A viral social media trend urging users to treat 2026 as if it were 2016 has been dismissed as 'stupid' by a millennial influencer. Helen McPherson, who posts millennial content to her 100,000 TikTok followers, shared a reel criticising the nostalgia movement, which has gained traction on TikTok and Instagram.
The trend, launched at the start of 2026 to mark the 10-year anniversary of 2016, encourages people to 'live 2026 like it's 2016' to recapture a sense of carefree fun. However, McPherson argued that the trend was invented by young people, not millennials or older generations. She said: 'This has not been created by millennials or elders.'
McPherson explained that for her, 10 years feels like 'the other day' and that she would look no different in a photo from 2016. She added: 'I'm wearing a bra that I purchased from Marks & Spencer's in 2016. There are shirts at the bottom of the ironing basket that I haven't touched since 2016.' She also joked that one must 'take five years off for Covid'.
The influencer suggested that young people are experiencing their first wave of nostalgia, but that the decade to romanticise is 2006, which she called 'the millennial peak'. She quipped that she has 'millennial age dysmorphia' and does not 'accept the age she is', adding: 'Once the decades start rolling by, that's when I actually feel my nostalgia like a physical pain.'
McPherson questioned what would be next, such as nostalgia over Peppa Pig, saying: 'We can't have nostalgia over stuff that isn't old.' Her post received over 18,000 likes, with one commenter suggesting she start a 2006 throwback trend.
