Viral Trend Sweeps 2026 As Social Media Relives 2016

It’s only a few weeks into 2026, but if you’ve scrolled through Instagram or TikTok lately, you might be forgiven for thinking you’d slipped into a time warp. Social media feeds are suddenly awash in a wave of nostalgia for 2016, as users—celebrities and everyday folks alike—embrace a viral trend that’s taken the internet by storm: “2026 is the new 2016.”

The numbers alone are staggering. According to ABC News, the #2016 hashtag has already been used in over 1 million posts on TikTok and more than 37 million times on Instagram by mid-January. Whether it’s John Legend and Reese Witherspoon sharing throwback snaps, or content creators re-creating their favorite Snapchat dog-ear selfies, the collective yearning for a decade-old era is impossible to miss.

So, what’s fueling this sudden fascination with a year that, at first glance, doesn’t seem so long ago? Leah Faye Cooper, a journalist and former Vogue editor who covers the intersection of culture and fashion, told ABC News, “People are really longing for a time that felt simpler, a time that felt really optimistic.” She adds, “I think nostalgia is something that has been trending for a while now. You see it in fashion, you see it with these reboots of TV shows and people remaking movies.”

But the 2016 nostalgia isn’t just about fashion or pop culture. Clay Routledge, an existential psychologist and executive vice president at the Archbridge Institute, explained to NBC News that this wave is especially strong among millennials and older Gen Z—those who were teenagers or young adults a decade ago. “People tend to be nostalgic when they’re anxious about the future or they’re not sure what direction in life to take,” Routledge said. “So I think this generation is dealing with those anxieties, and they’re using nostalgia as a way to respond to them.”

It’s not hard to see why 2016 stands out. That year, Beyoncé released her second visual album, Lemonade, with the unforgettable track “Sorry” and its now-iconic “Becky with the good hair” lyric. Kylie Jenner was making waves with her lip kits, Snapchat filters like dog ears and flower crowns were all the rage, and viral memes like “Damn Daniel” had everyone cracking up. The Chainsmokers dominated the airwaves with “Closer,” and Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself”—which first dropped in late 2015—topped the charts throughout 2016. Rihanna’s “Work” and Drake’s “One Dance” were also inescapable hits.

Billboard named Madonna its Woman of the Year, and Leonardo DiCaprio finally snagged his first Oscar for Best Actor in The Revenant. Taylor Swift swept the Grammys, taking home Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year for 1989, plus Best Music Video for “Bad Blood.” On Broadway, Hamilton made history with 11 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Netflix’s Stranger Things premiered, launching a cultural phenomenon that would span a decade and recently wrapped up its fifth and final season.

Fashion, too, was having a moment. Choker necklaces staged a comeback, and the look was less curated and more spontaneous than today’s carefully constructed feeds. As Cooper put it, “Thing were definitely less curated than they are now,” and the nostalgia for brands like Abercrombie and Juicy Couture seems to be sticking around.

The internet itself felt different in 2016. Content creators like YouTuber and baker Rosanna Pansino told TODAY, “I think that people are romanticizing (2016) because it feels like a simpler and a more carefree time on the internet. 2016 was just a really fun and special time because content creators really had more fun... because a lot of people weren’t concerned about algorithms.” She added, “The heavier the algorithms get on all the social media platforms, the more robotic our content becomes.”

And it’s not just about scrolling through old photos. Snapchat has reported a massive 613% spike in searches for “2016” lenses since the start of the year, compared to last year. Searches for the classic “Dog Lens” are up 352%, and people are diving into the platform’s 2016 music library at a rate 621% higher than before. According to NBC News, these numbers illustrate just how deeply the nostalgia bug has bitten.

Some of the posts are deeply personal. TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager reflected on 2016 as a year when she had “two babes, same man, lots of love.” Savannah Guthrie looked back at the birth of her son in December 2016, calling it the highlight of her year, while Al Roker posted a collage of memories with family, friends, and colleagues, captioning it, “Well, I see you, #2016 and you were a great year!! #ohhowtheyearsgoby.”

Content creator Steffy Degreff told TODAY.com, “I don’t think any year realizes it is up to the hype until the time has passed — but to me it was a really great year. It’s really fun to romanticize the past, at a time when the internet was still blossoming and felt so much simpler.” She noted that the trend has made people realize “how attached to the Instagram app they have been for a decade, and all of the iterations of change that social media has gone through — which impacts the way we live our life, and the way we share it.”

Even celebrities who didn’t post throwback photos got in on the fun. Singer-songwriter Khalid shared photos from his 2016 high school graduation and early career moments, set to his hit “Location,” while model Karlie Kloss posted a selfie with the Snapchat dog filter, captioned, “Did someone say 2016?!” Charlie Puth lip-synced his 2016 hit “We Don’t Talk Anymore” with Selena Gomez, asking, “Heard it was 2016 again?”

Of course, 2016 was more than just pop culture. It was a pivotal year in U.S. politics, with Donald Trump winning the Electoral College and securing the presidency over Hillary Clinton. The Zika epidemic arrived in the United States, sparking concerns about the Rio Summer Olympics—where over 11,000 U.S. athletes won 121 medals, including 46 golds, in the first Olympics ever held in South America.

But, as Routledge explained to NBC News, nostalgia isn’t always about the specifics. “The way nostalgia works is people tend to have more time to curate the memories and the experiences that they found happy, energizing or inspirational. As time goes by, they have more time to put aside the negatives, or if we are thinking about the negatives, we’ve had more time to integrate that negative into a more redemptive or useful story.”

So, why now? As the world barrels forward into an era of rapid technological change and uncertainty, it seems that looking back—especially to a time when the internet felt more genuine and less algorithm-driven—offers comfort and even inspiration. The “2026 is the new 2016” trend is more than a flash-in-the-pan meme; it’s a collective reflection on the past, a longing for simplicity, and perhaps a gentle reminder that, sometimes, the good old days really do look better in hindsight.