2023 In Retrospect

Dixya Poudel

2024 has arrived, a brand new year full of potential and promises. As such, it might help to look back at the year 2023, and assess it in hindsight. There are always lessons to be learned from the past, which can then be reassessed for future endeavours. From Twitter becoming X, the continuing of Russia-Ukraine war, Barbenheimer shaking the global box-office, death of prominent celebrities like Tina Turner, multiple charges to the former US president Donald Trump, the horrendous Israel-Hamas war, and the successful lunar landing by Indian spacecraft to the rise of AI (Artificial Intelligence), the year 2023 had quite a few highlights. However, it can be clearly said that the most devastating event of 2023 was the ambush that Hamas fired upon unsuspecting Israel which led to a war amid colossal destructions.

Closer to home in Nepal, there was varying news. Nepali cricket team set records, a 6.4 Richter scale earthquake jolted western Nepal, an agitation took over pro-monarchy supporters, and remittance hit an all record high in a month as Nepali youths continued their mass exodus. Likewise, Tribhuvan University conferred degrees to a record number of graduated students, and even set the Guinness World Record. Nepal also elected its new president. However, on a tragic note, there were many casualties from the natural disasters such as flood, landslide, and earthquake. 

As for the world news, India landed its spacecraft on the south pole of the moon, a feat that made history. In the movie industry, disgruntled Hollywood writers went on strike on May, 2023 and only reached an agreement on September. The strike was partly due to irregularity on streaming platforms and the increasing use of AI. As such, 2023 was a glorious year for AI. OpenAI might have released ChatGPT in 2022 but it was really in 2023 that AI rose to its heights, leading people to speculate on the consequences. Heated debates ensued on the effects of AI in the job market. 2023 was also a good year for the arts and culture, particularly books, music, and movies. There were numerous groundbreaking books, fiction and nonfiction, which were published amid much acclaim. Like each year, in 2023 too the Booker Prize was announced and the Prize went to Paul Lynch for his novel, Prophet Song.    

Meanwhile, nations turned a new page after the previous years of pandemic. While the world did recover, there were lingering economic effects from the pandemic. People still continued to work remotely whenever possible in 2023 as work from home appealed to a lot of them. But overall, many workers had to return to their office with the virtual lockdown still in their mind. 

On the technological front, social media continued its meteoric rise albeit with several changes. Meta which is parent company of Facebook and Instagram rolled out a new social media platform called Threads. On the other hand, TikTok got banned by numerous countries including Nepal citing disruption of social harmony. And Twitter rebranded itself as X, leading to a different era for the social media app. 

These are just some of the highlights of 2023. How time has flown by, leaving its mark behind for generations to come! As the world strides on a new year, let’s hope 2024 will be more agreeable one.