Topline
As the year 2016 turns 10 years old, social media users and celebrities are celebrating by bringing back some of the gaudy filters that defined the year, like oversaturated warm colors and the Snapchat dog ears filter, while sharing throwback pictures and decade-old music in social media’s latest nostalgia-driven trend.
TikTok users are reminiscing about the year 2016 in a new viral trend. (Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
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 called “Late night 17’s”—have blown up in popularity as users evoke the style of 2016-era social media posts.
The hashtag #2016 has surged more than 450% in recent weeks in the U.S., according to TikTok, while searches for “2016 songs” and “2016 makeup” rose 290% and 600%, respectively, from Jan. 1 to Jan. 11 compared with the 11 days prior.
In many popular videos, users have brought back some of 2016’s biggest trends, 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 resurged in popularity, including Swedish singer Zara Larsson’s song “Lush Life,” which has soundtracked many of TikTok’s 2016 nostalgia videos in recent weeks.
“Lush Life” surged to No. 8 on this week’s U.K. singles chart and re-entered the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 at No. 70, while also surging 50 spots on this week’s U.S. Spotify singles chart to No. 46.
Why Are Social Media Users Obsessed With 2016?
Users on TikTok have pointed to plenty of pop culture phenomena that made 2016 memorable. Some noted 2016 was the summer of Pokémon Go, the popular mobile app that led plenty of people to spend time outside catching virtual Pokémon. Other users have recreated videos in the style of Musical.ly, the social media app popular during the mid-2010s that was later acquired by ByteDance and merged into TikTok. Others reminisced about 2016 nightlife, pointing to cheaper prices and popular new music by Drake, Beyoncé and Rihanna (whom some users have noted hasn’t released a new album since 2016).
Contra
Some aren’t as fond of 2016, pointing to events they say are actually indicative of a bad year. In one video that garnered 200,000 likes, a user called 2016 the “worst year ever,” pointing to the killing of Harambe, a gorilla who was shot and killed after grabbing a child that fell into his enclosure in the Cincinnati Zoo. Other users criticized 2016 by recounting other events they say fostered political instability, like President Donald Trump’s first election victory and Brexit.
What Celebrities Have Taken Part In The 2016 Trend?
Some singers who had hits in the summer of 2016 have posted their songs to TikTok, including Charlie Puth, who posted a video set to his 2016 collaboration with Selena Gomez, “We Don’t Talk Anymore.” “Heard it was 2016 again?” Puth wrote in the caption. DJ duo The Chainsmokers also posted a video using their hit song “Paris,” writing in the caption: “2016 nostalgia getting out of hand.” Demi Lovato also posted a video to TikTok using her song “Solo,” though the hit was released in 2018, wishing followers a “happy 2016.” She used the “Late night 17’s” filter on her video, which has been used by many social media users to evoke the aesthetics of 2016. Plenty of celebrities have posted throwback pictures from 2016 on Instagram, including actresses Lily Collins and Reese Witherspoon and model Karlie Kloss.
What Other Nostalgia-Driven Trends Have Gone Viral?
The romanticizing of 2016 is just the latest social media trend fueled by nostalgia. Last year, as factors like Trump’s tariffs contributed to economic uncertainty, social media users called any number of pop culture events “recession indicators,” suggesting the year 2008 was back. Some of these so-called recession indicators were purely pop culture-related—like Lady Gaga returning to her late-2000s dance-pop sound, or “Mamma Mia” returning to Broadway—while other “recession indicators” appeared more directly tied to economic hardship, like DoorDash partnering with Klarna to let people pay for their orders in multiple installments. The recession indicator jokes, though, actually coincided with decreasing confidence in the economy. Last spring, when recession indicator jokes were going viral, consumer confidence levels hit a 13-year low in April, according to the Conference Board consumer confidence index, signaling fears of a looming recession.
Key Background
The summer of 2016 has long been a meme and a subject of nostalgia for members of Gen Z online. In one widely shared meme, which is sometimes still reposted to social media sites, the top of a rollercoaster is labeled “Summer 2016,” while the downhill descent is named “the rest of our lives.” The meme was shared to the “memes” subreddit in 2018, and in the comments, users mused about why that particular summer was so fondly remembered. An article published on Barstool Sports’ website in 2021 posed the question: “Why Are People So Obsessed With The Summer Of 2016?” In a 2024 Gen Z subreddit thread, one user suggested 2016 was the “the last time everything felt normal,” with some commenters pointing to Trump’s election.
Further Reading
#RecessionIndicator: Young Americans are losing confidence in the economy — and it shows online (CNBC)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2026/01/15/nostalgia-for-2016-is-taking-social-media-by-storm/
