
You know it’s December because your feed is clogged with Lists Of The Year, telling you what mattered in the year gone by. On Mamamia, you can tell us. Over the final few days of 2015, we’re running a series of essays on the issues that made 2015. Then, you tell us which one defines the year to you. Welcome. It was quite a year.
There are a lot of rules in Australia, and more than most in Sydney, where I live.
For the most part, this is okay, because some rules make sense. Don’t take something from a shop without buying it first. Don’t push children over in the street. Don’t drive while texting. Don’t steal disabled people’s car parks. Don’t have sex in public.
But then there are the rules that aren’t really for you and me… they are created to make life easier for a big bank, or a shopping centre, a hotel or a cable TV service. These are rules for rules’ sake. Maybe they made sense when someone drew them up in a boardroom but by the time they reach us they are just arbitrary, confusing and frustrating.
This year, 2015, was the year we finally said ‘no thanks’ and pushed back on those rules. Welcome, Uber, Airbnb, Netflix and Airtasker and many others were the driving force behind giving people back the power. Finally.
Long may it last.
This was the year that our quiet rebellions, previously muttered to our friends or in emails of complaint, went mainstream. It was the year technology enabled us to cut out the middleman.
Of course, the fightback began a long way back when the internet first started bringing people together. Suddenly you didn’t need to ask a friend if they could recommend a hotel in Fiji. There was a whole website for that.