Americans Say 'Good Riddance' to the Last Decade

May the next 10 years be better than the last 10, because by nearly two-to-one, a majority of Americans have a negative view about the decade drawing to a close, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted Dec. 9-13.

Fifty percent of those surveyed expressed a negative view of the 2000s, compared to 27 percent who viewed them positively, with 21 percent who held neither a positive nor negative view and 2 percent undecided.

When those polled were asked to remember how they felt about previous decades, the positives outweighed the negatives dating back to the '60s, although, unsurprisingly, the further back the memories went, the higher the percentage of people who answered "neither."

Fifty-seven percent felt positive about the prosperous '90s, 19 percent felt negative, and 22 percent were in the "neither" camp. Fifty-six percent were positive about the '80s compared to 12 percent who were not and 27 percent saying neither.

The '60s and '70s? More positives than negatives but not as high as the two subsequent decades. Forty percent felt positive about the '70s, 16 percent were negative and 37 percent said neither. Thirty-four percent were positive about the '60s compared to 15 percent who were negative, but a plurality (42 percent) said "neither" when asked about that tumultuous decade.

There was no contest about what event in this decade was the most important -- 53 percent said it was the Sept. 11 attacks. Sixteen percent cited Barack Obama's election, 12 percent said it was the 2008 financial meltdown and all other contenders were in single digits.

But there were some partisan differences. Majorities of Republicans and independents saw Sept. 11 as the seminal event, but it was named by a lesser 43 percent of Democrats while 28 percent considered Obama's election as the most important event.

When asked about what were changes for the better or worse in the last 10 years, cellphones came out as the top change for the better, with 69 percent making that choice, followed closely by green products, e-mail, the Internet and increasing racial and ethnic diversity.

As for as the worst changes, 63 percent said it was the rise of reality-TV shows (someone's not telling the truth here) and 40 percent complained about more people getting tattoos.