A new year offers a chance for people to discover and try new things. For some, 2026 hasn’t been about discovering the new, but it’s more about revisiting the old, and the year people are longing to revisit is 2016.

A 2016 trend has swept its way across social media, a time filled with Snapchat dog filters and palm trees. The electronic sound of “Let Me Love You,” by DJ Snake and Justin Bieber has gone viral online after the start of the new year.

According to TikTok, in the U.S. the 2016 hashtag surged by more than 450% in recent weeks. Additionally, TikTok users are embracing the 2016 nostalgia, with searches for 2016 makeup and songs surging 600% and 290%, between Jan. 1 and Jan. 11.

The trend has gained widespread praise online, with posts generating thousands to millions of likes. Even popular celebrities are participating, with singer Demi Lovato posting her own TikTok captioned, “happy 2016!!” Seeing people post their throwback photos, recreating 2016 Musical.ly lip-sync videos and embracing the year’s distinct aesthetic has some users reminiscing on the era, while others crave to recreate life from 10 years ago, and make 2026 the new 2016.

The phenomenon of wanting to bring back the past when entering the new year is nothing new. Last year, videos were posted on TikTok saying how 2025 was going to be the new 2015. Why are people craving to recreate or relive the past rather than live in the new year? And why do trends like this even happen?

“Trends like this are good examples of what sociologists call ‘collective behavior,’” said Dr. Jeffrey Debies-Carl, a professor in the department of psychology and sociology. “These are activities that large numbers of people participate in, possibly across different locations, that are relatively unplanned and spontaneous.”

According to Dr. Debies-Carl, these trends can include a variety of different things such as unusual crowd behavior, fads (short-lived crazes) and even riots. He said these types of things get our attention because they “tend to include novelty we aren’t expecting and may even violate existing social norms.”

But they are not entirely unstructured.

“It’s the initial onset and form that are more random,” Dr. Debies-Carl said. “Emergent norms and expectations quickly form, and the whole episode tends to have a life course that is fairly predictable.”

“Usually these things run their course pretty quickly because it’s in large part the novelty that we find appealing,” he said. “They rarely make a lasting impact on the culture although there are exceptions. Who remembers planking, coning, or the pet rock? However, the Frisbee is still very much with us.”

Debies-Carl said that social media apps didn’t necessarily create new phenomena, rather they increased the rate at which phenomena emerged, spread geographically and created means of participation because of things such as video sharing. Trends like these arise because of a variety of different explanations, though they all emphasize the social nature of human life. In this particular case, a key motivation seems to be placed on a feeling of nostalgia, longing for the past.

“At the individual level, research suggests nostalgia could be triggered by things like stress or other things that put us in a bad mood or make us feel lonely,” Dr. Debies-Carl said. “Interestingly, the experience of nostalgia has been shown to improve mood and increase optimism for the future.”

With these posts, he said that this seems consistent.

“They express a sentiment that things have taken a turn for the worse since 2016 and that times were better or simpler back then,” he said. “And let’s not forget that there is a loneliness epidemic underway right now – one that social media and the internet might be partly to blame for, but ironically we also turn to these technologies in hopes of a solution.”

Additionally, trends such as this serve as a way to connect with others.

“Sharing these individual experiences through collective behavior trends rather than just experiencing nostalgia on your own is likely a way to bond with others, perhaps to identify with others and to legitimate one’s own feelings, and also to experience emotions together,” Dr. Debies-Carl said.