The Best and Worst of Tech in 2015
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.
(Got more nominations for our list? Enter them in the comments below.)
Internet meme of the year
(Photos: Slate/YouTube)
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.
Most famous Internet meme you’ve already forgotten about
Two words: Left Shark. The lesser half of a duo of faux maneaters dancing during Katy Perry’s Super Bowl halftime show, Left Shark was notable for being, well, just terrible. Still, it was a welcome distraction from Ms. Perry’s outfit, which looked like she had just escaped from a re-education camp run by Hot Dog on a Stick.
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.
Most hated person on the Net
(Photo: Yahoo Finance)
Several truly loathsome individuals vied for this title in 2015. There was Walter Palmer, the Minnesota dentist and avid big game hunter who killed the beloved Cecil the Lion in Zimbabwe, earning the Internet ire of millions. There was Volkswagon CEO Martin Winterkorn, who was forced to resign after it was discovered the car maker had installed software to falsify results of emissions tests on 11 million cars. But our pick is Martin Shkreli, erstwhile CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who became an outrage magnet after raising the cost of a critical antiparasitic drug by more than 5,000 percent. This month, notorious “Pharma-bro” was also arrested and charged with securities fraud.
Most beloved person on the Net
(Photo: D-Man/Twitter)
Odin Camus, a teenager in Ontario, Canada, received the most Internet love in 2015 — for one day at least. On his 13th birthday last March, Odin’s mother Melissa created a Facebook page asking strangers to wish him happy birthday after none of his classmates showed up to his party. The invite went viral, inspiring thousands of responses on Facebook, Twitter, and SMS, including several from celebrities, politicians, professional sports teams, and members of Canada’s military. Later, hundreds of people threw a real birthday party for the autistic teen at a local bowling alley. Now the question is, what’s Melissa going to do for his 14th birthday?
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.
Best use of a drone for a purpose that was in no way intended by its manufacturer
While unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones) are used for all kinds of things their makers probably didn’t envision — including delivering holiday mistletoe, with sometimes disastrous consequences — it was the combination of a drone, a flamethrower, and a turkey on a spit that captures this year’s award. UAV hacker Austin Haughwout used this combo to cook his family’s Thanksgiving bird in his Connecticut backyard last month. We’re betting there weren’t many leftovers.
Most adorable/disturbing animal video of 2015
It’s impossible to choose the cutest animal video of 2015 from among this year’s approximately 100,897,623 entrants. But we know which one was the most disturbing: Pizza Rat. This New York-based vermin (Raticus manhattanus) achieved a rare level of Internet fame when it was captured attempting to drag an entire slice of pie down a flight of subway stairs. Pizza Rat inspired a series of Halloween costumes, an Android app, and even a robotic version built just to terrify squeamish New Yorkers.
Most thoroughly disgusting but otherwise harmless tech invention
Crack two raw eggs into this maw of the Egg Master vertical grill, and this 12-inch-tall cylinder extrudes a fully cooked, disturbingly phallic tube of cholesterol that will put you off eggs forever. (Read more about the Egg Master in this wildly funny review by The Guardian’s Inspect a Gadget, Rhik Samadder.)
Most totally harmless-looking invention that one day might explode
The aggressively misnamed hoverboard, which does not hover but merely rolls along the ground like a hands-free Segway, earns this year’s prize for the most dangerous gadget. Apparently, spontaneous combustion is one of these scooters’ undocumented features; hoverboards have been blamed for fires in nine states across the U.S. They have been banned by at least three airlines, and Amazon and Target have suspended sales of the popular toy pending a safety investigation.
Coolest crowdfunding campaign
(Image: Matthew Inman/Kickstarter)
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 ridiculous crowdfunding campaign
(Photo: Kickstarter)
So many insane people trying to raise money; so many other crazies willing to give it to them. There was, for example, an Indiegogo campaign to develop cherry-flavored deodorant for one’s naughty bits. Or the Kickstarter to fund a 14-hour film of paint drying. But neither can hold a candle to the campaign to create a “multicultural feast of flatulence” by bottling the personal effluvia of people from more than 80 countries. The Fart in a Jar campaign raised a total of $134 (out of a goal of $10,000) before it ran out of gas. Smells like victory to us.
Most obnoxious viral video
There are thousands of truly obnoxious videos on YouTube (PewDiePie, anyone?), but none were quite as grating and inescapable as Shia LaBeouf’s NSFW “Just do it!” speech, which raged across the Intertubes last June. The green-screen video inspired hundreds of parodies where the alleged actor was placed in different fictional scenarios (our favorite was LaBeouf as an ill-tempered Yoda trying to motivate young Luke Skywalker). And it was apparently all just part of an art project, which somehow makes it worse.
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.
Most overexposed person of 2015
(Photo: Taylor Swift/Instagram)
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.
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.
Check out Yahoo Tech’s other ‘Best of 2015’ stories:
The best (and worst) of Dan Tynan can be found on Twitter.
