20 Dystopian Things That Happened This Century (So Far)

Top 20 Dystopian Things That Happened This Century So Far

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most dystopian things that have happened since the year 2000.

#20: Censorship & Internet Shutdowns

In an era where information is readily available at our fingertips, censorship and internet shutdowns have become increasingly prevalent - especially in countries where the governing body wants to keep information limited. China has long controlled online content with its controversial Great Firewall, but more governments are following suit, shutting down access during protests or silencing dissenting opinions. There have been dozens of shutdowns in 2024 alone, with countries like Sudan, India, and Iran engaging in some type of national online censorship. This type of regulation brings “1984” to mind, where information is strictly regulated and controlled by an omnipotent state.

#19: Corporate Greed

Hating on corporations is certainly nothing new, but it seems like the problem is only getting worse and worse. The profit motive posits that a business’s sole goal is to make money and increase its net worth, and this philosophy has faced intense criticism in recent years. The endless pursuit of wealth often leads to exploitation of workers, disregard for human rights, destruction of natural resources, and widening economic inequality. Whether it’s pharmaceutical companies hiking the prices of life-saving drugs or tech giants profiting off personal data, corporate greed has become an emblematic issue of our times. The poet Shelley said it best - “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”

#18: The Flint Water Crisis

Unless you work in the sector, you likely have no idea how water gets to your house. You just trust that the pipes work and that the water is clean - it’s one of those really nice things about living in the 21st century! But then the Flint water crisis threw those comforts into question. The crisis unfolded when the city of Flint, Michigan switched its water source to save money but ended up poisoning its residents with lead. The government’s negligence led to widespread health issues among residents, including developmental delays in children and an increase in lead-related illnesses, including twelve deaths from Legionnaires’ disease. It’s a stark reminder that even basic needs aren’t guaranteed under incompetent leadership.

#17: The 2019–20 Australian Bushfires

Between June 2019 and May 2020, much of southeast Australia experienced what is now called the Black Summer. The country was facing exceptionally dry conditions owing to an intense heat wave exacerbated by climate change, allowing the initial fires to quickly spread across the region. After months of uncontrolled flames, over 3,000 homes were destroyed, hundreds of people were dead, and some endangered animals were even driven to complete extinction. It was a direct confrontation with how climate change can ravage our world indiscriminately, and the visuals were like something out of an apocalyptic film.

#16: The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica Scandal

A consulting firm steals the personal information of internet users and then sells that information to political parties hoping to sway elections. It sounds like the blurb on the back of a dystopian novel, but it’s the sad reality we all face. Cambridge Analytica stole 87 million Facebook profiles and then sold this personal information to the presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. It revealed the extent to which personal data is being harvested and exploited, not to mention exposing how social media platforms can be used to manipulate public opinion, influence elections, and erode privacy rights. Facebook was fined $5 billion for the infraction, but something tells us this type of data misuse will continue unabated.

#15: Targeted Ads

You’re making dinner one beautiful evening and tell your partner how nice it would be to go camping this summer. That night you’re scrolling through your phone in bed and what do you see? Ads for tents and portable barbecues. This unnerving experience has become commonplace, with personalized marketing seeing a significant increase with the advent of social algorithms. No matter how helpful it may seem (after all, maybe we do need that tent), many people find these types of targeted ads to be incredibly creepy - not to mention dystopian. It’s a reality we only once imagined within the confines of science fiction - stories about invasive technology and the ways it slowly encroaches on our personal lives.

#14: The Opioid Epidemic

In many dystopian stories, the general citizenry is in the throes of addiction and subjected to the dangerous whims of a specific drug. In reality, those drugs are opioids, and they are becoming a terrible problem. While the epidemic technically began in the late ‘90s, the rate of opioid deaths have skyrocketed in recent years, virtually doubling between 2016 and 2022. Over 80,000 Americans died of an opioid overdose in 2022, and countless more in other countries. The primary drug of choice is fentanyl, which recently overtook heroin as the leading cause of drug overdose deaths in the United States.

#13: North Korea’s Human Rights Abuses

It’s horrifying to think that there are countries like North Korea operating in the 21st century. The Asian country is a living dystopia, with the government enacting widespread human rights violations on a daily basis. From forced labor camps to political repression and mass surveillance, the regime maintains complete control over its citizenry. They have since used the COVID pandemic as a pretext for these measures, with strict border and travel restrictions put in place to prevent escape. With a complete lack of expression, mass censorship, and even an inability to move provinces, there are virtually no personal freedoms to be found in North Korea.

#12: The Rise of Hate Speech & Extremist Violence

The internet allows both the good and the bad to flourish, and that includes a significant rise in hate speech. It’s believed that one in three internet users have been targeted by some type of hate speech, and this problem shows no sign of slowing. In fact, it’s only getting worse. According to one study, the use of hate speech on Twitter nearly doubled after Elon Musk purchased the site in 2022. It’s terrible to imagine, but online platforms have become breeding grounds for hate groups who use social media as a tool for spreading their ideologies. This danger has even seeped into the quote-unquote “real” world, with terrible acts of extremist violence occurring in cities like El Paso and Colorado Springs.

#11: The Housing Crisis

Everyone wants a stable shelter, but that is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain. Many countries are currently experiencing a severe housing crisis, with many people being unable to afford - or even find - shelter. Property prices have skyrocketed in recent years and wages have remained frustratingly stagnant, and this lack of affordable housing has left many people unable to find suitable accommodation. For example, in Canada, a Torontonian needs to earn a minimum of $217,000 a year to own a home - about 5x the country’s median income of $41,000. Entire generations are being priced out of homes, condos, and even apartments, illustrating profound inequality reminiscent of certain dystopian narratives.

