My personal life has changed rapidly since then and i've become much different than the naive 16 year old I was back then.

However, objectively it doesn't feel too different from today besides COVID and the changes that came with it such as lockdown. Politically, 2016 was the resurgance of the right with trump being elected and brexit and also the start of the SJW vs alt-right war which causes everything to feel so divisive. Sadiq Khan was elected mayor of london in 2016 and he still remains mayor to this day if you live in the UK. Whilst the US has a new president, political sentiments aren't much different than they were back then. Memes radically changed back then to resemble what we have now. Twitter top text memes(the ones with white background and black text at the top), captions representing things memes, drake format, overusage of irony and post irony all started here. The music still feels a lot like 2016. Like 2016 you still have a lot of pop with EDM or trap elements and similar production elements as well. You also have some trap rap which is still lurking around as well. Gaming is still similar since 2016 was the first year 8th gen consoles became the norm and 7th gen was fully phased out and despite the release of 9th gen, they are far from becoming the norm yet since there is a shortage of those consoles and only like 3 next gen exclusives have released whilst there aren't any revealed next gen exclusive games yet to my knowledge. They probably won't become the norm until like 2024 which is quite late for console standards, I think it's safe to say 8th gen is still the standard like it was in 2016. You also had many iconic and generation defining games come out that year like DOOM 2016, Overwatch, Uncharted 4, Dark Souls 3, Final Fantasy 15, Street Fighter 5, Pokemon Sun and Moon, Hitman, Fallout 4 and Ratchet and Clank. Windows 10 became commonplace that year and is still the most common operating system today. Millennial culture had one final hurrah in Pokémon Go before dying off when trump got elected which is quite fitting since old-school Pokémon nostalgia is a staple of millennial culture and the actual brand is a staple of most of their childhoods. Platforms like YouTube started to crack down more on censorship in response to the cringe culture channels such as leafyishere which were amassing a lot of popularity at the time and this was when the content posted on that site started to feel much more corporate and soulless. It's hard to pinpoint exactly why but starting from late 2016 videos just felt much more corporate and didn't have the same authentic vibe as before. Maybe it has something to do with the backlash to cringe culture. You had a lot of iconic celebs popular at the end of the 20th century die this year. The economy started booming as well.

I've mentioned that this was when millennial culture died out but i'd also argue this was the start of Zoomer culture. Partly due to the drastic and sudden shift in memes but also because this was when people started using the term "zoomer" more and you had a whole lot of new slang birthed that year like "lowkey" and "on fleek" as well as the dab which is the first Zoomer dominated fad.

2021 feels like it's part of the same era as 2016, doubly so if you take COVID out of the equation. 2014 and 2015 on the other hand feels mostly separate from the 2016-2021 era with a bit of foreshadowing towards it like Trump announcing his presidential bid, ISIS and Gamergate. Pre 2014 is a completely different world.

Nah, I'll definitely have to respectfully disagree here. 2016 was a different world from now, and even 2019 was in many ways as it was the last pre-pandemic year. The political turmoil which led to Trump getting elected actually started in 2015 (the Trump campaign anyways), but you can go back even further than that like with the Tea Party in the early 2010's. The alt-right vs. SJW reached a boiling point in 2016, that year was like 2020 without the pandemic and you can probably expect 2024 to be the same. With Pokemon Go, it was popular with Millennials but it was also something for Gen Z to visit that was popular when the Millennials were their age back in the Y2K era.

Nah, I'll definitely have to respectfully disagree here. 2016 was a different world from now, and even 2019 was in many ways as it was the last pre-pandemic year. The political turmoil which led to Trump getting elected actually started in 2015 (the Trump campaign anyways), but you can go back even further than that like with the Tea Party in the early 2010's. The alt-right vs. SJW reached a boiling point in 2016, that year was like 2020 without the pandemic and you can probably expect 2024 to be the same. With Pokemon Go, it was popular with Millennials but it was also something for Gen Z to visit that was popular when the Millennials were their age back in the Y2K era.


There are some differences but they aren't that big besides COVID which I mentioned. But even still the early 20s just feel mostly like the late 10s but with COVID stacked on top of it, the 2016 foundations are still well and alive.

