was it only a decade ago that a blackberry was a mere warm season fruit that green was well a color and reality tv was that one show sandwiched between music videos on mtvthere were of course huge political and social upheavals that roiled the world in the past decade but there also were the gradual lifestyle changes that people do not always notice when they are happening kind of like watching a child grow older here is an alphabetical look at 50 things that changed our lives since the beginning of the millenniumairports remember when you did not have to take off your shoes before getting on a plane remember when you could bring a bottled drink on board political terror changed all thatalternative medicine from acupuncture to herbal supplements to alternative ways of treating cancer alternative medicine became more mainstream than everapps there is an app for that the phrase comes from apple iphone advertising but could apply to the entire decades gadget explosion from laptops to gps systems want your car to give you directions to moms house in chinese or by a frenchwoman named virginie there was an app for thataarp american association for retired people cards for baby boomers some prominent americans turned 50 this decade the pop singers madonna and prince comic ellen degeneres the smurfs michael jackson the king of pop who also died at 50 and some prominent early boomers turned 60 rocker bruce springsteen and actress meryl streep for exampleaging nobody seemed to look their age anymore clothes for 50yearold women started looking more like clothes for 18yearolds tweens looked more like teens long hair was popular for all ages and in many ways womens fashion seemed to morph into one single age groupblog i blog you blog he blogs how did we spend our time before blogging there are more than 100 million of these web logs out there in cyberspaceblackberries considered essential by corporate ceos and moms planning playdates introduced in 2002 the smartphone version is now used by more than 28 million people according to its maker research in motion ltdbook clubs thanks in part to tv personality and business mogul oprah winfrey the decade saw not only a profusion in book discussion clubs but a growing reliance on them by publisherscable cable 24hour news made the evening network news seem quaint cable dramas reaped emmys and at decades end even oprah was making the move to cablecameras remember those trips to get film developed nope even your grandmother has a digital camera and she is probably emailing you photos right now or uploading them to a photosharing sitecelebrity culture celebrity magazines fed a growing obsession with celebrities and the everyday minutiae of their lives by decades end americans still were obsessed though britney spears and angelina jolie had ceded many covers to reality stars like jon and kate gosselin celebrity web sites like tmz took hold middecadecell phones cell phones are now used