Younger generations are bringing back trends that people, especially older Gen Z and Millennials, never thought would come back. 

For many, the resurgence of the 2010s is not just a trend, as many people feel like bringing back old things can help them escape stress. Therefore, the return of 2016 energy says less about nostalgia and more about exhaustion with the present. People are trying to recover a sense of spontaneity, connection, and emotional freedom that’s been missing for quite some time. 

All over TikTok, people have been reminiscing on the nostalgia of the 2010s, specifically the year 2016, and have brought the era back to life through clothing trends and styles, blasting the best songs of the decade, and participating in internet challenges, such as the Mannequin Challenge. This has also prompted many social media users to share throwback photos to emphasize the style of the era, and brands to follow suit. Snapchat even created a “2016 filter” with the iconic dog face.

In the 2016 era, users would post heavily filtered, blurry, imperfect photos of their clothing, neon signs, messy rooms, and relationships, among other things.  Now, people are pulling inspiration from the era and using it on modern apps like TikTok, channeling the era by using sounds and music, filters, and more that defined the time. Users are also making their content look like it was posted in the decade by using the “2016” on their posts. Overall, people would post photos that capture living in the moment, rather than staged, perfect photos we see many strive for today.

As I mentioned, along with the old filters, old songs have found their way back to people’s feeds. Artists, such as Zara Larson, have expressed happiness to see that her song “Lush Life” has come back again and are excited about TikTok users creating a dance to go along with it. She said she likes it so much that, “[while she’s on tour] she’s bringing special guests to sing and dance along with her.” 

Along with popular music, famous internet trends of the mid 2010s, like the Mannequin Challenge, have made it back to high schools. High schoolers around the country have gathered their kids to freeze and pose for the iconic trend. High school students who have found themselves divided by social groups, whether that be the “cool” kids, the “nerds”, or the “jocks”, have come together to show that cliques mean nothing when completing a popular internet challenge. 

For many high schoolers, a big reason why they believe 2016 is so peak is that it seems like people were less divided. People interacted with each other without looking at popularity or prettiness. 2016 isn’t being revisited because it was perfect; it’s being revisited because it felt alive. It was a time when the internet felt communal and authentic instead of staged. When trends brought people together instead of breaking people into groups based on something, and when identity felt experimental rather than calculated. 

So while some eras fade away, the ones that mattered eventually find themselves coming back in a more creative way than the last time.