The air just hit different a decade ago. The only worries you had were if your flower crown was too tightly nestled between your beachy, bleach-blonde tresses, if that Starbucks employee spelled your name on your cup correctly with Sharpie, or the logistics of penny boarding two miles home in the rain. Wake up, bestie, we’re going back to 2016.

For the last few weeks, everybody has been eagerly awaiting the arrival of 2026, especially the internet. At first, low hums were coming from one-off social media users claiming we need to return to careless whimsy and nostalgia via the «twee» aesthetic. 

Now, the sentiment of «2026 is the new 2016» is a full-on movement, and users are eager to tie-dye the cracks in their iPhones and revert to Fujifilm Instax cameras. Users even muse that the sky was simply filled with more vibrant, purple-pink hues nearly a decade ago. That could be it, or are we just old?

Bringing back 2016 themes and aesthetics is a multi-generational cope, and we’re here for it. After making a point to dream about an adult life when we were in our teens and early twenties, we are now insistent upon ensuring we don’t really have to grow up if we don’t want to. 2016 isn’t just a year, it’s a mindset. Now, people of all ages are trying to rekindle the flame that was 2016.