Suddenly students are going back in time, to a year where life was perfect: 2016.
The doggy filter on Snapchat, King Kylie, and fidget spinners were all just a few things that were part of the 2016 craze which made this decade memorable to many individuals.
Although Cal High students unfortunately cannot go back in time, they have started following the new social media trend of making 2026 the new 2016.
This trend started late 2025 near New Year’s when accounts across social media platforms such as TikTok started advertising 2026 as the new 2016 to commemorate the decade long anniversary and to experience the nostalgia from that time.
This trend started to gain mass popularity on New Year’s Day when people started posting nostalgic videos on social media platforms of what life was like a decade ago.
A lot of these posts came from people who were in their 20s during 2016. They started posting photos of themselves with the beachy-vibed “Rio De Janeiro” filter, recently dubbed as the “2016 filter” by influencers.
According to TikTok, searches for “2016” surged by 452% in March and early April 2026, and more than 55 million videos have been created using Rio de Janeiro filter.
The reasoning behind this trend is to take people back to a simpler time where the world was not as complicated, and AI generated photos and videos did not flood the media.
The year 2016 seemed to be one of the last years of peace humanity had before political and other world changing issues corrupted the years to follow.
This nostalgia is still applicable to this current generation, even though high school students ranged between four and eight years old back in 2016. Strangely, the sentimentality that 2016 had on them has still stuck.
Although Senior Gia Bhatt was only eight years old in 2016, she still recognizes some critical pieces of that year while she was growing up.
“Fidget spinners were a big part of 2016 and my childhood,” Bhatt said.
The newer generation of students remember nothing but fun.
“I remember being in kindergarten and having lots and lots of rainbows,” freshman Aria Devasia said.
Other toys that kids played with in 2016 included slime, Beyblades, and Shopkins.
Life was a little different for many Cal teachers back in 2016.
English 9 and 10 teacher Sierra Jenkins discussed her time in 2016 when she was just entering her freshman year of high school.
“I remember a lot of grungy styles with torn up jeans and big baggy shirts,” Jenkins said. “A lot of alternative music was coming back like Paramore.”
Although Cal teachers and students were at two very different points in their lives, they still see the year of 2016 as an energetic time to be in.
One of the greatest and most well known staples of 2016 was the nationwide phenomenon Coachella.
The two-weekend music festival filled with music, food, and fun has been the highlight of every spring with big artists to bands playing for two weekends in the Southern California desert city of Indio.
This year, Coachella was taken by storm by artists such as Justin Bieber, whose dominant presence has taken the name of Coachella to Bieberchella.
“I remember The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, and Justin Bieber,” junior Zahra Zakai said. “Justin Bieber played ‘Beauty and the Beat’ during Coachella and the atmosphere felt so 2016.”
Gaining popularity in the mid-2010s, Coachella headlined LCD Soundsystems, Ellie Goulding, Guns N’ Roses, Sia, and Calvin Harris.
The craze of Coachella has existed for over a decade, where people show up with elaborate outfits each year.
Fashion in 2016 was filled with a stylish mix consisting of a grungy, athletic leisure, and streetwear.
Items like crop tops, chokers, and skinny jeans were the daily outfits of 2016.
Senior Moshina Anwar recalls the 2016 aesthetic.
“I see a lot of boho and hippie fashion going around again,” Anwar said.
The fashion in this current day resembles a lot with 2016. Many attendees of Coachella wore similar styles reflecting fashion in 2016 – extravagant, outrageous, and lavish.
People also mourn the loss of the 2016 makeup style, which included boxy eyebrows, cut-crease smoky eyes, and matte lips. Influencers praise this style for its boldness and creativity.
Students find this 2016 craze as just another trend that will come and go until social media will get hyperfixated on something once again.
“That is 100% just a trend,” freshman Benny Lopez said.
It is understandable that this trend has a limited lifespan as people have seen others such as the coquette and VSCO girl trends quickly gain popularity and then die out even faster.
In today’s fast-paced world, most trends can peak in as little as three to five days, especially on platforms like TikTok and die sooner, according to Jumper Media.
Although it is a decade too late, students are eager to experience a different version of 2016 in a new age.
