There’s something about 2016 that sticks in the collective memory. It was the year before the world felt like it tipped on its axis, before masks, mandates, and lockdowns; before political division became dinner-table warfare; before AI crept out of science fiction and into everyday life. Before the phrase “World War III” started trending on social media more often than it should.
At the time, 2016 felt like just another year. But looking back, it might have been the last one that felt…normal.
A Pre-COVID Reality
In 2016, the idea of a global pandemic seemed like the stuff of Hollywood scripts. You could jump on a plane without showing a vaccination card. Crowds were just crowds, not viral risks. The worst thing you worried about catching at a concert was a beer shower. Life wasn’t perfect, but it was predictable. The baseline stress of simply existing was lower. We didn’t think twice about shaking hands, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers, or planning overseas trips a year in advance. All of that disappeared in 2020, and we’ve been adjusting ever since.
Politics Still Had a Pulse
Sure, 2016 was the year of Brexit and Trump’s first term, and that was seismic in its own way. But there was still room for debate. Political disagreements hadn’t yet curdled into tribalism. Social media hadn’t become the minefield of outrage and misinformation it is now. People were still arguing in good faith (mostly), and satire hadn’t been swallowed whole by reality.
After that, the discourse got sharper, louder, and less forgiving. Every issue became a line in the sand. By the time we hit the 2020s, it felt like we were all just picking teams in a game with no clear rules.
Photo by Aaron Kittredge
The Calm Before the (Actual) Storms
2016 was the year before the global headlines turned into a rotating list of tragedies. The full-scale war in Ukraine and the Middle East hadn’t erupted yet. The threat of conflict in the Pacific hadn’t loomed quite so large. Terrorism was still a concern, but the idea of state-on-state warfare, with tanks, air raids, and nuclear threats, hadn’t returned to the front page in such a chilling way.
Climate change was a known issue, but it hadn’t yet become a parade of “once-in-a-century” weather events happening every six months. There was still a sense that we had time. Now, the clock feels louder.
Photo by Johannes Plenio
AI Was Still a Party Trick
In 2016, artificial intelligence was impressive but benign. It played chess, recommended songs, and helped with customer support. It wasn’t writing code, generating photorealistic fake people, or answering your emails. The idea that AI might take your job or rewrite your art, or worse, start thinking for itself, wasn’t in the mainstream consciousness.
Today, AI is everywhere and evolving fast. And while it brings plenty of innovation, it also brings a creeping sense of uncertainty. What does creativity look like in an AI world? What jobs are safe? What’s real anymore?
Pop Culture, Optimism, and One Last Breath of Innocence
2016 gave us a blockbuster slate of pop culture: Stranger Things, La La Land, Zootopia, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, David Bowie’s Blackstar. It was the year Pokémon Go got people out of the house and into parks again. The world felt just connected enough to be fun, not exhausting. We were still optimistic, cautiously, maybe, but earnestly. Since then, the hits have come hard and fast. It’s been harder to catch your breath.
Photo by Helena Lopes
So Was 2016 the Last Great Year?
Maybe. Maybe not. But there’s a reason people keep looking back to it. It wasn’t that everything was perfect. It was that life still had a rhythm, a kind of global innocence that hadn’t been interrupted yet. We didn’t know what was coming, and maybe that’s what made it great.
Nostalgia is powerful. But sometimes, it’s not just sentimentality, it’s a genuine marker of when the world changed. And 2016 might have been the last time it didn’t feel like it was spinning out of control. Or at least, the last time it didn’t feel that way.
There’s something about 2016 that sticks in the collective memory. It was the year before the world felt like it tipped on its axis, before masks, mandates, and lockdowns; before political division became dinner-table warfare; before AI crept out of science fiction and into everyday life. Before the phrase “World War III” started trending on social media more often than it should.
At the time, 2016 felt like just another year. But looking back, it might have been the last one that felt…normal.
A Pre-COVID Reality
In 2016, the idea of a global pandemic seemed like the stuff of Hollywood scripts. You could jump on a plane without showing a vaccination card. Crowds were just crowds, not viral risks. The worst thing you worried about catching at a concert was a beer shower. Life wasn’t perfect, but it was predictable. The baseline stress of simply existing was lower. We didn’t think twice about shaking hands, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with strangers, or planning overseas trips a year in advance. All of that disappeared in 2020, and we’ve been adjusting ever since.
Politics Still Had a Pulse
Sure, 2016 was the year of Brexit and Trump’s first term, and that was seismic in its own way. But there was still room for debate. Political disagreements hadn’t yet curdled into tribalism. Social media hadn’t become the minefield of outrage and misinformation it is now. People were still arguing in good faith (mostly), and satire hadn’t been swallowed whole by reality.
After that, the discourse got sharper, louder, and less forgiving. Every issue became a line in the sand. By the time we hit the 2020s, it felt like we were all just picking teams in a game with no clear rules.
The Calm Before the (Actual) Storms
2016 was the year before the global headlines turned into a rotating list of tragedies. The full-scale war in Ukraine and the Middle East hadn’t erupted yet. The threat of conflict in the Pacific hadn’t loomed quite so large. Terrorism was still a concern, but the idea of state-on-state warfare, with tanks, air raids, and nuclear threats, hadn’t returned to the front page in such a chilling way.
Climate change was a known issue, but it hadn’t yet become a parade of “once-in-a-century” weather events happening every six months. There was still a sense that we had time. Now, the clock feels louder.
AI Was Still a Party Trick
In 2016, artificial intelligence was impressive but benign. It played chess, recommended songs, and helped with customer support. It wasn’t writing code, generating photorealistic fake people, or answering your emails. The idea that AI might take your job or rewrite your art, or worse, start thinking for itself, wasn’t in the mainstream consciousness.
Today, AI is everywhere and evolving fast. And while it brings plenty of innovation, it also brings a creeping sense of uncertainty. What does creativity look like in an AI world? What jobs are safe? What’s real anymore?
Pop Culture, Optimism, and One Last Breath of Innocence
2016 gave us a blockbuster slate of pop culture: Stranger Things, La La Land, Zootopia, Beyoncé’s Lemonade, David Bowie’s Blackstar. It was the year Pokémon Go got people out of the house and into parks again. The world felt just connected enough to be fun, not exhausting. We were still optimistic, cautiously, maybe, but earnestly. Since then, the hits have come hard and fast. It’s been harder to catch your breath.
So Was 2016 the Last Great Year?
Maybe. Maybe not. But there’s a reason people keep looking back to it. It wasn’t that everything was perfect. It was that life still had a rhythm, a kind of global innocence that hadn’t been interrupted yet. We didn’t know what was coming, and maybe that’s what made it great.
Nostalgia is powerful. But sometimes, it’s not just sentimentality, it’s a genuine marker of when the world changed. And 2016 might have been the last time it didn’t feel like it was spinning out of control. Or at least, the last time it didn’t feel that way.
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