By Teagan Martin
A recent trend that many people have seen going around is people saying “2026 is the new 2016!” People have been recreating the outfits, aesthetic and the overall vibe of the time. Now if you’re like me then you’re also confused as to where this came from. After all, 2025 wasn’t the new 2015, 2024 wasn’t the new 2014 and so on. We even had a spirit day here that was “Dress Like it’s 2016.”
So what’s with this resurgence? Most people think it’s primarily due to nostalgia of the time. Gen Z was the one who started this trend which can go from ages 14 to 29. Older Gen Z probably wanted to go back to a time when it was more simple, and they only had to worry about who was more Tumblr famous instead of taxes and making a living.
In the article Rose-tinted filter: Why 2016 is taking over social media in 2026, BBC news says “Joel Marlinarson, from London, is a TikTok creator and brand strategist whose video explaining why Gen Z is so obsessed with 2016 has been viewed more than a million times.” He also proceeds to say “…seeing that filter you’re instantly taken back to a time when we were having so much fun and were so much younger.”
The reason why 2026 might be the only year getting this treatment is because of all that was happening during that time. People magazine also says something similar, saying, “Perhaps one of the reasons why online users are seeking out the nostalgia of 2016 so intently is that it was a year of great cultural significance.”
There were many big things like Musicly getting big, Pokemon Go becoming big, Taylor Swift had controversy with many artists Beyonce releasing her album Lemonade and things like that. However there was also the gorilla Harambe sadly getting killed as well as George Michael, Prince, Muhammed Ali and many others passing.
I also think people are stressed because of all that’s going on currently with ICE and Trump and many other things and just want to retreat to a simpler nice time in their life with their silly filters and silly trends.
In the end, I think that while it’s a nice trend, eventually we have to drop it. The themes are cute and I like looking at girls recreating the Tumblr aesthetic but we can’t keep looking at older periods to distract us from what’s going on currently. Eventually we’re going to have to face reality.
beniciapaw.com 