Overview
- Users across TikTok and Instagram are reviving mid‑2010s aesthetics with 2016‑style filters, era‑specific songs, and throwback photos and carousels.
- High‑profile participants include Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, Charlie Puth, Karlie Kloss, Emily Ratajkowski and influencers such as Eli Rallo and Brett Chody.
- Reported scale varies by outlet and metric, with counts ranging from roughly 1.6 million videos to 1.7 million TikTok hashtag posts to about 55 million uses of a 2016 filter.
- Psychologists frame the craze as a search for the more personal, less combative social feeds many recall from 2016 and as a coping response to today’s online climate.
- The posts frequently reference easily memed touchstones like Pokémon Go, the Snapchat dog filter, Lemonade‑era pop culture and viral challenges from that year.