The post TikTok’s ‘2026 Is The New 2016’ Trend, Explained appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Season one of Netflix’s ‘Stranger Things’ was released in 2016 Netflix 2026 has just begun, but the internet is looking back—a wave of nostalgia for 2016 has spread through social media, originating on TikTok. ‘2026 Is The New 2016’ Trend, Explained 2016 was only a decade ago, but online culture has changed significantly in the years since, and many are looking back at the old internet with rose-colored Instagram filters. The memes have evolved, the online landscape has shifted, and the way we use social media has changed, with users less interested in posting personal moments online, or migrating to enclosed, private spaces like Discord. 2016 even has a distinctive, retro aesthetic, defined by oversaturated Instagram posts and Snapchat’s “dog filter,” which was viewed as an exciting technological advancement at the time. TikTok and Instagram users are reposting their favorite pictures from back then, or taking new selfies and videos using TikTok’s “2016” filter, designed to replicate the vibrant color palette of outdated Instagram filters. The fashion trends of the time have been revitalized, and even classic memes are being revisited, some of which seem charmingly simple, in hindsight. In 2016, Captain America: Civil War hit theatres, cementing Marvel’s cinematic dominance, a franchise which seemed unstoppable at the time, while Netflix released the first season of Stranger Things. Both of these franchises feel old and tired now, relics of another age. The 2016 trend has been embraced by the wide web, but it first originated from younger TikTok users dissatisfied with the current state of the internet. “2026 Is The New 2016” can be traced back to an ironic Gen Z joke which turned into a sincere movement known as “the Great Meme Reset,” in which TikTokers pined for the good old days, before the web became infested with AI-generated…

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Filed under: News - @ January 18, 2026 5:24 pm