'2026 Is the New 2016': Why everyone’s engaging in performative trend-hopping
The current obsession with “2016” isn’t really about the year itself, but about how a specific early Gen Z internet culture turned it into a shared, ironic reference long before it went mainstream. What began as a niche, coded way of remembering a feeling has since been diluted into a trend, stripped of context by celebrities, algorithms and media eager to explain something that was never meant to be explained.
