by creator Markus Persson’s bizarre and often controversial social media presence. But then it became big again, aided by popular YouTubers like PewDiePie. It is now the best-selling video game of all time, and 2010s kids were there to witness and participate in its meteoric and record-shattering ascent.

Who’s to say where YouTube will be in the next ten or twenty years. But we can guarantee that 2010s kids will look fondly on this era of YouTube. While people have been making original content on the site since its inception, the 2010s saw the true rise of the “YouTuber” – that is, personalities that make their entire living off making quality YouTube content. The great thing about YouTube is that there’s something out there for every demographic, and the site has seemingly replaced traditional cable television. Sure, TV is still around. Of course it is. But you’ll hear FAR more kids talking about their favorite YouTubers and channels than they are their favorite TV shows.

VSCO Girls is essentially the new name for “basic white girl.” AKA the opposite of e-girls and soft girls. The 2010s had a lot of “girl” stereotypes, didn’t it? It comes from the photo editing app VSCO, which is typically used to make human subjects and their photos look more polished. Critics often make fun of the “profound” pictures that come from the app, like highly stylized pictures of house plants. Various VSCO Girl starter packs have also been made, which typically consist of scrunchies, over-sized shirts, a Hydro Flask, and Starbucks. It even became a meme in 2019 when users on TikTok started creating funny VSCO Girl videos, leading to brands like Claire’s attempting to capitalize on the meme.

“Fortnite” arrived late, but it has made such an unbelievable impact on pop culture that it will undoubtedly be remembered as quality 2010s nostalgia. “Fortnite” became the biggest game in the world in 2017, even eclipsing the likes of “Minecraft” and “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.” And while Twitch was a popular platform before “Fortnite,” “Fortnite” helped elevate it to the mainstream, and the chapter one finale scored a record 1.7 million concurrent viewers. Add in a massive eSports scene and the rise of popular gamers like Ninja, and you can see the gaming event that “Fortnite” has become. In ten years, teens and young adults will look back on “Fortnite” as we look back on games like “Halo” and “GoldenEye.”

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Whipping & Nae-Naeing

Gangnam Style

Dabbing

Shopkins

Monster High Dolls

It was only a matter of time before we got another Vine. When Vine went down in 2017, Tik Tok wasnt long taking its place. That is, after all the popular Viners made their mass exodus to YouTube and the music industry. The app is essentially Vine 2.0, as it allows users to create short looping videos, and many users have used its format in many creative and hilarious ways. It’s hard to say where TikTok will be in the years to come, but no matter what social media or video sharing app permeates the landscape in the coming years, 2010s kids will forever remember the fun that TikTok provided.