𝙜𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙨𝙮𝙜𝙞𝙧𝙡𝙧𝙖𝙮: nostalgia hurts me so bad

Watching Legally blonde for the hundredth time to need a girly pop boost, listening to Side to Side on my CD lector, doing my cut crease make up with the Anastasia Bervely Hills Subculture Palette (because well, 2026 is the new 2016) and wearing my wired headphones makes me yearn for an era that feels so far away yet so close at the same time. And social media doesn't help : every other scroll is a trashy y2k makeup tutorial, a "10 items that disappeared in the last decade" list, Britney Spears iconic performances, MTV's Christina Aguilera and Eminem ongoing beef, Zendaya's old instagram #swag pictures, and how makeup was funner when it needed an extra 10 steps so your blended soft brown wouldn't sag on your deep blue cut crease color (they really said for you page).

I found myself feeling deeply nostalgic of that time. I was born in October 1998, meaning I was barely a todler around the 2000s, a teenager around the 2010s, and by 2016 I was a senior highschooler and was ready for college by autumn of that year. Does that make me someone who lived through all those interesting decades and fun years ? I don't know. I do remember Britney Spears' Toxic on MTV playing on my small living room TV in 2004, riding my bike around our small village and listening to 2009's Jena Lee J'aimerais tellement on my mp3 lector (I used to steal the house phone's battery to put it in the mp3 lector). I felt deeply exposed using that device back then when smart phones started to become a thing (who remembers Samsung's Player One ? Only the popular kids used to have that phone before the Blackberry took over) but hey, at least I was blasting Where have you been on my cheap earphones and hurting my ears on my way to school. I find it interesting writing down all these stages of my life here on internet, because the way I live life today makes me feel like all of this was merely an imagination (contrasting with the overbearing digital life I lead nowdays). Deeper down the memory lane, I remember once back in middle school (around 2012 I think) my two last periods were cancelled, with one of my childhood friends (We are still friends to this day, shout out to youuuu!!) we raided the cheap candy store next to our school and then, went to our friend's house to play Just Dance, before it was time to go back in front of the school to act like we were just finishing class. Small and casual moments like those that turn into core memories just make me feel grateful of living a meaningful childhood, where my attention wasn't caged in some digital item and got to create moments that weren't meant for performance.

And if you are chronically online like me, you may have seen the articles and videos explaining to you how 2026 is the new 2016. According to BBC, TikTok searches for "2016" surged by 452% in the first week of 2026. All the now clean girls showing their past heavy makeups, mannequin challenge recreation everywhere, and cringy instagram swag and careless posts with that golden rose #filter. At that time, I just graduated highschool, was about to turn 18 and start my first year in college, majoring in mathematics and physics. I remember when I got my first scholarship at 18 and spent it on matte liquid lipsticks from a brand that doesn't even exist anymore, Morphe's 35 Palettes and Benefit's hoola Bronzer (because yeah, it was BRONZER year back then). I was a huge fan of american YouTube beauty influencers, follwing religiously every step of their makeup tutorial and spend my scholarship money on expensive Huda Beauty liquid lipsticks, Fenty foundations and Urban Decay Naked palettes. If you knew me back then, you may remember me showing up to my advanced statistics lecture with a heavy brown cut crease makeup and deep purple matte lipstick. I was that girl !

I think that's why a big part of me is still attached to that time. They were some of the best years of my life, as College years are supposed to be. Every experience was amplified, I had more freedom as I was becoming an adult, peak music culture and mixtapes, first relationships, driving license, exams, projects and the birth of my baby sister in 2018. A lot of first times for me, and by extension, lots of first times for the late 90's folks (Older gen Z), who may have been seeing this 2026 as a way of reflecting on themselves, and how they spent the last decade. Most of us then highschoolers graduated college, started our first jobs, switched companies and cities, traveled, moved around and lived all these years in a way that shaped who we are today.

2026 also marks a decade since 2016, the fastest paced decade ever, with lots of major events that shaped the world in what it is today, but mostly, what fragilized it and made it uncertain. From global pandemics, heinous and unsafe far right climate rising around the world, next door wars and 4K documented genocides, economic gaps and fragility, the future feels unpredictible and young people are, rightfully, tense and apprehensive. When the present feels unstable and the future difficult to imagine, the past can begin to feel unusually comforting. Nostalgia offers something that the present often cannot: familiarity. It creates the illusion of a time when things were simpler, more predictable, or at least easier to understand. This does not necessarily mean longing for the distant past. It can mean returning to the 2000s, the early 2010s, childhood television shows, old video games, disposable cameras, childhood snacks, Tumblr aesthetics, early YouTube, or the music and fashion associated with a period that, in retrospect, feels remarkably uncomplicated.

It's only understandable that we seek comfort and emotional stability in our memories, where things may have felt easier, less aggravating and gave us a deeper sense of belonging and community, two of the most important yet lacking emotional needs that young people are experiencing more and more. Many of us are tired of digital noise, constant anixety related to everyday's bad news, feeling privileged enough not to experience them but not less concerned about their impact. Lots of us folks who grew up to be the digital adults that we are today, yearn for a period were content wasn't overbearingly noisy and a barrier to collective and present shared experiences.

In that sense, nostalgia may be less about wanting to go backwards than about wanting to recover a feeling: safety, familiarity, community, optimism, or simply the sense that the future was something to look forward to. Ultimately, by definition, nostalgia is a bittersweet feeling of old happiness and slight sadness, and maybe that's why it hurts (me) so bad.