Welcome Back to 2016!

Happy New Year! We time travelled!

I keep seeing this Tumblr meme about how what we collectively think of as the year 2016 was actually the period of 2015-2019. Before that was nostalgia, and after this long 2016 came the “plague.”

I am, if nothing else, a creation of the 2012-2017 Tumblr culture, and I am definitely seeing the signs that the collective culture online is longing for a return to the age of re-blogging “artsy quotes,” ripped stockings with bloody knees, and aesthetically displayed cigarette remnants. The time before Trump was elected, before Covid changed the world forever, and before the modern concept of influencers became what it is now.

Then and Now

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Then: Hamilton was all the rage and I literally sang “The Room Where it Happens” in my sleep before ever seeing the show. My family planned a movie night to sit on the couch and watch the recording Stream on Disney+. My younger brother was there and he hates musicals (he left the movie theater and went home when we saw Les Mis).

Now: Disney released Wish, their new princess movie. The internet freaked out. They said the villain song sounded like someone typed “make a Lin Manuel Miranda song” into ChatGPT. What happened to “Hellfire” from the Hunchback of Notre Dame? Where is the “Poor Unfortunate Souls” energy. As a matter of fact, why does the princess have the same personality as Anna from Frozen? As Mirabel from Encanto? As Moana? Wish is the first Disney princess movie I didn’t go see.

Then: The Hunger Games franchise took over the world. Jennifer Lawrence became a household name. Peeta Mellark made me love a blond man (unheard of). The youth was radicalized (see here). I wore a side braid. Everyone carried a bow and arrow on Halloween. I went to a midnight premier. I discovered the horrors of capitalism. I re-blogged the shit out of tumblr fan-cams and memes. In fact, I made my own edits.

Now: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes premiered. I loved another blond man (but this has only happened these two times) (and both of the actors are natural brunettes). Everyday I see laws overturned and new laws written that make me fear Panem is on it’s way. I am a contributor to the horrors of capitalism. Ten year olds are buying Drunk Elephant, they do not realize that the world is burning. It has become clear Suzanne Collins is either: A. a time traveller, B. a prophet, or C. literally the most insightful person to ever write a book (I’m sorry George Orwell but no one and nothing in 1984 or Animal Farm made me cry and have a philosophical crisis like Finnick Odair).

Then: Smudged eye makeup. Ripped stockings. Bloody knees. Morbid poetry. “Knee Socks” by the Arctic Monkeys. “Robbers” by the 1975. Reblogging thigh gaps on Tumblr. Acacia Kersey. King Kylie.

Now: Years of the “Clean-girl” aesthetic. Slicked buns. Wellness culture. Erewhon. Hailey Bieber. Ballet-core. Bloke-core. Core-core. Girl-core. Influencer-core. Then, suddenly (or inevitably?) we turn back towards smudged eye makeup. Ripped stockings. Bloody knees. Morbid poetry. “Knee Socks” by the Arctic Monkeys. “Robbers” by the 1975. Clapping for people who are taking Ozempic. Acacia Kersey was cancelled for being a bad mom. Kylie Jenner just posted on Instagram with pink hair. It made the news.

Why is this happening?

Well, probably a bunch of reasons.

First of all, fashion and culture always has been and always will be a cycle. There’s a reason we have all been wearing baggy, low waisted pants for the last few years. There is also a reason That 70s Show aired in the 90s and That 90s Show started streaming in 2023. There’s a reason they rebooted Full House. And there’s a reason I’m addicted to ballet flats after not having worn them since I was five-years-old. There’s a reason my Pinterest boards are full of pictures of celebrities in the early 2000s. There’s a reason Saltburn takes place in 2007. There’s a reason we’ve had two movies about Elvis in as many years. And there is a reason we all want it to feel like 2016.

Nostalgia is a powerful tool, and it especially takes a hold in times where it feels like everything is going wrong. The internet is no longer a place in your home with a stationary computer. The internet is everywhere. It is in your pocket, it is in your work, it is in your watch. It is where you reach your hands when you don’t know where to put them. To go back to 2016 would go back to before “Quiet Luxury” became the leading trend during a recession (not a coincidence). It would be before everyone had a Substack and put their opinion everywhere. To go back to 2016 would be to go back to before blueberry milk nails and cookie butter hair.

We say, “When I was ten, I was making embarrassing iMovies and buying L'Oréal blush at CVS. Ten-year-olds now are making ‘skincare smoothies’ with Drunk Elephant products at Sephora and terrorizing the employees.” I wasn’t an iPad baby, we say. Instagram didn’t even exist until I was 12.

I think the rearview mirror has a rose-tint to it.

Maybe I wasn’t an iPad baby, but I was definitely a Webkinz kid, and my parents bought me the premium subscription. When I was 15, I watched countless hours of beauty YouTubers and bought the products they promoted. I’ve been a Sephora VIB member since middle school in 2012. Substack wasn’t around but the girls were still blogging. I had thousands of Tumblr followers and two blogs–one was an “aesthetic” blog (i.e. ripped stockings and cigarette butts), the other was a fandom blog (i.e. Teen Wolf edits and Katniss x Peeta fan-art). Speaking of Teen Wolf, I’m currently rewatching it. I’m also currently rereading every book I read in High School to “feel something” again.

So on a personal note, yeah, I’m also reliving 2016. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I’m just saying it’s interesting. And it isn’t all that surprising.

I think this collective nostalgia and bargaining for simpler times is natural and inevitable. People have been saying “I was born in the wrong generation,” for generations. The grass is always greener… They were simpler times… etc. etc.

We complain that everyone has a voice to post every thought for the world to see but wasn’t that like the whole point of the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th century?

If you don’t care what I have to say: don’t read it. If I don’t care about that dumb article some dumb lazy media outlet posted, I won’t read it either (no offense). The LA Times posted an article about their own layoff of 115 staffers. And yeah, as a person with a bachelor’s degree in journalism that’s pretty scary. But also, journalism isn’t dead, it’s changing. Didn’t the publishing industry change with the printing press, or something like that? I’m pretty sure the entertainment industry changed forever when film was invented.

I’m not defending AI or the loss of human art. Or the commodification of emotions. It actually terrifies me on a daily basis. But people are still making good films, good books, good music. What I am saying is shit changes and we tend to figure it out. I didn’t want it to be 2016 anymore when there was the Zika virus, and the Russian hacking, and the Pulse nightclub shooting, and Facebook was plagued by fake news, and Trump was elected, and Brexit happened. Wasn’t there that crazy housing crisis in 2008? Remember The Big Short? Remember Spotlight in 2015?

So anyways, Kylie Jenner having pink hair for one Instagram post was fun to see. And I’m glad I get to wear smudgy, messy makeup and chic bedhead hair again. I’m super into my ballet flats and don’t have to suffocate in high-waisted pants. anymore I love watching movies set in 2007 and TV shows I loved in 2014. And yeah, I look at fanart still on Pinterest and Instagram. I watch Katniss x Peeta edits to Mitski songs on TikTok. I’m a Sephora VIB Rouge. I cut my nails to be short again after I felt that was the direction the trend cycle was going.

C’est la vie, etc.