People Are Suddenly Nostalgic for 2016 for a Number of Reasons That Millennials Can Get Behind

Every decade or so, people get nostalgic for a time from before, and when it comes to social media, the idea of wanting those years back often catches on. Call it hive mind, or just a ton of like-minded individuals finding each other thanks to their trust algorithms, but now people are posting about 2016 as though it was a golden age in the world, and some can't figure out why.

It's hard to say when it began, but some time after 2026 arrived, which is 10 years after 2016 of course, TikTok users jumped on a trend about 2016 being the new 2026. And elsewhere on social media, including Instagram and Facebook, people went into the recesses of their accounts to find old photos from 2016. It's a whole thing now, even if some people don't understand the fascination with that year.

One user on TikTok posted a video where she explains why she thinks people have a renewed interest in 2016. The user, Lena, says in her video that there was a "millennial optimism of 2016" that some people just want to get back. It was, in a way, a time before social media had completely taken over, even if people were still actively using their accounts across different platforms.

Lena says that 2016 was a time "before algorithms" and that in 2026, people are faced with "AI slop" and algorithms quite a bit. And she isn't wrong. Was 2016 a simpler time, though? The world had its own issues then, and the internet was still a big part of everyone's life, as was social media. For some, though, the idea of getting that time back, a decade before 2026, and those socioeconomic and political issues, is preferred.

Another TikTok user, Sagnik, posted a video with his own explanation of why people are posting about 2016 and why many seem to have a renewed love for that particular year and time period.

"2016 was this small window before all of us became self-aware about being online," he explains. "We didn't have the consciousness to decide what could be cringe and what's not cringe."

He then points to people with the once-popular dog filters of Snapchat and says how happy they look in pictures.

"No one was running an internal focus group in our heads to decide what's cool and what's not cool," he adds.

Since some social media users are so into the idea of 2016 making a comeback, they've jumped on the "2026 is the new 2016" bandwagon. It's all about the idea that 2026 could be the year that people get back that optimism they might have had during that period of time. On a Reddit thread about the trend, a user wrote that they don't see 2016 as a great year overall, but that people are desperate for something new after how difficult 2025 was for many, socially and politically.

Someone commented on the thread with, "I don't want a new 2016. I want something entirely better and separate. A meme reset should be a meme reset, not bring back an old 'x' meme. Just get rid of the AI slop and let 2026 be its own identity."