#10: Phone & Social Media Addiction

It’s a visual straight out of a dystopian movie - people glued to a small device they hold in their hand and store in their pocket. The widespread use of smartphones has given rise to a new form of addiction that we couldn’t have predicted even twenty years ago. People are becoming increasingly dependent on their devices for validation, social connection, and entertainment, and it’s leading to a significant mental health crisis - especially in teens. According to the University of Michigan, over 200 million people are addicted to social media, and nearly half of all addicted Americans are between the ages of 18 and 22. Perhaps even more shocking, the average teen spends over seven hours a day on their phone.

#9: Political Polarization

Of course, politics are meant to be polarizing, with many countries often led by two rotating parties with different ideological beliefs. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. Political polarization has become increasingly pronounced in recent years as societies become more divided along ideological lines. According to the Pew Research Center, “very unfavorable” opinions of the opposite party are currently at record highs. This type of intense division hampers constructive dialogue and fosters hostility between different social groups, and this hostility has the potential to snowball into more extreme acts - including physical violence. Echo chambers reinforce opinions and beliefs, and nothing constructive is accomplished.

#8: The Rise of Misinformation

Correct information is a very valuable resource for a functioning society. It’s no wonder that most of the classic pieces of dystopia, including “1984,” include some type of disinformation campaign. Say it with us - “Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” In an era of information overload and digital media consumption, disinformation has become a pervasive issue. The spread of false or misleading facts has eroded trust in the information we receive, and “fake news” was a massive talking point during the infamous 2016 presidential election. Pew Research even shared a report claiming that one in four Americans have spread a piece of misinformation online. The results could be catastrophic.

#7: Cyberattacks

With new inventions come new problems. Cyberattacks were literally unfathomable even one hundred years ago, and now it’s a major problem around the world. There are all sorts of different cyberattacks, from simple credit card theft to massive hacking efforts - and that’s not to mention cyber harassment, which about half of all teens have admitted to doing. Sophisticated hacking attempts have become commonplace, including the Ashley Madison breach that ruined lives and the famous Sony hack of 2014. Not even politicians are safe. For example, Canadian Members of Parliament were personally targeted by Chinese hackers in 2021. These attacks compromise personal data, undermine the efforts of national security, and demonstrate the fragility of virtual data - all of which sound like key ingredients of a dystopia.

#6: Economic Inequality

Another major aspect of dystopian fiction is economic inequality - the rich live in big fancy high rises and the poor live in squalor in some kind of filthy, taped-together ghetto. We’re not quite there, but it’s getting close! Economic inequality has reached staggering levels globally with wealth concentrated in the hands of a few while many struggle to meet their basic needs. This disparity creates societal divisions along class lines while limiting opportunities for upward mobility - not to mention a potential for social unrest. The middle class is essentially vanishing before our eyes, and much of the nation’s aggregate income is going to the wealthy few.

#5: The COVID-19 Pandemic

From now on, the year 2020 will be widely remembered as the year that COVID-19 spread across the world. The virus ravaged every corner of the globe, killing a reported seven million people. The true number is likely much higher, with some estimates going as high as thirty million, making it the fifth-deadliest pandemic in human history. Of course, there were also the massive ripple effects, like sending much of the world into lockdown, devastating the global economy, disrupting supply chains, and spurring a lot of conspiracy theories that only exacerbated the misinformation problem. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event that will be studied and analyzed for decades to come.

#4: Extinction Crisis

Another aspect of classic dystopia is complete environmental collapse - and again, we’re well on our way. Humans have had a terrible effect on the global environment, even causing an extinction event known as the Holocene or Anthropocene extinction. This is the sixth event of its kind in world history and is impacting all ranges of life on Earth, from plants and land mammals to a large variety of marine life. With humans now considered a global superpredator, the event has largely been attributed to our impact on the environment, including climate change, deforestation, and overfishing. It’s a stark reminder that our actions have irreparable and irreversible consequences.

#3: Climate Change

And speaking of climate change, it’s undeniably one of the most alarming problems facing our world today. While many people express doubt about its authenticity, the science says that it’s real and it’s doing irreparable damage to our one and only planet. This isn’t a future problem, either. The consequences are already being observed, like more devastating forest fires, melting ice sheets, expanding deserts, more intense storms, the extinction of animals, and skyrocketing global temperatures. Should we go on? Suffice to say, the problems are only going to get worse unless the problem is immediately addressed - and unfortunately, we don’t seem to be going in the right direction.

#2: Surveillance State

Nothing screams “1984” more than the government spying on your every move. Big Brother represents the oppressive nature of totalitarian regimes, spying on the general populace and not allowing them to have dissenting opinions. As we sadly learned throughout this century, our individual freedoms are currently at risk thanks to a global surveillance program that includes governments, the NSA, and an intelligence alliance known as Five Eyes. Five Eyes certainly has a dystopian ring to it, and they have access to the personal data of millions across the globe. Some have criticized the media’s handling of the story and allege that the truth is less sensational, but that doesn’t really matter. The point is that this technology exists, and that is more than scary enough.

#1: The Rise of Artificial Intelligence

It’s amazing how quickly AI entered into the cultural discourse. Of course, artificial intelligence has long been the subject of fiction and philosophy, but it was mostly relegated to the realm of science fiction. But ever since the rise of ChatGPT, people are realizing that this science fiction is not so fictional anymore. It can already write articles, do advanced math, and draw pictures. What will it be able to do in five years? Ten? What impact will this have on the global infrastructure? Most importantly - when will it go full Terminator and become self-aware? These are the questions currently terrorizing much of the world, and unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

Do you think we’re living in a dystopia? Let us know in the comments below!