Gen Z is getting nostalgic for 2016. While YPulse reported on young people’s obsession with 2010 aesthetics just a few weeks ago, they’ve now focused their love for the era to a specific year: 2016. Across TikTok, Gen Z is yearning for “2016 vibes,” posting POV videos glamorizing the life of a teenager in 2016, lip-syncing to 2016’s hit songs, and using a 2016 filter with purple and blue hues. Some say they’re longing for “a reminder of the internet before overly curated photo dumps,” looking for more “carefree” and “less performative content,” similar to the “not so chronically online” posts of 2016. (Though content was, of course, just selective to a different aesthetic then.) It’s also poised as “the last good year and the first bad year” in the timeline of social media development (pre-TikTok!), politics, and more. Now, the hashtag #2016 has over 1M posts on TikTok alone. (Daily Dot)
👀 Read more from YPulse: 5 Trends Gen Z Is Making Cool Again
