2016 – a time when the internet was a simpler place. Tumblr was the GOAT, Instagram was still finding its feet, filters were intense, there was no obsession with creating short video, algorithms showed you content you actually wanted to consume, attention spans lasted longer than 3-10 seconds, and ‘influencers’ and ‘content creators’ weren’t considered serious job titles. The online world had a less polished presence and there certainly wasn’t a worry about AI ‘photography’.
What is the 2016 trend?
Nostalgia has already been a key trend across social media for the last couple of years. We’ve seen fashion and make-up styles reflecting that of the 90s, a resurgence in film photography and the popularity in digital compact cameras spike. Over the last couple of weeks, there’s been a surge in millennials and older Gen Z now also romanticising 2016 across Instagram and TikTok. Most posts I’ve seen have been resharing personal moments, reminiscing about the last 10 years and how our lives have changed since. But I’m sure I won’t be the only one who has noticed the main difference between images then and now is how incredibly clean everything looks today.
Social media in the last five or more years has been looking like a hyper-polished highlight reel of our lives. Whether it’s an Instagram account dedicated to your photography or just a personal page of selfies, everyone’s feed has been turning into a perfectly curated, performative, aesthetically pleasing gallery. I’m not innocent, my own Instagram grid has been subject to this too. Even short videos became well-edited, 4K uploads with perfectly timed transitions – a long way from Vine and the early days of TikTok. Oh, and if the music didn’t absolutely match the transitions, it was basically the end of the world.
Left: 2025/26, Right: 2016
The unpolished look combined with fun and expressive human experience that we saw in 2016 is making a comeback through nostalgic, messy and more energetic content. Some are even reinterpreting some of the style with soft blur, warm undertones, high exposure and less detail within new images – be gone clean girl aesthetic.
Authenticity over polished
Even before the trend had legs, we’ve seen some of this energy filtering back into socials particularly for short video as quick, dirty, and unedited clips have become the most successful and engaging. At the end of December, we saw Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri express how flattering imagery is ‘boring to consume’. As a photographer and someone who enjoys looking at quality photography, I disagree. Well-composed and edited, real photographs of course have a place, and I will continue to share and look at this work.
As a social media manager, I can see why the trend has taken off as I’ve been craving some of that simplicity and playfulness we saw in the early days of social media. Though I personally find the vintage looking filters people used back in 2016 and earlier to be quite repulsive, and I’m cringing looking back at some of my photos from that time, so I really hope this doesn’t stick.
But what we can and should take from the 2016 trend is carefree individuality, personality and authenticity. I’ve seen so many accounts that share similar looking photographs and editing styles that I actually wonder if it’s been created by a different person at all. I am all for sharing more rugged, less perfect imagery and the photos that aren’t quite right as part of the process and experience of someone taking photos. After all, that experience is always going to be subjective and some of those images likely have the best stories attached to them!
I expect we will see much more of this happening in the coming months, so why not let loose of the perfected mould a bit.
The views expressed in this column are not necessarily those of Amateur Photographer magazine or Kelsey Media Limited. If you have an opinion you’d like to share on this topic, or any other photography related subject, email: ap.ed@kelsey.co.uk.
