2015 was a year in which Microsoft got its mojo working again, and Apple stumbled, slightly. A year when Mark Zuckerberg became a daddy and decided to give away all his money. It was the year Star Wars returned to glory and Marty McFly returned to the 21st century. And that buzzing sound you keep hearing? Probably just a drone trying to take your picture.
As we crest a new year (is it really almost 2016 already?), it’s high time for a look back best and worst of tech in 2015.
Emoji of the year
When Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year isn’t an actual word, you know 2015 is when emojis officially took over the planet. Oxford’s top pick was the “Face with Tears of Joy.” Don’t like this linguistic trend? There’s an emoji for that, too.
Internet meme of the year
Without a doubt, the biggest Internet meme of 2015 was The Dress. Whether you were on Team Blue/Black or rooting for Team White/Gold, you had an opinion as to what you were seeing, even if you couldn’t fully articulate why. According to a Buzzfeed poll conducted shortly after the meme swept across the Interwebs last February, 68 percent of viewers saw white and gold. The actual dress? Blue and black.
Coolest crowdfunding campaign
There are a lot of strong contenders in this category, but in the end we decided to hand the award to the Exploding Kittens Card Game campaign. It raised $8.8 million on Kickstarter, thanks in large part to the hilarious illustrations by The Oatmeal’s Matt Inman. Runners-up: Con Man, the webisode reunion of ex-Firefly stars Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion, which brought in $3.1 million on Indiegogo, and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot, which at press time had pulled in $5.8 million.
Most literal example of the phrase ‘cheaters never prosper’
Two words: Ashley Madison. Last July, the dating site for wanna-be adulterers was hacked, exposing the intimate data of some 37 million customers to the world, leading to blackmail, divorces, resignations, and suicides. The most embarrassing revelation? Nearly all of AM’s most alluring female profiles were entirely fictional.
Most overexposed person of 2015
Having received a Lifetime Achievement Award last year, the Kardashians are out of the running in this category, which leaves the next obvious choice: Taylor Swift. From publicly scolding Apple about its royalty policies (which they immediately changed — how often does that happen?) to being named Billboard’s artist of the year, it was Tay Tay all the time in 2015. We love ya, T-Swift; we’d love you even more if you pulled an Adele and stepped out of the spotlight for a couple of years, just so we have time to finish going through all your Instagram photos.
Most overused phrase of 2015
Many Internet-spawned terms are worthy of permanent banishment, from “bae” to “hot take” to “unicorn” (as in a unique and usually grossly overvalued startup, not the mythical quadruped). But the phrase we truly never want to hear in 2016 is “Netflix and chill.” For the uninitiated, that’s code for an evening that starts with a movie and ends in a booty call (though probably not Booty Call). In the old days, this was called a “date,” and it happened in the back of Dad’s station wagon at the drive-in. Kids these days.
Biggest Internet meme of 2015 we will never grow tired of
Donald Trump’s hair. It’s the wispy ginger-colored gift that keeps on giving.