Trending January 2026
Each month of 2026 we’re going to look back at our stand-out social media trends. Unpicking viral audios, dances and unexpected concepts that got the internet buzzing. Here’s our take on January.
This trend continues from 2025, people throwing back to the aesthetic that dominated 2016. On TikTok, creators recreated the era by using filters that captured the 2016 look, pairing the video with music popularized in the year. With some creators revisiting sites that defined the year.
On Instagram, however, 2026 is the new 2016 is more reflective, with users digging up old photos and videos from 2016, and comparing them with who they are now, cringing and poking fun at their 2016 self. As well as the trends of 2016, with questionable fashion choices, pastel overload and the excessive use of Snapchat filters, users are laughing at how much has changed in the past 10 years.
The ‘summer isn’t over yet’ trend stems from Zara Larsson’s song Midnight Sun and started when she stated ‘summer isn’t over yet’ in a TikTok video she posted. Creators then created a trend from this video, using the ‘summer isn’t over yet’ caption on videos and photos that show the opposite of summer, people in snow filled fields, pouring rain... while pretending it's summer.
This trend hones in on the different personalities that exist within a friendship group, highlighting how each person interacts and communicates with the people around them. The videos usually play into relatable stereotypes, showing one friend as over apologetic, while the other two are more confrontational and outspoken. It’s quite a light hearted trend poking fun at how different people are, especially those in one friendship group.
The ‘you look just like your dad’ trend is a light-hearted family focused trend, that’s been taking over TikTok, usually featuring a father and daughter, sometimes a brother and sister. The videos typically begin with the daughter filming herself in the mirror, dressed in traditionally girly outfits, looking explicitly like themselves. Halfway through, the video switches to the brother or father being in the mirror, in the clothes the girl was in, showing the family resemblance, or sometimes the lack of resemblance.
Allow me to re-introduce yourself
As 2026 started, creators wanted to ‘re-introduce’ themselves online, using a trending song and editing template. Creators put together aesthetic videos, acting as a snapshot of who they are. These videos are made up of short clips of their favourite things, moments with friends and family, hobbies they love, small clips that make them feel like themselves. The clips come together to create a mini trailer, presenting the creator as the main character of their life.
Ahead of the new year, people on social media started sharing how they plan to track the year, and what they’re using in place of a physical calendar. That’s when one user commented on a post, mentioning that she will be using buttons to keep track of how many days have passed in the year. The internet went crazy, with some creators doing it alongside her, carrying the trend into January, with people documenting their progress of collecting the buttons for the days passed. Turning the idea of 365 buttons into an unexpectedly viral trend.
Jumping on the release of Stranger Things season 5, came a wave of new trending audios. One of the most popular featured Holly Wheeler dramatically saying ‘you have to believe me’. Creators instantly ran with the sound, pairing it with humorous captions relating to situations they have previously experienced. Most of the videos exaggerate minor problems or dramatic thoughts, creating a funny contrast between the sound and captions.
As one year came to an end and a new one began, people naturally started reflecting on what they’d accomplished through out the year, and this trend was born. Creators took the popular ‘hear me out’ cake trend and reworked it into an achievement cake, decorating it with sticks detailing their achievements over the past year. Whilst most of the videos stuck to genuine achievements they had made, some creators chose to make it humorous, using the trend sarcastically to list things that did not go as planned.
Mostly filmed in office settings, this trend pokes fun at the age differences between work colleagues, differentiating them by whether they were born before or after the year 2000. Once someone has stated they were born before 2000, the video cuts to an image on them placed into a overexaggerated scene from hundreds of years ago – like the stone age or alongside dinosaurs. When the trend is then flipped, those born after 2000 are placed against an image of a baby, or something synonymous with young children, with the visuals making the age gap feel extreme and over-the-top.
