2013 Cultural Debate: Was it more early 2010s or mid 2010s?

Hopefully this thread doesn't count as decadeology since it's a more in depth discussion and not a "2013 was 40% mid-2010's" or something.

2012-2013 school year = Early '10s

Summer 2013 and 2013-2014 school year = Mid '10s

Yeah, I feel like the death of Trayvon Martin was when people became more aware of police brutality. Once black lives matter got popular is when I felt like politics was firmly mid-2010's.

January 2013 to May 2013: Early 2010s/Electropop Era Part 2

May to August 2013: Transitional period

September 2013 to December 2013: Mid 2010s.

Mid 2010s.

The transition away from the early '10s to the mid '10s actually happened during the second half of 2012. By 2013, we still had echoes of the early '10s but we were mostly living in a mid '10s world. Here are just a few reasons I believe that.

-The Hunger Games. Dystopian YA fiction was huge and distinct to the mid '10s and 2012 was the year that it kicked off.
-Call Me Maybe
-Macklemore - Thrift Shop; Most people associate this song with 2013 but it was pretty popular, at least on my local radio station, in the fall of 2012
-Rise of indie folk
-Imagine Dragons, Ed Sheeran, The Lumineers, etc debuted in 2012
-Lady Gaga was significantly less relevant in 2012 than she was from 2009-11.
-Obama elected to second term; His second term was far more SJW-oriented than his first
-Speaking of SJWs, 2012 was the year of the Trayvon Martin incident and also the year that Obama came out publicly in support of same-sex marriage. Both of those events were significant for setting up the SJW-oriented culture of the mid '10s (that we are still in the midst of a backlash against in 2020)
-Disney purchased Star Wars from George Lucas
-The rise of "Duck Dynasty." This somewhat forgotten show played a larger impact in setting up the Trump era than a lot of people realize

I'm sure I could think of many more. I think 2013 was more like 2016 than it was 2010.

I agree, although I noticed we were in a transitional state during that time...

In my opinion

Late 2012 to early 2015 = mid-2010s part 1
Early 2015 to mid-2017 = mid-2010s part 2

This is from my perspective, as a tech-savvy 20 year old gay male living in Toronto, Canada. People of other ages or locations or hobbies might experience or emphasize or weigh things differently. With that disclaimer out of the way...

• Smartphones were more or less ubiquitous by 2013. They crossed the 50% line some time around spring/summer 2012, and by the end of 2012 most people had one.
• Apple released iPhone 5 in late 2012. This had a 4-inch screen instead of the tiny 3.5-inch which Apple was famous for. This would start the phone size wars of the mid-2010s.
• Touch screens were being pushed BIG TIME around this era.
  
• Windows 8 came out in late 2012, with its Metro layout it put all its eggs on touchscreens.
  
• Android 4.0 with their tablet-friendly UI also came out around late 2012.
  
• « Ultrabooks » replaced netbooks as the most popular form factor for laptops in 2012, and many came equipped with touchscreens.
• Even the Wii U which came out late 2012 came with a touch screen.

• * Facebook Mobile launched in spring 2012.
• The new iOS that came out in summer 2012 with Facebook and Twitter preinstalled and integrated into the OS itself.
• The new iOS also had a notifications panel and multitasking. Before this, from what I know, you only ever got notifications for text messages and phone calls, but now you got notifications from apps as well including social media.
• Tinder completely changed the dating game in 2013. In 2011-2012 school year, me and my friends would go to the campus bar to hit on girls. You had to actually approach people face-to-face, sing Call Me Maybe, and ask for her number. That all changed in 2013 with Tinder. Now all meeting up and socializing was done via smartphones. At first I thought it was cute little fad for fun, little did I know the dating world would change forever with this app.
• #Selfie was a new word. I first heart it in summer 2013, but I’m sure it was a thing before that.
• Instagram took off in a big way around late 2012, that is when I first heard of it. Even if you didn’t use Instagram, bright and colourful photo filters were all the rage even on Facebook profile pics, so it’s a platform that had already left its mark. 
• Snapchat I first heard of in summer 2013, but considering my demographic (20 year old male in a male-dominated profession) it’s something that never caught on in my social circle. I’m sure it was popular before that.
• The first Twitter-based meme took off in late 2012 with #YOLO.

• Breaking Bad, the biggest show of the early 2010s, aired its finale in summer 2013.
• For the first time, you don’t need cable to watch good television. In 2013, Netflix starts producing in-house TV shows and movies. House of Cards, Orange is the New Black. « Binge watching » becomes a thing.

• Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2 began in 2013 with Iron Man.* As mentioned above, thanks to Hunger Games, the market is flooded with dystopian YA books and movies.
• 50 Shades of Grey releases its last book in spring 2012. No seriously, don’t underestimate how big this was. It was worse than Twilight, no girl would shut up about it.

• The hipster trend reaches its zenith.
• Every dude has a beard. It started with Movember 2010, but not many people participated. Movember 2011 was somewhat popular. Movember 2012? Pretty much everybody.
• Sweatpants and yoga pants become socially acceptable outerwear. (In Canada it was already big in the late 2000s, but it was still frowned upon)
• Men’s hair becomes super fancy with what we now call undercuts (it wasn’t called that back then). Pompadours, slicked back, side swept. It’s all shiny, straight, waxed to perfection.
• The mall brands of the early 2010s (American Eagle, Aeropostale, Abercromie & Fitch etc.) reach their peak sales in 2012/early 2013 and crash hard after that.
• H&M while big in 2009 becomes #1 in 2013. Zara, Forever 21, and other fast-fashion retailers follow its lead.
• In short, fast-fashion replaces the mall brands.
• Bomber jackets with the pockets on the front become popular in Canadian winters.

Music

• Twerking… twerking everywhere in late 2012/early 2013. Contrary to popular belief, it was popular before Miley Cyrus did it.
  
• To be honest, I didn’t and still don't notice a huge difference. There were a bit fewer synth sounds (no pun). There was a small disco revival too.
• EDM technically replaced electropop but to my ears the difference between these two genres is minimal. The people dancing to Harlem Shake and Turn Down for What were the same people who were dancing to Party Rock Anthem a couple of years back (I can vouch for this, because that was me )
• Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga flopped in 2012 and 2013.
• Miley Cyrus sheds the teen pop image and goes wild in summer 2013.

Gaming

• Dota 2 started the age of MOBAs, and Starcraft 2 reinvigorates RTS in late 2012/early 2013.
• Wii U flops spectacularly in late 2012.
• PS4/Xbox One release in late 2013. For the most part though 2013 was a 7th Gen year.

Socio-politically

• Gay marriage is still illegal in most the world, but it became a pertinent topic with France legalizing it in 2013 and with Obama throwing his weight behind it in 2012.
• #IdleNoMore (a Canadian Native equivalent to Black Lives Matter I guess you could say) becomes huge in 2013.
• It was becoming less acceptable to make jokes about women, racial minorities and gay people. In 2011 you could get away with making fun of people’s accents or saying « that’s so gay » but not anymore in 2013.

• Arab Spring more or less over (with the exception of war in Syria)
• Vladimir Putin goes back to leading Russia in late 2012.
• Xi Jinping becomes president of China in late 2012.
• François Hollande is elected president of France in summer 2012.
• Abe Shinzo returns to being Prime Minister of Japan in late 2012.
• Obama wins re-election by a healthy margin in late 2012. Republicans shut down government in October 2013 .