2016 is heralded as a distinctly great year, but this high acclaim has me wondering: why is the internet so obsessed with 2016, and is it too early to call it nostalgia?
The obvious answer is the inexplicable coolness of this era. One only needs to search ‘2016’ into their TikTok search bar to be immersed in the seemingly paradisical world of palm trees, galaxy print and Justin Bieber. And even though at the time I was a mere ten-year-old who’d never been to LA or possessed a Tumblr account, I still felt fully absorbed by this lifestyle.
Undoubtedly, the reason for this was the advent of social media. 2016 has been enshrined so effectively in our lives because it was so heavily documented online, unlike other era-related trends. This means that even though we did not maintain the LA influencer lifestyle, we felt like we were living it. And now, in 2025, we are easily able to relive it through social media.
This leads to the question of whether our feelings towards 2016 can be described as nostalgia.
Arguably, the re-emergence of the 2016 aesthetic acts as a channel for our childhood nostalgia. We are fond of 2016’s vibe because it reminds us of being young. In 2016, I was getting braces for the first time and watching Dance Moms obsessively. As adults, we live more complex lives with greater responsibilities, encouraging nostalgia for simpler times.
Although 2016 happened so recently, the distance between then and now can feel massive. 2016 was the year of large-scale political events which have dramatically affected our lives, like Brexit and the election of Trump, leaving many of us overwhelmed by a world of seemingly never-ending complications.
Further, the devastating impacts of COVID-19 on our teenage years cannot be understated. The difficult experience of lockdown further accentuates the contrastingly free and innocent times of early childhood. Therefore, maybe we praise 2016 not only as a great year aesthetically, but also as the last year we truly felt young.
But all this talk about the greatness of 2016 has me deeply troubled: does this mark the return of skinny jeans?