Yes you had political tensions in 2014/2015 but it really started to reach a whole new level in 2016 thanks to Trumps campaign run which started being taken seriously very late 2015. 2016 was when it finally became mainstream cool to "pwn the liberals". And 2016 was the year where all of that political tension from gamergate, ISIS, refugee crisis, etc resulted in something with brexit being passed through and Trump being elected. The tea party can't be compared to Trump. Conservatism was pretty dead until Trump came on the scene and everyone treated Obama like the second coming of Christ.

As for Pokemon Go, that was targeted towards millennials and is much more of a millennial thing since it only had Gen 1 Pokémon that year which is a staple of Millennial childhood and nostalgia culture. I don't deny that many Zoomers had fun with it but most Zoomers grew up on Gen 4, 5 and 6 rather than Gen 1. Pokemon Go is their swan song before fading into cultural irrelevance.

Excluding the pandemic, the most dramatically life changing event of the 21st century thus far, is a pretty large omission to make in order to argue that things are "pretty much the same" as 2016. I'm sure someone teleported from 2016 would find things a heck of a lot different.

Excluding the pandemic, the most dramatically life changing event of the 21st century thus far, is a pretty large omission to make in order to argue that things are "pretty much the same" as 2016. I'm sure someone teleported from 2016 would find things a heck of a lot different.


In the grand scheme of things it isn't that much different besides COVID.

If you had a time traveler from say 2060 who time travels as his day job. If he goes to 2016 for a week and then goes to 2021 for a week the only major difference he would notice is COVID and stuff that came about because of COVID. The music, games, technology, political atmosphere, youth culture and internet culture are pretty much the same.

Correct. So the premise of the argument is flawed from the get go.

The OP says "Politically, 2016 was the resurgence of the right with Trump being elected and brexit and also the start of the SJW vs alt-right war which causes everything to feel so divisive".  I would also argue that the climate politically has, if not changed, INTENSIFIED greatly, post-George Floyd. The INTENSIFICATION is a change in and of itself.  To the degree that a person teleported here from 2016 would not recognize it, and would probably go running back to 2016 as fast as their teleporter could carry them. For example, people were not "cancelled" in 2016 to the degree that they are today. Their lives and careers ruined for some remark they may have made on social media when they were 15. There is no nuance, nobody gets forgiven for ANYTHING. What started as a practice of "zero tolerance" for this or that offense has turned into something resembling, dare I say it, fascism. It has trickled down to the most conveyor belt of levels, such as who gets to be the host of "Jeopardy". Every time they find somebody, somebody else raises an objection due to some imperfection of the person's character. Are they only seeking the purest of people? I have news for you, such a person doesn't exist. NONE of this was prevalent in 2016.


The George Floyd episode is basically BLM riots in 2016 on steroids. It isn't so much of a change as it is a build up from 2016. And the riots lasted about a month or two. The post-election riots at the end of 2016 were also extremely chaotic as well.

>For example, people were not "cancelled" in 2016 to the degree that they are today. Their lives and careers ruined for some remark they may have made on social media when they were 15

I'm not a liberal(anyone who goes on the politics sub forum can attest to this) but I don't think cancel culture is as big of a thing as everyone says it is. I know one celebrity who got cancelled on the flash but I haven't seen it happen anywhere else. Everyone hyped up Eminem getting cancelled and nothing happened. Maybe i'm wrong but I hardly see it at all unless being banned from social media counts too. You could argue this type of behaviour has it's roots in 2016 anyway due to political correctness.

The world has drastically changed in 2020.

The world has drastically changed in 2020.


The only drastic change is COVID and domino effects of it. It felt different from March 2020 to July 2020 because the start of lockdowns and all felt new and shocking at first and then you had the BLM riots over the summer but after that the whole COVID thing just became a way of life that you got used to(well I can't speak for anyone else but it stopped being shocking from there on for me) and with pop culture and other things like technology being largely the same it still feels like 2016.

The world has drastically changed in 2020.


Yes it has since the pandemic, everyone is more "health conscious" nowadays.

