Current Trends Explained: Why Is Everyone Nostalgic for 2016?

This week, young people look at the recent past through rose-colored glasses, live their best lives by filming harmless classroom pranks, and hopefully protect their futures by not swallowing too many chia seeds or roasting themselves with heating pads.

What does 2016 nostalgia mean?

A few weeks ago, I posted about the online trend of millennial optimism that focused on the years around 2010, but things went further: Young people are nostalgic specifically for 2016. That probably seems weird to you. 2016 saw the deaths of Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, and Prince, as well as levels of political and social upheaval many of us had never experienced, leading many of us to consider 2016 the worst year ever (we didn’t know it).

So why are young people nostalgic for it? First, because if you were a young person, the limits of societal collapse weren’t really on your radar. 2016 was the year of Pokémon GoSnapchat and the bottle flipping trend. You were watching this awesome new show called Stranger Things and hanging out with your friends, on an Internet that didn’t feel like an algorithm-driven hellscape. Nostalgia is a personal thing; if you’re a young adult in 2026, 2016 is your childhood, and things have gone so far thereafter with the pandemic and the continued erosion of “normal” civic life that 2016 would naturally seem to be the last normal year. Coming of age during a meltdown is no picnic, and I don’t blame anyone for a little nostalgia; look at the world we left them. But don’t take my word for it. Check out some of the 2.2 million nostalgia videos on TikTok #2016 to draw your own conclusions.

Viral Videos of the Week: Absurd Classroom Pranks

I don’t think there’s a name for the kind of viral videos I’m featuring this week, so I’m calling them “absurd classroom pranks.” These are videos where children/teenagers at a school are doing something absurd but harmless, while trying to stop themselves from breaking down. These documents of acts of heartfelt stealth rebellion are both hilarious and encouraging to the youth. Like this Instagram Reel from @avamonpere with five million views of a couple of guys meticulously arranging a charcuterie board in the middle of a conference:

Or the ongoing “bring random things to school” series, in which Instagram’s @eli6666k and her boys do exactly what the title says: pull the weirdest things they can out of their backpacks, while trying not to laugh. I couldn’t even do it while watching. Here are some of them:

But check the source. The series is ongoing so there is more to come.

The dangers of the Internet

In part 4,034 of my 36,321 part series, we have a trio of things that people online do that no one should actually do in real life.

• The fire challenge: Chicago-area mother issues warning on behalf of her badly burned daughter: Don’t participate in a ‘viral social media trend’ called ‘The Fire Challenge’; i.e. cover your hands with rubbing alcohol or hand sanitizer and set them on fire. It’s a tragic story, but since most media outlets report injuries from online challenges, I can’t find any evidence of videos like this on social media, so People Calling it a “viral social media trend” seems inaccurate. These videos may exist, but they are hardly viral or trending. There is a hashtag “tiktokfirechallenge”, with 34 videos, none of which depict anything dangerous. Although #firechallenge has a few videos warning about the fire challenge, but none show it actually happening.

• Don’t eat too many chia seeds: Chia seeds are all the rage with young people. They make “chia water,” mix it with apples and make “pudding,” and make super gross AI videos about the supposed health benefits of just eating a handful of seeds raw. This last point poses a problem. Chia seeds are a good source of fiber, but according to nutritionists, you shouldn’t eat them without first soaking them in liquid. They absorb fluids and eating raw seeds could lead to intestinal obstruction and choking.

• Toasted skin syndrome: This one unlocked a phobia I never imagined: If you regularly use a heating pad on its highest setting, you can literally slow roast your own flesh. It’s called toasted skin syndrome or “erythema ab igne” in medical parlance, and it’s caused by long-term exposure to personal heat sources like heating pads, electric blankets, heaters, or even a laptop on your thighs. TikTok user @teezubal raised awareness by posting a video of her friend’s alarmingly mottled back, which was viewed more than 50 million times in a week. Her friend insists: “It’s okay, I promise” but it’s not GOOD. Milder cases can take months to resolve, and if you continue, the discolored flesh can supposedly stay that way forever. The solution: If you’re using a heating pad, keep it set to “low.”