From the premiere of “Stranger Things” to #OscarsSoWhite, 2016 was a wild ride, but the feeling the year conjured hasn’t occurred since.
2016 is spoken about with a particular nostalgia within popular culture. For me, 2016 has an air of community, play and intangible opulence.
Some undeniable highlights include the “Hamilton” musical dominating the Broadway box office, the tragic loss of beloved Cincinnati gorilla Harambe, Pokémon Go inflating step counts and Beyoncé’s release of her album “Lemonade” in response to Jay-Z’s infidelity.
2016 was also overflowing with duck faces and Snapchat filter selfies. CNN even published what they coined “selfies of the year,” including a picture of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubeski taking a selfie with Leonardo DiCaprio on stage at the Academy Awards.
Junior Zoe Shapiro spoke about her love of selfie sticks and their pervasiveness.
“I miss seeing it everywhere I go. I miss seeing the selfie stick in someone’s back pocket. I miss seeing the selfie stick sticking out of a Louis Vuitton tote bag at the grocery store,” she said.
Despite their popularity, selfie sticks became contraband at all Disney parks as of June 2015, citing safety risks as the leading issue.
Selfie sticks aided selfie culture but were not the only cultural touchpoint for the rise of selfies.
Junior Kaya Nunan misses the questionable yet notorious selfie poses of 2016.
“The best part about 2016 was when we put peace signs up to our faces in pictures. Oh my god, it was the best part of my life,” she said.
The culture of selfies took over social media and jump-started a quest in academia to understand, at the scholarly level, what was happening. When you search “2016 selfie culture” in Google Scholar, there are 58,900 results.
Senior Elisabeth Perlman pines for the social media culture of 2016.
“[I miss] Tumblr, the app, in its heyday and staying up really late and scrolling,” she said.
Tumblr was a binding agent for the 2010s, bringing together people with niche, yet widely beloved interests.
2016 was also the last full year of the beloved social media platform Vine. The world roared when those six-second video clips were pried from our hands before we were ready.
Senior Grace Roberts has a certain love for the music scene of 2016. They miss the feeling of community around the release of Rae Sremmurd’s album “SremmLife.”
“I just miss the way everyone came together to really support this album,” said Roberts.
Sremmurd wasn’t alone in dominating the 2016 music scene. The year was also home to Adele’s hit single “Hello,” Frank Ocean’s album “Blonde,” Mitski’s “Puberty 2,” Big Thief’s “Masterpiece,” Twenty One Pilots’ “Stressed Out” and David Bowie’s farewell album “Blackstar.” The list goes on and on.
The year brought what felt like an endless euphoria of timeless music. However, a shift in the way music was being released may have conjured these feelings rather than the music itself.
Billboard editor Andrew Unterberger points to a decrease in pre-album press tours and an increase in album release parties as to why music felt so dominant in 2016.
“The preponderance of event albums not only demonstrated how much had changed in how albums were being released, it also reflected massive shifts in how they were being consumed,” wrote Unterberger.
Overall, Gen Z seems to have come together to ensure that 2016 will remain a cultural artifact. Not only was there a sense of unity but also a love for having a good time for the sake of enjoyment.
With its 10-year anniversary creeping up on us, I urge everyone to revisit the joys you once had in 2016 and bring them back into the light. Whether you miss chokers or the Rio de Janeiro Instagram filter, bathe in all that once was this year.