The only drastic change is COVID and domino effects of it. It felt different from March 2020 to July 2020 because the start of lockdowns and all felt new and shocking at first and then you had the BLM riots over the summer but after that the whole COVID thing just became a way of life that you got used to(well I can't speak for anyone else but it stopped being shocking from there on for me) and with pop culture and other things like technology being largely the same it still feels like 2016.

The fact that you say "the only change" as if this pandemic is this small insignificant thing is pretty laughable, no offense. The entire world as we know it has changed in 2020.

Yes it has since the pandemic, everyone is more "health conscious" nowadays.

And not just that. The economy, the way things are done (masks, social distancing), the event cancellations, the deaths, the political aspects, etc. All of that changed the world dramatically. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

2020 is the new 2008. Except way more of a dramatic shift than 2008 since no one was expecting it.

The fact that you say "the only change" as if this pandemic is this small insignificant thing is pretty laughable, no offense. The entire world as we know it has changed in 2020.


In my country no one wears masks or follows social distancing and it's hard to even remember the fact that covid exists.

In my country no one wears masks or follows social distancing and it's hard to even remember the fact that covid exists.

Well surely your country still had lockdowns at one point in 2020? That alone is enough to give the hint of an extremely different world and a big change. Something like that was unheard of before 2020 and feels pretty downright dystopian.

And not just that. The economy, the way things are done (masks, social distancing), the event cancellations, the deaths, the political aspects, etc. All of that changed the world dramatically. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.


Economy? Recovered.

Masks/Social distancing? Read the above comment. Area can play a factor here since in the UK(or at least some parts of it) COVID guideline measures are dead.

Politics? Politically, 2016 is really a precursor to the state of today since that is when you started to see a massive hateful divide between the left and right and also when the right wing regained its influence. Now you see the same thing, constant political divisions, mask vs no mask, vaxxer vs anti vaxxer, BLM vs anti-BLM.

Well surely your country still had lockdowns at one point in 2020? That alone is enough to give the hint of an extremely different world and a big change. Something like that was unheard of before 2020 and feels pretty downright dystopian.


Like I said, march 2020 to july 2020 felt like a complete shock. It was like a weird dream. But after that things leveled out and everyone got used to it. People went back to their jobs, students went back to school.

Now in 2021 virtually no one at all wears masks or social distances here and no one is laid off from work.

In my country no one wears masks or follows social distancing and it's hard to even remember the fact that covid exists.


You live in a country where  no one wears masks or follows social distancing and it's hard to even remember the fact that covid exists? Nobody gets it, ever?  :o

You live in a country where  no one wears masks or follows social distancing and it's hard to even remember the fact that covid exists? Nobody gets it, ever?  :o


Well, that's the UK for you I guess... the south at least. This year 99% of the time I walk into a shop no one wears face masks. Even back in 2020 after June people got a lot more lax about COVID rules.

In my country no one wears masks or follows social distancing and it's hard to even remember the fact that covid exists.

Wow really? Where do you live?  :o

Wow really? Where do you live?  :o


The UK

In my country no one wears masks or follows social distancing and it's hard to even remember the fact that covid exists.


This is not true.

There are still plenty of people wearing masks in busy shops and other indoor places such as restaurants and offices, as well as on public transport.

Like I said, march 2020 to july 2020 felt like a complete shock. It was like a weird dream. But after that things leveled out and everyone got used to it. People went back to their jobs, students went back to school.

Now in 2021 virtually no one at all wears masks or social distances here and no one is laid off from work.


This is also not true

Schools closed again from January 2021 until March, as did face to face teaching in universities. Many people still work from home either all the time or for three or more days a week. Both my brothers and a friends husband have recently had to take unpaid leave as their places of work closed for two weeks. A friend of my son’s has never been into his place of work since starting last September.

This is not true.

There are still plenty of people wearing masks in busy shops and other indoor places such as restaurants and offices, as well as on public transport.


Whereabouts in the country do you live? I was in Kent last year and i'm now in Surrey and in both locations no one takes it seriously. It's even more lax here where i've only been asked once to wear a mask inside a supermarket. If I went out tommorow morning I don't think i'd find even one person wearing a mask or social distancing.

This is not true.

There are still plenty of people wearing masks in busy shops and other indoor places such as restaurants and offices, as well as on public transport.

Yes, there are still places where mask mandates are still put in place.