Born in 2011

If you were born in 2011, you arrived in a year shaped by the Arab Spring abroad and economic pain at home. Hosni Mubarak fell in Egypt, Gaddafi in Libya—a cascade of authoritarian governments toppled by people with smartphones and social media accounts—and for a moment the internet felt like democracy's greatest tool. Then Occupy Wall Street began in September in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan—"We are the 99 percent"—and the language of economic inequality that would define the decade had its first great public moment.

Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan on May 1st, and Obama announced it on prime-time television and people gathered outside the White House to cheer, a complicated grief and relief all in one. The economy was growing but the growth wasn't being felt by most people—wages were flat, unemployment was stubbornly high. *The Artist* won the Oscars.

*Moneyball* and *The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo* and *Drive* were the films people were talking about. Adele's *21* was the year's enormous album—"Rolling in the Deep" in every coffee shop and gym and elevator. Instagram launched and the photograph-as-statement became universal.

Netflix was streaming video and its subscriber numbers were growing while Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. Siri arrived on the iPhone 4S and the personal digital assistant was born. The country was more connected and more divided than it had ever been simultaneously.