With the 10th anniversary of 2016, social media users and celebrities are celebrating by bringing back some of the eye-catching filters that defined the year, like Snapchat’s warm, oversaturated colors and dog ears filter, while sharing throwback photos and decade-old music in the latest nostalgic social media trend.
Key data
Many users’ TikTok “For You” pages might look a little more vintage this week, as some brightly colored filters — one aptly titled “2016” and another “Late night 17’s” — gained popularity as users evoke the style of 2016-era social media posts.
The hashtag #2016 has increased more than 450% in recent weeks in the US, according to TikTok, while searches for “2016 songs” and “2016 makeup” increased 290% and 600%, respectively, from January 1 to 11, compared to the previous 11 days.
In many popular videos, users brought back some of the biggest trends of 2016, like chokers and skinny jeans, brightly colored Starbucks drinks, wired headphones, and the “mannequin challenge” to pay tribute to the year.
Some 2016 hits have seen a resurgence in popularity, including Swedish singer Zara Larsson’s song “Lush Life,” which soundtracked many of the nostalgic 2016 TikTok videos in recent weeks.
“Lush Life” rose to No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart this week and re-entered the US Billboard Hot 100 at No. 70, while rising 50 spots on the US Spotify Singles Chart this week to No. 46.
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Why are social media users obsessed with 2016?
TikTok users mentioned many pop culture phenomena that made 2016 a memorable year. Some noted that 2016 was the summer of Pokémon Go, the popular mobile app that led many people to spend time outdoors catching virtual Pokémon.
Other users recreated videos in the style of Musical.ly, the popular social media app in the mid-2010s that was later acquired by ByteDance and merged with TikTok.
Others recalled the nightlife of 2016, highlighting lower prices and popular new music from Drake, Beyoncé and Rihanna (who some users noted hasn’t released a new album since 2016).
Contra
Some are not so fond of 2016, pointing to events that they say are actually indicative of a bad year. In a video that garnered 200,000 likes, one user called 2016 the “worst year ever,” noting the death of Harambe, a gorilla who died after being shot after grabbing a child who fell into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo.
Other users criticized 2016 by recounting other events that they said fostered political instability, such as President Donald Trump’s first election victory and Brexit.
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Which celebrities have joined the 2016 trend?
Some singers who had hits in the summer of 2016 posted their songs on TikTok, like Charlie Puth, who posted a video of his 2016 collaboration with Selena Gomez, “We Don’t Talk Anymore.” “Did you hear it was 2016 again?” Puth wrote in the caption.
DJ duo The Chainsmokers also posted a video of their hit “Paris,” writing in the caption: “2016 nostalgia is getting out of control.” Demi Lovato also posted a video on TikTok with her song “Solo,” although the hit was released in 2018, wishing her followers a “happy 2016.” He used the “Late Night 17’s” filter in his video, which many social media users used to evoke the 2016 aesthetic.
Many celebrities posted photos from 2016 on Instagram, including actresses Lily Collins and Reese Witherspoon and model Karlie Kloss.
What other nostalgic trends have gone viral?
The idealization of 2016 is just the latest nostalgia-driven social media trend. Last year, when factors like Trump’s tariffs contributed to economic uncertainty, social media users called various pop culture events “recession indicators,” suggesting that 2008 was back.
Some of these supposed recession indicators were purely related to pop culture, such as Lady Gaga’s return to her late-2000s dance-pop style or the return of “Mamma Mia” to Broadway, while other “recession indicators” appeared to be more directly related to economic hardship, such as DoorDash’s partnership with Klarna to allow users to pay for their orders in multiple installments.
However, jokes about recession indicators coincided with lower confidence in the economy. Last spring, as jokes about recession indicators were going viral, consumer confidence hit a 13-year low in April, according to the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, indicating fear of an imminent recession.
Key context
Summer 2016 has long been a meme and source of nostalgia for Gen Z online. In a widely shared meme, which is sometimes still reposted on social media, the top of a roller coaster is titled “Summer 2016,” while the bottom is called “the rest of our lives.”
The meme was shared on the “memes” subreddit in 2018, and in the comments, users reflected on why that particular summer was so fondly remembered. An article published on the Barstool Sports website in 2021 posed the question: “Why are people so obsessed with the summer of 2016?”
In a thread on the “Generation Z 2024” subreddit, one user suggested that 2016 was “the last time everything felt normal,” and some commenters pointed to Trump’s election.
This article was originally published in Forbes US
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