At the beginning of this 12 months, it appeared like all people was reminiscing concerning the 12 months 2016. In January alone, Spotify noticed a 790 % improve in 2016-themed playlists. Individuals had been declaring that the 2026 vibe would match the feel-good vibes of 2016.
The one drawback is that the expertise of dwelling via 2016 was far completely different from what Gen Z particularly remembers.
Daysia Tolentino is the journalist behind the publication Yap Yr, the place she’s been chronicling on-line affinity for the 2010s for nearly a 12 months now. Gen Z tends to mix the entire years collectively inflicting them to hype up the enjoyable cultural elements and ignore the worldwide and political turmoil that marked 2016. Tolentino says 2016 nostalgia would possibly truly be an indication that younger persons are prepared to interrupt out of those cycles of nostalgia and attain for one thing new.
Tolentino spoke with Right now, Defined host Astead Herndon about how 2016 has caught with us and what our nostalgia for that point would possibly reveal.
There’s far more within the full podcast, so take heed to Right now, Defined wherever you get your podcasts, together with Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
The place did this 2016 development begin?
It’s been build up since final 12 months, particularly on TikTok. Individuals have been slowly bringing again 2016 tendencies, whether or not that’s the model problem with the Black Beatles tune, or pink wall aesthetics, and these actually heat, hazy Instagram filters. Once we entered the New Yr in 2026, there have been a variety of TikToks saying that 2026 was going to be like 2016.
I used to be inquisitive about that. What does that even imply? I don’t truly assume individuals know what meaning in any respect. Then, a pair weeks in the past, you see lots of people on Instagram, particularly peak Instagram influencers, posting themselves at their peak in 2016, which impressed all people to put up their very own 2016 pictures.
In your publication, you’ve tried to outline what the 2016 temper board is. Are you able to clarify that for me? Once we’re considering 2016 vibes, what will we imply?
After I take a look at 2016, I see make-up gurus on YouTube blow up at the moment, and the make-up on the time is extraordinarily maximalist. It’s very full glam, full beat, very matte, very colourful, some neon wigs at the moment. You have got the King Kylie of all of it.
2016 was such a pivotal second in web tradition. I feel that’s once we began to essentially enter this influencer period in full power. Previous to that, we had creators, however we didn’t have as a lot of this monetization infrastructure to make every little thing on-line an advert primarily. Individuals had been posting no matter they needed to put up.
It was the 12 months that social media corporations began pushing your information feed towards an engagement-based algorithm versus a friends-only chronological feed. In 2016, you see this flip towards influencer tradition and this extra put collectively simply consumable picture and vibe to every little thing, and that trickles down into the tradition of Instagram, so then individuals begin posting as in the event that they’re influencers themselves.
Even in case you are an adolescent like me on the time, if I take a look at my very own Instagram, I may see my very own posts mimicking influencers, turning into extra polished, and turning into extra aesthetic. I feel individuals have missed that loads, though I feel individuals romanticize 2016 and overlook loads about what that 12 months is definitely like.
What do you assume this says about 2026?
All the 2020s up to now, individuals on TikTok, particularly younger individuals, have been romanticizing the 2010s. I feel, usually, individuals affiliate the 2010s with a way of optimism, particularly post-2012. Younger individuals have grown up in such a tumultuous time with the pandemic, the economic system, with politics and the world usually. It feels actually hopeless at instances, so persons are wanting again to that point that actually appeared so sunny, and constructive, and fantastic, and low stakes. I feel it’s very easy for individuals to develop into actually fixated on this time interval, even when that wasn’t the precise actuality, proper?
Why do you assume persons are solely cherry choosing the nice elements of 2016?
It was one of many final years by which we engaged in a monoculture collectively, and we had shared items of tradition that we may bear in mind. We may all bear in mind “Nearer” being on the radio like 24/7 on the time. I feel lots of people romanticized 2016, as a result of it’s the final time they bear in mind unification in any method. It feels just like the final type of second of normalcy earlier than this decade of turmoil.
As a lot as there was a lot change and disruption taking place in 2016, whether or not that’s Donald Trump, whether or not that’s Brexit, and even the rise of Bernie Sanders, there have been so many individuals who had been so enthusiastic about that. I feel there was a sense of disruption that might be mistaken for normal optimism. Then, this hope for one thing completely different to return that started in 2016 didn’t materialize in possibly the ways in which individuals needed them to. However I feel lots of people can do not forget that feeling and the shared tradition that all of us had that no person actually is ready to share in today.
I’m 32. I can’t think about me 10 years in the past considering that the most effective years had been behind me and never in entrance of me. Am I simply being outdated, or does a few of this really feel like a technology that’s been raised on remakes and sequels wanting again as a substitute of wanting ahead?
Yeah, that’s one thing I’m involved about steadily. I’m 27; I shouldn’t be like, “Being 17 was the most effective years of my life.” It’s too obsessive about wanting again, since you are unable to think about a greater future ahead. That’s at all times actually regarding. That’s at all times a sign that there’s a lack of hope,
However, I feel that this 12 months, it looks like the power from individuals on-line is about creating one thing new, and introducing friction, and shifting ahead from this fixed want for escapism that the web has offered us for the previous 10 years. I’ve seen that rise alongside this nostalgia that has been so extensively publicized and extensively talked about.
I feel persons are prepared for brand spanking new issues. I feel persons are prepared to maneuver on from fixed escapism that the web and social media brings, together with fixed nostalgia.
