{"id":413053,"date":"2026-01-17T14:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/413053\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T14:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T14:04:11","slug":"why-people-in-2026-are-hung-up-on-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/413053\/","title":{"rendered":"Why people in 2026 are hung up on 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Measles was eradicated<\/a> in the Americas, Beyonc\u00e9 made \u201cLemonade\u201d<\/a> and liberal hopes were high for the first woman president<\/a>. Voters were encouraged to Pok\u00e9mon Go to the polls<\/a>. Remember 2016?\n <\/p>\n

\n A decade on, celebrities and laypeople are sharing fond memories from 2016, the era of face \u201cbaking\u201d and #ImWithHer<\/a>, when some of the biggest national dramas pitted Kim Kardashian against Taylor Swift<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n It was also an infamously terrible year. The Pulse nightclub massacre<\/a> became the deadliest mass shooting in US history (until the following year). Prince<\/a> and David Bowie<\/a> died, among other lost treasures. Political schisms deepened and common ground collapsed. The ground was laid for an already dystopian 2026. How grim, then, is the present?\n <\/p>\n

\"Prince's<\/p>\n

\"At<\/p>\n

\n Many women who were very famous in 2016 have been sharing photos online from their past, reminding followers all how much more famous they\u2019ve since become. Kylie Jenner, who in 2016 was queen of Tumblr and the overdrawn pout, memorialized<\/a> the launch of the lip kit that helped make her a billionaire. Supermodel Karlie Kloss remembered<\/a> wearing chokers and using the Snapchat puppy filter<\/a>, a true mid-2010s relic. Lena Dunham, Kloss\u2019 fellow Taylor Swift \u201csquad\u201d member, reminisced<\/a> about shooting \u201cGirls.\u201d And between behind-the-scenes \u201cBig Little Lies\u201d snaps, Reese Witherspoon also snuck<\/a> in a 2016 photo of herself with Swift.\n <\/p>\n

\"Taylor<\/p>\n

\n Then, the gushing. Celebrities and non-famous folks remembered 2016 as a time that was more carefree, even happier. Jeans were tighter, brows were blockier. It\u2019s inspired<\/a> some to return to or try on<\/a> those 2016 aesthetics<\/a> like a costume<\/a> in the present.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI loved this time and all my memories from then, so had to post!\u201d Mindy Kaling captioned<\/a> an Instagram carousel of herself in vibrant outfits from her \u201cThe Mindy Project\u201d era. Longtime tech YouTuber<\/a> iJustine commented<\/a> on another creator\u2019s post: \u201c2016 was so great!!!!\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI don\u2019t think we ever left 2016,\u201d added<\/a> the Instagram account for the boho brand Free People (and based on its consistently Coachella-themed offerings, it\u2019s possibly true).\n <\/p>\n

\n While the trend is fairly innocent, there\u2019s also some \u201crevisionist history going on,\u201d said Jessica Maddox, an associate professor who teaches media and cultural studies at the University of Georgia.\n <\/p>\n

\n Maddox shared photos from 2016 to remind old friends and newer followers that she spent the year in a hand cast after almost splitting her thumb in half. It was fun, she said, to introduce a brief but pivotal chapter in her life story to people who didn\u2019t meet her until after the hand trauma. But she doesn\u2019t miss it.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNostalgia is always complicated, because we think that by doing or consuming something, we can have the same feeling we had back then, which can never be the case,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Photos from 2016 do hearken back to \u201csimpler\u201d times, when social media felt more like an actual network or community, Maddox said. People were more likely to follow the same stories, partake in or make fun of the same trends (mannequin challenge<\/a> or millennial pink<\/a>, anyone?), and discuss the same appointment<\/a> TV<\/a>. Makeup was heavier, camera lenses were grainier, style skewed maximalist (though at least two<\/a> of those trends<\/a> might be circling back into favor). In 2016, Maddox said, \u201cwe were less online but simultaneously more together in the spaces we were online.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur media diets were very different, too \u2014 not being constantly bombarded with bad news, either from politics or from constantly being plugged into media,\u201d she said. \u201cI think that is part of the reason why we look back and think it was easier or better, probably just because we weren\u2019t plugged in as much and we weren\u2019t as online, doing as much doomscrolling<\/a>. We weren\u2019t really engaged in the way we are now.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen we talk about missing 2016, I think that\u2019s what we miss a lot of: It definitely felt like we had more of a monoculture back then in terms of where we congregated on the internet,\u201d Maddox said.\n <\/p>\n

\"Celebs<\/p>\n

\n It was that precious and fleeting blend of having a good time on the internet and putting one\u2019s phone down long enough to enjoy life IRL that\u2019s inspired some to declare 2016 the \u201clast good year.\u201d<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen people refer to it as the \u2018last good year,\u2019 I feel like maybe what we\u2019re really saying is \u2014 it was the last time before there was a seismic shift in American politics,\u201d Maddox said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Recontextualizing the year as the last time things were good \u201cfinds comfort in the culture of 2016 as a kind of last moment of joy before the politics of our time overwhelmed the culture,\u201d said Dustin Kidd, a sociology professor and pop culture expert at Temple University.\n <\/p>\n

\n The US presidential election wasn\u2019t the only significant political event of the year. The Brexit vote pulled the United Kingdom out of the European Union, destabilizing the continent\u2019s political order and polarizing Brits. The societal shifts felt in 2016 \u201cmay hinge on the election of Donald Trump, but it is about the transformation of the entire political field and the way that politics became the culture,\u201d Kidd said.\n <\/p>\n

\"Donald<\/p>\n

\n The most telling thing about time-traveling back to 2016 online, Maddox said, is the polarized response to the trend itself. The internet has gotten even messier, meaner and angrier in the years since, where something as innocuous as a 2016 photo can inspire bad-faith commentary.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNothing can happen on the internet now without it becoming a both-sides issue. Nothing can happen on the internet now that can just \u2018be,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI think the amount of critique I\u2019ve seen on the trend, to me, is why the trend is happening in the first place.\u201d\n <\/p>\n