The Internet Bids Farewell to 2016 on Twitter

Donald Trump famously made use of Twitter throughout 2016, eschewing the media channels typically used by presidential candidates and heads of state in favor of 140 character missives published to social media. His end-of-year salutations were no different, as the President-elect wished a “Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly.”

Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don't know what to do. Love!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2016

Reuters notes that Trump will be ushering in 2017 with a private party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, which is expected to draw celebrity guests such as Sylvester Stallone of Rocky and Rambo fame.

Of course, Trump wasn’t the only Twitter user who took to the social media platform to bid farewell to 2016, a year that many described as “the worst year ever.” A long series of celebrity deaths, a divisive election cycle, natural disasters, the Zika outbreak, Syria, Brexit, Russian cyberattacks, the ongoing Flint water crisis, and numerous protests against everything from police shootings to the Dakota Access Pipeline left Americans across the board feeling drained.

https://twitter.com/ASummerJames/status/814964193149521921

Some cheekily saluted those still stuck in 2016 from a time zone where midnight had already come and gone.

https://twitter.com/jmehough/status/815184411780141056

Others celebrated beloved celebrities who did not shuffle off this mortal coil.

Looks like #Madonna's going to make it! 👍 #nye2016

— Jeetendr Sehdev 🙏☀️ (@JeetendrSehdev) December 31, 2016

Madonna is not only alive, but wrapped up her year by doing an ad for Heineken.

New ad for Heineken! 😂Last bit of work i do in. 2016! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🍺☃️ pic.twitter.com/6VqyE1S1ie

— Madonna (@Madonna) December 31, 2016

One tweeter pointed out that things could always be worse:

https://twitter.com/Brian_Vandy/status/815246299947814914

Cubs fans celebrated 2016 as a year with a silver lining:

Many say that 2016 was the worst, but the Chicago Cubs became world champions. From that perspective it was the best year ever. Happy 2017!

— Gregory D. Howe (@wood_brothers21) December 31, 2016

Tech veteran Buzz Anderson got philosophical about what exactly made 2016 so tough.

One of the things I think really defined 2016 was context collapse. Breakdown of historical perspective, false equivalences run amok.

— buzz@andersen.social (@buzz) December 31, 2016

Slack’s chief of staff set some New Years resolutions:

"Alexa, pour me a glass of bourgogne and read me my most fav'ed tweets." #2017goalsetting

— kris (@kriz) December 30, 2016

Others reflected on how 2016 made them feel through one of the season’s most popular memes:

me at the beginning of 2016 vs me at the end of 2016 pic.twitter.com/ijmJQhTyvR

— keely flaherty (@keelyflaherty) December 8, 2016

Perhaps social media had a certain extra influence on how 2016 was perceived. As Slate put it, “Social media brought home the miseries of 2016, even as 2016 made social media that much more miserable.”

But then again, there are some who took to Twitter with an air of optimism. Musician Questlove of The Roots wants to get his new year off on the right foot with a “dope vegan spot in Miami.”