rhonart

When it comes to the last day of the month, I’m always reflective on how the year has been for me, but this time I can’t help but feel nostalgic about the type of life i’ve lived over the decades. This isn’t the first post that will talk about millennials’ love for nostalgia, nor will it be the last. Honestly, we had it good in a sense that we were able to grow up just on the cusp of the rise of social media, where those platforms were doing what they were supposed to do.

Take Instagram, for example. I’ve seen posts about people wanting the old Instagram that started out as a photo-sharing app. The kind where it wasn’t heavily focused on aesthetics, pushing content from accounts you don’t even follow, ads and consumerism. It was an actual social media platform where you got to share your images with your real-life friends, being tagged in random photos from a recent hangout, and openly commenting and replying back to your friends’ comments. No one was self-conscious or scared of being perceived in the way that we are now, and you really had to be there. However, we now live in a heavily surveilled society, as we’re constantly online recording and sharing, as well as being recorded (even in our most vulnerable moments), with or without our consent. It also doesn’t help that everyone is just so mean online. The lack of empathy we extend to each other is largely upsetting, especially when it comes to online discourse.

What’s interesting during this time of year, though, is the yearly predictions of what we’re going to see or what will be trending in the new year of 2026. Throughout the videos I’ve come across on my For You page via TikTok, the most common themes are the emphasis on going analogue, curation and authenticity.

People are opting to spend less time online by having more hands-on hobbies, building skills and finding their crafts. This will also signify a sign of wealth, as Tasmin perfectly elaborates in her TikTok video. The irony of still coming online to share said skill isn’t lost on me, as is the need to show people how great they are at using their time well by not doom-scrolling like everyone else.

We’ll also be moving away from minimalist “quiet luxury”, the “clean girl aesthetic” and consuming everything that’s trending, and instead be going back to our own individuality, colour and lived experiences. Buying less and curating better, quality pieces instead of falling into over-consumption. This doesn’t stop at fashion or décor; we’ll also be building our own physical media. In an era where we no longer have ownership over our media — i.e. streaming services taking over music and television with monthly subscriptions that increase each year — the need to have CDs and vinyl records, DVDs, iPods/MP3 players, film cameras, books and magazines has never been more apparent. Feeling nostalgic thinking about the days when that was the norm, the idea of building our own personal archives that are filled with our memories is the type of romance I’d like to bring into the new year.