But it wasn’t all fun and games 10 years ago. New York city residents had heard of rumored attacks led by a relatively unknown (at the time) terrorist name Osama bin Laden. The fear then, though, was some sort of nerve gas: true story, I had a neighbor that had taped heavy duty plastic over their windows in case there was such an attack. Of course, this was blissfully in a pre-9/11 era, so no one took these threats that seriously (except my neighbors of course.)

But the real concern of the time was the computer glitch that promised to have elevators and airplanes drop like bricks from the sky. Sounds funny today, but ten years ago, it was a very real concern. Need proof of the paranoia? Watch the unintentionally hilarious video hosted by Sci-Fi legend Leonard Nimoy. The clip is from a program called Y2k Family Survival Guide, and yes, you can still purchase it (on VHS) at Amazon.

By contrast, this year has been so crazy that just chronicling the madness of 2009 has seemed like more than enough work, let alone reflect on the past decade. But part of the import of a passing decade being so overlooked lies to in how un-unified it seemed. The 90s were a big deal because they were so different from the 80s and so different from the 70s. And when we left the 90s behind, we left them for…what? Sure there was Y2k and The Year 2000 and A New Millennium, but beyond that, who knew what to call it? I certainly didn’t and never really called it anything, and certainly not anything generally-accepted or official-sounding (the Oh-Ohs? No-oh.) . In fact, it wasn’t until I started working with Colby Hall, our managing editor here at Mediaite, that I even heard a term for the decade: The Aughts. Flying in the face of our Gmail generation, Colby’s email address is at “aught.com” which I wondered about, asked about, and subsequently learned was what this decade was supposed to have been called. (Colby registered the domain in the late 90s thinking he was sitting on a gold mine. Aw. Read his account of that decision here.)

It was the decade of September 11th, which really changed everything — but even in a world fraught with the scary realities that were made manifest that day, it was also the decade of that world getting so much smaller.

So – The Aughts. As the decade’s close drew nearer it seemed prudent to actually call it something, and the Oh-Ohs, Double-Os and Two-Thousands frankly sound dumb. “The Aughts” is nice, clean, short, simple and definitive, and also sounds vaguely British which means it’s classy. That is why, here at Mediaite, our end-of-decade retrospective series is called…The Aughts. And you ‘aughta’ call them that too! Ha, ha.

But whatever we call them — and none of us agree, which is actually sort of appropriate for the decade in which everything nichiefied and individual opinion gained primacy — there’s obviously no question that they contained multitudes. The Aughts changed the way we lived, and worked, and thought about the present and the future, and became the future way quicker than ever before (Seriously? Just think about the iPhone. A marvel). It was the decade of September 11th, which really changed everything, but even in a world fraught with the scary realities that were made manifest that day, it was also the decade of that world getting so much smaller. For those of you reading this on the go on a little screen on a device you’re holding in your hand, that you will soon use to make a phone call, watch a video, send an email, self-publish your thoughts in an instant or receive any of the above from someone halfway around the world, you know what that means. You’re living it.

There’s much to grapple with in this decade and we’ve invited our staff, columnists and contributors to think about it from any and every angle — politics, movies, music, TV, technology, religion, demographics, art and architecture, fashion, sports, feminism, human rights, science, ridiculous trends like Crocs — and how all of those categories relate to and can be viewed through the media prism. (We’re also accepting submissions so if you have an idea let me know at rachel@mediaite.com.) Lots has happened since we all held our breath waiting for our computers to implode at midnight on January 1, 2000, and we’re already having fun breaking it down for you. (And when we miss something, please do let us know.)

In the meantime, we’ve got 20 days to go until…the Tens? The Teens? The One-Oh’s? Whatever it’s called, by the end of the next decade what we’ve come to take for granted in this one will be obsolete. So please join us in marking it here, before Richard Branson buys it and sends it into space or Mark Zuckerberg just takes it. Enjoy it while it lasts, folks. If there’s anything the Aughts have taught us, it’s that over the next decade, everything is gonna change.

The Aughts [Mediaite]

Whatever the case, Newsweek is kicking off their celebration of The Aughts and welcoming 2010 with a new website: The Decade In Rewind. It’s highly interactive, filled with top 10 lists and essays, and will doubtlessly be fleshed out at New Year’s Day grows ever closer.

The best part so far, though, is their 7-minute review of the decade in the style of Nine Minute Sopranos, all fast-talking and nostalgic, which was posted to the Newsweek Tumblr this morning. From Y2K to Obama, it’s all there.

Unfortunately, they’ve decided to make the clip un-embeddable, but the video transcends that obnoxious reality because it’s just that good. Watch it here.

Update: Newsweek was nice enough to pass on the video in shareable form. Check it out below: