Deja Tolentino

At this time, you know, you have the King Kylie of it all.

This year is really about, like, the year of just realizing stuff.

2016, I think, was such a pivotal moment in Internet culture.

I think that is when we started to really enter this influencer era in full force.

And prior to that, you know, we had creators, but we didn't have as much of this, you know, monetization infrastructure to make everything online and ad essentially.

And so, you know, people are posting whatever they wanted to post.

And then it also was the year that it changes algorithm towards a more algorithmic feed versus a, you know, friends only chronological feed.

I think people have missed that a lot.

Although, you know, I think people romanticize 2016 and forget a lot about what that year is actually like.

As much as people are talking about 2016 right now, the entire 2020 so far, especially as an internet culture journalist, I have observed throughout the entire decade thus far, almost every year, people on TikTok, especially young people, have been romanticizing the 2010s.

I think in general, people associate the 2010s with a sense of optimism, especially post-2012.

But

I think a lot of people, especially young people, have been growing up at a time after the pandemic and in the 2020s, which has been such a tumultuous time in the economy and politics and in the world in general.

And it feels really hopeless at times that looking back at a time that literally looks so sunny and positive and wonderful and low stakes, you know, I think that's

It's really easy for people to become really fixated on this time period, even if that wasn't the actual reality, right?

I think that a lot of people are looking back at 2016

so fondly because it was one of the last years in which we engaged in a monoculture together and we had shared pieces of culture that we could remember.

I mean, we could all remember Closer being on the radio like 24-7 at the time.

I think a lot of people romanticize 2016 because it is the last time they remember unification in any way, right?

Not that people are politically unified at this time, but it feels like the last kind of...