Why is everyone posting 2016? Well, the nostalgic bliss might just be the antidote we need after such a stressful decade! Here’s a look back on everything we loved in 2016.
A wave of nostalgia has taken over the internet – specifically for the year 2016.
TikTok and Instagram users are flooding the feed with cool-toned, grainy photos and videos, soundtracked to Justin Bieber’s Love Yourself.
Celebrities are coming in hot with throwbacks (#tbt) too, admittingly catching me off guard at times. (I’m looking at you Simu Liu, for getting my hopes up on a Kim’s Convenience reboot.)
But why the obsession? We’ve been through so much in the past decade – the Covid pandemic and lockdowns, endless recessions, increasing polarisation and division, and one local AND global tragedy after the other.
The 2016 trend reminds us of a time when life just seemed simpler, easier.
A time when the zeitgeist was dominated by chokers, Pokémon GO and Snapchat dog filters. Netflix just premiered its global hit, Stranger Things. We’re singing to Closer by The Chainsmokers and Hello by Adele. Plus, the Marvel cinematic universe was AT ITS PEAK.
Social media was actually fun, too – none of that AI slop and addictive algorithms that made our brain rot.
Instagram would actually show us updates of people we know, rather than feeding us hundreds of short videos from random content creators and influencers. It just released Stories, a time when all we were obsessing over was taking the perfect boomerang as we clinked our drinks over brunch!
But 2016 also wasn’t as perfect as we thought it would be. It was also when Brexit happened and Trump (shockingly) first won as president.
For better or worse, here’s a look back at what 2016 actually gave us.
What Made 2016, 2016
Top 10 Songs from Billboard Year-End Hot 100
- Love Yourself and Sorry, Justin Bieber
- One Dance, Drake featuring Wizkid and Kyla
- Work, Rihanna featuring Drake
- Stressed Out, Twenty One Pilots
- Panda, Desiigner
- Hello, Adele
- Don’t Let Me Down, The Chainsmokers featuring Daya
- Can’t Stop the Feeling!, Justin Timberlake
- Closer, The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey
Top Films
- Captain America: Civil War
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
- Finding Dory
- Zootopia
- Deadpool
- Moana
- La La Land – Ryan Gosling AND Emma Stone in a musical?! Could we ever be graced by such a duo again?
TV
- Stranger Things, obviously. The return of eggo Waffles, walkie-talkies and Winona Ryder, with a bunch of children that never seemed to be supervised.
- Game of Thrones
- Kim’s Convenience – a personal comfort watch, an Asian-American sitcom that DID NOT DESERVE GETTING CANCELLED! It also gave us the hunk that is Simu Liu!!!!
- This is Us – The NBC heart-wrenching family drama that followed the Pearsons through the decades, and Mandy Moore’s welcome big return to our screens
Fashion
- Chokers – the tighter, the better?
- Bomber jackets
- Ray Ban Aviators
- Flower crowns
- Adidas Superstars and Stan Smiths… everywhere
- Yeezys
- Kylie Lip Kits
Memes and Internet Chaos
- Pokémon GO – was a great way to see people go outside and bringing them together!
- Harambe the gorilla meme – a gorilla that became the centre of a massive internet meltdown, after it was killed at the Cincinnati Zoo when a child fell into his enclosure
- Math Girl / Confused Girl
- The endless Snapchat dog filters
- Vine – Look, Vine crawled so TikTok could run ok?
Events
- Brexit
- Donald Trump winning the US election, breaking the illusion that the world was heading to the right direction
- The Rio Olympics, which distracted everyone from the US elections
- #OscarsSoWhite – The Academy was called out for how all 20 Oscar nominees in the acting categories where white. It led to restructuring its membership regulations to ensure more diversity in the Academy, a good first step!
- Celebrity deaths: Prince, David Bowie, and George Michael, boxer Muhammad Ali and actor Alan Rickman.