How Long is a Decade (And Why This Question Matters)
Every time we approach a year ending in zero, the internet explodes with the same debate that refuses to die. Does the new decade start on January 1, 2020 or January 1, 2021? Its one of those questions that seems trivial and pointless until you realize people have genuinely strong feelings about it. Like STRONG feelings. Arguments happen. Friendships are tested. Okay maybe not that serious but people do get weirdly invested in calendar semantics. So lets settle this once and for all (we wont actually settle it but lets try).
A decade is ten years. Thats the easy part that everyone agrees on. Ten years makes a decade, full stop. The question is when we start counting and thats where people lose their minds. And technically – and I mean TECHNICALLY in the most pedantic sense possible – if youre counting from year 1 AD, decades would start on years ending in 1. There was no year zero in the common calendar system. Year 1 BC was followed directly by year 1 AD. So the first decade was 1-10 AD, the second was 11-20 AD, and following that pattern the 2020s would start January 1, 2021.
But like… does anyone actually care about that in their daily lives? When people talk about “the eighties” they mean 1980-1989, not 1981-1990. Nobody thinks of 1990 as part of the eighties even though technically it should be if were following the no-year-zero logic. Cultural decades and calendar decades arent the same thing and trying to force them to match just makes everyone annoyed.
Why This Actually Matters More Than You Think
The decade debate is really about how we organize time in our heads and assign meaning to arbitrary periods. We use decades as cultural shorthand constantly – the sixties mean something specific (hippies, protests, Kennedy), the nineties mean something specific (grunge, Friends, dial-up internet). These associations have almost nothing to do with actual calendar years and everything to do with shared cultural memory. Nobody experienced the nineties aesthetic as starting precisely on January 1, 1990 and ending at midnight on December 31, 1999.
The “eighties” aesthetic didnt start on January 1, 1980 and didnt end on December 31, 1989. Cultural movements bleed across calendar boundaries all the time. Big hair was still happening in 1991. Disco was still a thing in 1981. The decade labels we use are just convenient approximations for cultural moments that dont respect arbitrary time divisions. Maybe thats obvious but some people seem to miss it.
So When Does The Decade Actually Start Then
Honestly? Whatever makes you happy. I know thats a cop-out answer but its the truth. If you want to be pedantic about calendars and mathematical precision, the new decade starts in 2021 and you can lord that over people at parties. If you want to match how everyone actually talks about decades and experiences cultural time, its 2020. Both positions are defensible depending on what framework youre using and neither matters very much in the grand scheme of things.
What matters more is what we actually DO with the next ten years. The decade definition debate is fun bar trivia and good for generating social media engagement but its not exactly urgent compared to the actual challenges facing humanity. Climate change doesnt care when the decade starts. Political polarization doesnt care. The coronavirus that was emerging in Wuhan as people argued about calendar semantics definitely didnt care.
So argue about it if you want – its harmless fun and we all need some of that. Just maybe keep perspective about what actually matters. The decade starts when you decide it does. Now go do something meaningful with the next ten years regardless of when you start counting.
