Is 2026 the new 2016? – The Campus

A decade has passed since the mannequin challenge went viral and some of us Gen Zers have never felt so old. Why are we missing the Tumblr aesthetic? The 2016 vibes are back in our hearts — and on our Instagram feeds! If you haven’t seen the Snapchat’s flower crown filter fill your social media feed once again, I will fill you in with some background: at the start of 2026, a trend of posting old photos from 2016 went viral on Instagram and TikTok, with people longing for that 2016 vibe — yes, this is already my third time saying “vibe,” sorry I can’t help it. 2016 is stuck in my brain and “vibe” became my go-to word again. Oops! Jokes aside, the word “vibe” was in fact used a lot by the younger generation in 2016 as a way of determining an aesthetic that you could see in photos and the way people dressed and behaved. “Tumblr girls” was a term that originated to reference a fashion style popularized by girls that posted in the Tumblr app, which was a social media platform that became really popular in 2016. Those girls were the coolest and were the vibe
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