2016 – A Year in Review

So, another year comes to a close. 2016, good or bad, has certainly been an eventful year. Whether in the realm of politics, technology, or the environment, it’s happened in the 16th year of the 21st century.

First, let’s talk about politics. As the world waited with baited breath for the Democratic primary results, Donald Trump was promptly destroying the Republican candidacy, with Ted Cruz backing out of the election. Then, thousands of Bernie supporters were very disappointed after Hillary Clinton’s candidacy was announced. The political race went on, and on the morning of November 9, Donald Trump was announced president-elect of the United States. Protests broke out all over the nation. Not only that, the Republican Party controls both the House and the Senate.

2016 also marks the year of a major protest. Of course, I’m talking about DAPL and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Essentially, DAPL, or the Dakota Access Pipeline, is trying to build a pipeline over sacred native American burial grounds, as well as under a major river, which could pollute thousands of people’s water source.

To step away from politics, let’s talk about technological advances. Firstly, phones. Apple released the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus. These received mixed reviews, especially with the somewhat questionable choice of removing a headphone jack. As for Samsung’s Galaxy S7 Edge, it has received mostly positive reviews, except for one major design flaw: very rarely, the phone could spontaneously explode. Obviously, the was a major issue, so an official recall was put in place. Google’s heavily advertised Google Pixel released on October 20.

Image source: Made By Google

Our final topic will be 2016 video game releases. First, No Man’s Sky. This game was hyped beyond belief, and did not live up to expectations. In fact, it might have been the biggest flop this year – if it weren’t for Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The initial reveal trailer on YouTube got an impressive 500,000 likes. Not bad, right? Well, it also has 3.3 million dislikes. That gives it a like to dislike ratio of 0.15. To talk about games that actually did well, October 28 was the release date of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Special Edition, a remastered version of the five-year-old game, with console mod support

In conclusion, 2016 has had its ups and downs. But as time marches relentlessly forwards, 2017 is fast approaching. Whatever your opinion on 2016, hopefully next year can surpass it.