What is the Online 2016 Nostalgia Trend?

Millions of people, particularly those in their 20s and 30s, are thinking about 2016 these days. Over the past few weeks, they have been sharing throwback photos of that time on social media. It seems one of the first viral trends of 2026, is 2016.

Memes about 2016 dwell on how various factors — sepia filters over Instagram photos, dog filters on Snapchat and the music — made even 2016’s worst days feel like the best of times.

Part of the trend’s popularity has come from the realization that 2016 was already a decade ago, and a generation that has come of age and realizes they miss what childhood and adolescence felt like. But some say this trend also has to do with the state of the world — then and now.

By the end of 2016, people would be looking ahead to Trump’s first presidential term and the impact of the UK’s Brexit referendum. A few years after that, the coronavirus pandemic would upend life for nearly two years. Then came the rise of AI.

Janelle Wilson, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, says in 2016 the world was “on the cusp of things, but not fully thrown into the dark days that were to come.”

“The nostalgia being expressed now, for 2016, is due in large part to what has transpired since then,” she says.

Njeri Allen, 27, remembers 2016 was defined by the artists topping the charts that year, like Beyoncé, Drake and Rihanna. She also remembers the Snapchat stories and an unforgettable summer in which she and her friends came of age as high school graduates.

She says they all knew then that they would remember 2016 forever. “Everything felt new, different, interesting and fun,” Allen says.

Ten years on, having moved to Taiwan, Allen says of the US and Taiwan, “Both of my homes are not safe.”

“It’s easier to go back to a time that’s more comfortable and that you felt safe in,” she added.