Why do we miss 2016? | The Stream
On this episode of the Stream we look at the 2016 social media trend and ask; 'why do we miss 2016'? The past decade has seen a surge of new ways of self expression online but somehow netizens reminisce the grainy selfies with dog ear filters, old movies, and less AI-generated content. We discuss if this is really about 2016 or if we simply want more authentic connections again.Presenter: Stefanie Dekker
Guests:
Joel Marlinarson - Social media strategist and founder of ‘Coldest Creative’
Louisa Munch - Critical theorist
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Transcript:
Hello, I'm Stephanie Decker and welcome to the stream. Why did we start 2026 by posting about what we were doing 10 years ago? The 2016 trend was on everybody's feed. But why? Was it a special year? Or does it have more to do with how we feel about today and tomorrow?
It's been 10 years since 2016. Let's go back into the time machine. Why is everyone under a 2016 spell right now? Like, who started this? Everything is so bad that people are reminiscing about 2016. Or is it just because we're growing up and getting older and things feel a little less communal since 2020 and time felt slower back then? Are we just afraid of what's going to be coming in the future? In January, more than 55 million videos were created using Tik Tok's 2016 trend filter. It was everywhere. Instagram was flooded with people sharing memories from that year. I actually consider doing the same, but covering the war against ISIL didn't really fit the vibe check. Now, this show is going to be part of a series where we look back at what's been happening over the last decade, and we'll be taking the 2016 trend and digging deeper into the societal changes that have happened since then. Now to discuss all of this, we are joined by Joel Marlon Arson, a social media strategist and founder of Coldest Creative, advising global brands on how to become culturally relevant. He's joining us from London. And we have Louisa Munch, a writer, university educator, and public commentator working at the intersection of critical theory and contemporary politics. And she is joining us from Manchester. Thank you both uh for coming on the stream. It's a really interesting topic, Joel. We want to the 2016 trend. We want to use it to dig a little deeper about what's really going on with us. You seem to have predicted this last year. Where did it come from? It started with Gen Z, especially on Tik Tok. I was noticing a real shift in brands and social media influencers posting Tik Tok content with the 2016 filter. For those that don't know, 2016 photos on Instagram tended to have a pink hue. And there was a real uplift in people recreating that look for some reason and reminiscing on being an influencer back in 2016. And ever since then, it's been growing in popularity. Louisa, I almost feel like you have a bit of that filter on your camera shot. Um, you have a PhD in nostalgia. I love I love that. I think that fascinating. Now, help me understand 2016. Is it about that particular year? Why aren't we seeing, you know, why didn't we talk about this in 2025 and it was 2015? Is it about the year or is it about something bigger?
Well, I think this is a really interesting uh cultural shift because it's not very common for young people, especially Genzers, to be nostalgic. It's all about the future. When you're young, you know, there is an optimism about the future. And I think this kind of cultural nostalgia that we're seeing on social media is speaking to a kind of loss of progress or a loss of the future. Gen Z have generally been a generation that has just seen more and more loss uh economic downturn. They're struggling more than any other generation really in living memory. And I think that really speaks to this initiative to look back rather than forward in culture. You're talking about Gen Z there and that's Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to say just to add to that, what's really interesting about the 2016 nostalgia trend is it started with Gen Z, but as it's grown in popularity, you're seeing millennials and Gen X popping up and saying that they had a different perception of the year and it's um exposed this Mandela effect where different generations perceive that period in time completely differently. Yeah, absolutely. That leads perfectly actually to the clip that we want to play because is everybody talking about it? Is everyone nostalgic for 2016 or is it only Gen Z? Because it seems some millennials disagree. This is young people experiencing their first hit of of like the first wave of nostalgia. Receive SMS online on sms24.me
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