2016

Everyone is reminiscing about 2016. The late 2010s are being spoken about with an almost unbelievable level of nostalgia, even though it feels like they happened yesterday. It is strange to miss a time that does not feel that far away, yet feels completely out of reach.

2016 gets remembered as pure happiness. Not because life was perfect, but because it felt simpler. Social media felt fun rather than heavy. The internet felt playful instead of exhausting. There was excitement without constant comparison, connection without constant performance. We were online, but not consumed by it. Everything felt less polished, less strategic, less serious.

What we are really reminiscing about is how it felt to live then. Life moved slower. Days felt longer. Moments felt more present. There was more room to be bored, to be spontaneous, to exist without documenting everything. We were not constantly thinking about optimisation, productivity or self improvement. We were just living.

The nostalgia feels intense because so much has changed so quickly. In less than a decade, the world became louder, faster and heavier. The late 2010s now sit right before a period of constant disruption, global anxiety and digital overload. Looking back, that time feels like the last stretch of collective ease before everything became more serious.

It also feels closer than it is because time has sped up. Our brains compress recent years because life has become repetitive and overstimulating. When everything blends together, it feels like no time has passed at all. So 2016 feels like yesterday, even though it was nearly a decade ago.

The reason the nostalgia feels so strong is because it represents a version of ourselves that felt freer. Less aware. Less pressured. Less tired. We miss the feeling of being excited about the future instead of bracing for it.

I’m convinced 2016 was not magical because of the year itself. It was magical because of how it felt to live inside it. And when people say they miss it, what they are really saying is that they miss ease, presence and a version of happiness that did not feel so hard to access.