Ever scrolled through Instagram and felt like you’ve accidentally stepped into a time machine? You’re not alone. Celebrities, influencers, and everyday users are suddenly drowning in nostalgia for 2016, and it’s not just about the filters or the throwback photos. But here’s where it gets intriguing: it’s not just millennials clinging to their past—Gen Z is leading the charge. Why 2016? And what does this collective yearning say about our current cultural moment?
On a recent episode of Commotion, culture critics Vinson Cunningham and Madison Malone Kircher dive into this trend, unpacking the layers of nostalgia, optimism, and even cringe that define our fascination with a year that now feels both distant and oddly familiar. Hosted by Elamin Abdelmahmoud, the discussion is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. We’ve pulled some highlights for you, but trust us—you’ll want to listen to the full conversation.
But here’s where it gets controversial: Is 2016 truly the idyllic year Gen Z is romanticizing, or are they overlooking its complexities? Let’s break it down.
Elamin kicks things off by pointing out the unexpected: Gen Z, not millennials, are the ones idealizing 2016. Madison explains that this shift started with the concept of “millennial cringe”—the idea that millennials are too earnest, their humor too awkward, their fashion choices too questionable. “I’m a millennial,” Madison admits, “I’ll take the heat.” But over the past year, that cringe has morphed into something else: millennial optimism. Millennials, it seems, are now seen as the generation that experienced “the before times”—a pre-pandemic, pre-political upheaval era that feels almost mythical now.
And this is the part most people miss: 2016 wasn’t just any year. It was a cultural turning point. Remember Lin-Manuel Miranda on SNL, confidently singing that Donald Trump would “never going to be president now”? Spoiler alert: he was wrong. There was also the music—The Chainsmokers’ Closer with its wistful lyrics about agelessness, or Drake’s Summer Sixteen, a celebration of self that defined an entire season. Vinson reflects on the era as the end of the Obama years, a time of ideological ferment but also lingering liberal hope. “There was a primary color to that time,” he notes, “that has now gotten hopelessly muddled.”
For Gen Z, 2016 holds a different significance. It’s pre-pandemic, a time before their lives were split into “before” and “after.” Vinson’s daughter, a Gen Z-er, was in high school when the pandemic hit, and that divide shapes how her generation views the past. But is their nostalgia justified, or are they glossing over the year’s complexities? After all, 2016 was also marked by unrest—Trayvon Martin, Ferguson—and the beginnings of a cultural shift that would only intensify.
Here’s the question we can’t stop thinking about: Is our obsession with 2016 a genuine longing for simpler times, or are we selectively editing out the parts that don’t fit our narrative? And what does it say about our current moment that we’re looking back at all?
If you’re as intrigued as we are, you’ll want to listen to the full discussion on Commotion. Available on CBC Listen or your favorite podcast platform, it’s a conversation that’s equal parts insightful and entertaining. And while you’re at it, let us know in the comments: What’s your take on 2016? A golden year, or just another chapter in a complicated story?
Produced by Jess Low. Written by Amelia Eqbal, a Toronto-based writer and social media manager for Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud. Previously contributed to Q with Tom Power, CBC Books, and CBC News' Entertainment unit. Reach her at amelia.eqbal@cbc.ca.
