2026 is the new 2016: Kareena Kapoor's bump year; see Sonam Kapoor, Alia Bhatt's throwback post on viral trend

A wave of nostalgia has swept across social media as netizens revisit snapshots from a decade ago, particularly from 2016. The Internet is now flooding with old photos — reviving fashion, aesthetics, and reflecting on a simpler digital era under the “2026 is the new 2016” trend.

Bollywood celebrities, including Kareena Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, enthusiastically participated in the viral 2016 trend on Instagram. Global celebrities like beauty mogul Kylie Jenner and Emily in Paris star Lilly Collins have also posted a gallery of pictures from a decade ago.

A wave of nostalgia has swept across social media as netizens revisit snapshots from a decade ago, particularly from 2016. The Internet is now flooding with old photos — reviving fashion, aesthetics, and reflecting on a simpler digital era under the “2026 is the new 2016” trend.

Bollywood celebrities, including Kareena Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, enthusiastically participated in the viral 2016 trend on Instagram. Global celebrities like beauty mogul Kylie Jenner and Emily in Paris star Lilly Collins have also posted a gallery of pictures from a decade ago.

Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor has become the latest celebrity to join the viral 2016 trend on Instagram.

Taking a stroll down memory lane, Kareena shared unseen pictures from 2016, when she was pregnant with her firstborn, Taimur. Sharing the throwback pictures, Kareena on Instagram wrote, “The year of the bump.”

Soha Ali Khan, who was a newlywed in 2016, also shared a photo dump of her 2016 pictures and said that it was “the year of family”.

“2016 was the year of family. Newly married and learning what home really means and towards the end considering expansion 😁❤️ #2016” she captioned her post.

Actress Alia Bhatt also shared a throwback photo dump from 2016 — from sharing the screen with Shah Rukh Khan in Dear Zindagi to seeking blessings at the Golden Temple.

"2016 ki kahaani

1 - 2016 started off pretty grounded

2 - some shoot moments with my fav co-actor ever

3 - a whole lot of love

4 - very tired boys on the dream team tour

5 - a whole lot of love part 2 (surprise bday in Delhi during kapoor and sons promotions)

6 - tamma tamma shoot with badri

7 - golden moments at the golden temple

8 - dearest pari giving me some relevant gossip during a press conference

9 - Elle 2016 cover shoot

10 - coldplay berlin 2016," she captioned the post.

Sonam Kapoor also shared a throwback photo dump from her hit, Neerja, and her love life. “Throwback to 2016, release of Neerja, shooting with @thehouseofpixels for the first time, figuring out that @anandahuja is the love of my life,” the caption read.

Ananya Panday also participated in the trend with mirror selfies and Snapchat dog and flower crown filter. “2016 was really it man 😭😭😭😭♥️♥️” she wrote.

Huma Qureshi shared a series of pictures, including a heartfelt photograph with late Sushant Singh Rajput as she looked back at the decade. “Wow … this is crazy 2016 …” she wrote.

What started the ‘2026 is 2016’ trend?

On January 1, the ‘2026 is 2016’ trend first began on TikTok to evoke nostalgia and look back at the decade gone by.

The ‘simpler times’ took netizens back to the pre-COVID era and was started by Taybra Fang’s TikTok video. In 2016, Snapchat flower crowns and dog fliters, call screenshots, Panda sneakers, bottle flip challenge, and more were in trend.

‘Nostalgia is always complicated’: Expert

Jessica Maddox, an associate professor who teaches media and cultural studies at the University of Georgia, told CNN that the ‘2016 is 2026’ trend is fairly innocent; however, she noted that there’s also some “revisionist history going on”.

“Nostalgia is always complicated, because we think that by doing or consuming something, we can have the same feeling we had back then, which can never be the case,” she said.

In 2016, Maddox said, “We were less online but simultaneously more together in the spaces we were online.”

She noted that a part of the reason why netizens look back and think it was easier or better in 2016 is “probably just because we weren’t plugged in as much and we weren’t as online, doing as much doomscrolling. We weren’t really engaged in the way we are now.”