And culturally? Music icons David Bowie and Prince die. Bob Dylan receives the Nobel Prize in Literature and Leonardo DiCaprio his first Oscar for leading actor in “The Revenant”.
The “Mannequin Challenge” is going viral, where people pose in videos as if they were a still image. Songs like “One Dance” by Drake (feat. Wizkid & Kyla) or “Starboy” by The Weeknd and Daft Punk are released. The hit series “Stranger Things” starts on Netflix and the smartphone game “Pokémon Go” becomes popular.
Why we like to remember it
So 2016 was also marked by major news events – and not necessarily as positive as some Instagram posts suggest. How does the emerging feeling of nostalgia fit in with this? “This seems contradictory at first glance, but it can be easily explained psychologically, because our memory does not store news events, but rather emotional experiences,” explains psychotherapist Anke Glaßmeyer when asked.
Major political events such as “Brexit” or the US election were present, but for many people they did not yet have “the same lasting, personal threat quality as today’s crises.” “They were there, but they didn’t determine your inner experience around the clock,” says Glaßmeyer.
Currently, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and geopolitical tensions surrounding Trump’s claims to Greenland are making the headlines.
According to the expert, things that affect us emotionally remain in our memory – such as music, friendships, certain summers, departures or everyday life. This shapes the feeling of nostalgia. “The brain sorts memories not according to historical relevance, but according to emotional significance and that is precisely why nostalgia is selective. It remembers what gave stability.”
“Many experience a constant state of tension”
Glaßmeyer classifies the trend primarily as a reaction to a permanently overwhelming present. “Nostalgia is a psychological mechanism that becomes active when the here and now feels too complex, too fast or too uncontrollable and it does not arise out of nothing. Many have not experienced individual stressful phases for years, but rather a constant state of tension.”
In such moments, the brain falls back on memories that feel emotionally safer. “But not because everything was good there, but because it felt more manageable.” 2016 is particularly suitable for this, explains the behavioral therapist.
Because it is close enough to seem real and not like a childhood memory. “At the same time, it is far enough behind to be softened. Stressful things fade into the background and the supposed lightness can move forward.” What matters is not whether 2016 was objectively better, but rather how it felt subjectively.
Less algorithms, more dog filters
Cultural scientist Annekathrin Kohout explained on Deutschlandfunk that the current trend is also about bringing a retro phenomenon into a digital world that was imagined to be more fun, chaotic and somewhat unpolished.
Ten years ago, the dominance of algorithms and perhaps also the enormous professionalization of social media did not exist in the form that they do today – or at least they did not believe they did yet.
In keeping with this, many users show in their posts how they edited their photos in 2016, for example with a sepia look or with a dog filter that playfully adds dog ears and noses to faces. This also includes actress Eva Longoria. She wrote: “Bring back 2016, I miss these filters.”
