‘2016 is the new 2026’: A look back at 2016 headlines as viral trend floods social media

SINGAPORE – The year 2026 began not so long ago, but the latest viral trend has people on social media yearning for 2016 instead.

The “2016 is the new 2026” trend has erupted, with users reminiscing about “simpler times” and what Harper’s Bazaar deemed “the last good year”.

Throwback posts feature many iconic 2016 looks, such as the Snapchat dog filter and highly saturated photos. Go-to songs accompanying these posts include The Chainsmokers’ hit song Closer and Love Yourself by Justin Bieber.

Celebrities, including actresses Reese Witherspoon and Priyanka Chopra as well as singers Khalid and Charlie Puth, have also posted their own throwbacks.

The trend was started by TikTok users who were lamenting how they missed the “good old days” before artificial intelligence took over the internet, according to Forbes.

The BBC reported that searches for “2016” surged by 452 per cent on TikTok in the first week of January, while more than 55 million videos have been created with the app’s filter named after the year.

Here were some of the biggest headlines from 2016 in Singapore and around the world.

Historic firsts: Joseph Schooling and Leicester City make sporting history

Swimmer Joseph Schooling made history when he

won the men’s 100m butterfly fina

l at Rio 2016 to become Singapore’s first Olympic champion.

He clocked 50.39sec to set a Games record and beat American legend Michael Phelps, Hungarian Laszlo Cseh and South African Chad le Clos; the trio shared silver.

Mr Schooling remains Singapore’s only Olympic gold medallist.

In Britain, defying the odds of 5000-1, then manager Claudio Ranieri led Leicester City to their maiden Premier League campaign and their first Champions League outing the following season.

The Foxes’ impressive performance saw them finish on top of the table with 81 points, 10 ahead of second-place Arsenal.

Seismic shifts: Trump becomes US president for first time, Britain votes to exit EU

The year 2016 saw significant political events that signalled change was afoot. In November, Mr Donald Trump defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to

become US president for the first time

.

Known then mainly for his real estate businesses, Mr Trump became the Republican front runner with his controversial “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Despite losing the popular vote, Mr Trump became the then US president-elect with 304 electoral votes to Mrs Clinton’s 227.

In June 2016,

a shock result also emerged

from Britain, which headed to the polls to decide whether it should “Leave” or “Remain” in the European Union.

The Leave camp took 51.9 per cent of votes in a closely fought race and spread alarm through markets.

Four years later, on Jan 31, 2020, Britain officially became the first country to leave the EU since it was formed in 1993.

All the rage on social media: Snapchat filters and the Mannequin Challenge

Many throwback posts contain photos bearing the iconic filters from social media platform Snapchat – the dog face and the flower crown.

Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai added a photo of her sporting the dog filter in her post of photos from 2016.

Large groups of people, including celebrities and politicians, were also attempting the popular Mannequin Challenge, which sees groups of people frozen in various poses while a camera pans the whole room.

The challenge was started by a group of high school students in Florida and influenced even attendees of the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony, such as then popular host Ellen DeGeneres, basketball legend Michael Jordan, and actors Tom Hanks and Robert De Niro.

Pokemon Go takes over the world

Released in July 2016, augmented reality game Pokemon Go had the world captivated and Singapore was no exception.

It became the most downloaded mobile game soon after its launch, exceeding 100 million downloads worldwide by July 31.

The game reached Singapore in August 2016 and groups of people were often seen gathering at locations islandwide “hunting” Pokemon.

While the game became a bonding activity for family and friends, it also led to increased reminders for safety from the authorities after the game reportedly caused fights and even

traffic accidents

.

Zika bites Singapore

Pokemon Go was not the only thing to reach Singapore in 2016. The Zika outbreak reached Singapore first in May 2016 after a Singapore permanent resident returned from Brazil in an isolated incident.

The second confirmed case and first locally transmitted one was reported in August 2016 with clusters continuing to form even in July 2017.

Mosquito control efforts were stepped up

through regular fogging, inspections and cleaning.