You, who is probably at your early 20s, perhaps have dreamed, even once in your life, of experiencing a different era, going to concerts you physically can’t right now, or even dressing like a character from the 80s among so many other events. But, have you wondered why you aimed to live in a different generation even tho we’re in such a technological and innovated one right now?
Nowadays, modifications in art, fashion, costumes, and culture in general, occurs fast due to the multiple communication platforms that expand themselves and dictate trends and their expiration date, which usually coincide with the beginning of another tendency.
Memories rarely change, and on account of this, these kinds of thoughts become a meaningful way of escape from the turbulent contemporary reality. And as one of the popular tools used by our memory to run away from problems, we have nostalgia.
And if you aren’t aware of what exactly is nostalgia, don’t worry, because here comes a definition from the Cambridge Dictionary: Nostalgia is “a feeling of pleasure and also slight sadness when you think about things that happened in the past”.
As said before, memories normally don’t change inside our minds, and Generation Z (or better known as “GenZ”), is very affected by it, since their prefrontal cortex has just finished developing and the feeling caused by nostalgia affects this part of the brain.
So, to make this argument more clear for everyone who’s interested in this topic, I tried to illustrate and talk a little bit about a few reasons why GenZ is so obsessed with nostalgia.
The popularity from pieces of media released in different generations and settled in other eras
There are a lot of movie franchises distributed for the first time in the 90s which are still remarkable today, such as Scream, Mission Impossible and Jurassic Park, or tv shows released nowadays who are set in different eras and have broken audience records and gained space in pop culture, such as “Stranger Things (2016)” and “Bridgerton (2020)”.
Following the circle of life, older relatives will share some of their knowledge to their kids, nephews, younger cousins and friends, going from academic tips to cultural traditions and artistic interests, so it’s natural that Gen Z, as well as any generation, gains curiosity about different time periods.
However, what is happening at the moment is a rejection of recent tv programs/movies in opposition to an appreciation for productions released and/or represented previous ages.
According to the psychologist Denise Berá, who attends teenagers and young adults, some of them already made comments like “I’m very attached to the past”, or “I was born in the wrong generation”, or even that they want to live in the 2000s, the 90s or even decades they haven’t met. Many found refuge in songs, tv shows and objects from other eras like if there was a feeling of acceptance or stability they don’t feel in real life.
Besides, the digital publisher “The Pudding” made an multimedia article about the transformation of sci-fi movies through the decades (from 50s until now) using techniques to capture the audience’s attention, utilizing the “scroll” format and letting the reader interact with the post.
It revealed not only the tendency young people usually consumes digital news, but also the choice of subject, such as comparison of different sci-fi movies from different decades, and also another strategy to entertain the general audience, appealing to nostalgia and making people feel that before was better.
Nostalgia becomes an escapism of their actual reality, and also a way to stagnate yourself
Even though we’re living in a modern and globalized world, problems still exist, especially if you are a person who has a job, studies, or basically, any responsibility. The day-to-day routine gives a realistic perspective of life itself, and when you come across some uncomfortable moments, the natural tendency is to criticize it and imagine a better situation.
Also, a research made post COVID-19 pandemic about some popular mechanism of escapism, shows that escaping has a fundamental relation with internet addiction. Some people are conscious about virtual dangers, but others still aren’t. And without even realizing, they enter a digital bubble of algorithms showing how life sucks with so much work and bad remuneration, and how it would be so much better if we could travel back in the past.
This attempt to escape daily modern problems becomes so strong that even regressive values are being praised by some percentage of Gen Z, as we can exemplify using the trad wife culture that, unfortunately, is growing on social media platforms like TikTok.
It’s sad that nowadays we have so many movements fighting for equality of gender, race, sexuality, among so many other human rights who once were left out, but some conservative actions still are strong.
The idealization that can’t be broken easily because of lack of experience
Gen Z, born from early 90s until late 2010s, never got to actually live through some decades they admire, and all they have, concretely, are stories told by their relatives and old pictures, who at his most reveal just the good parts, usually the aesthetics, clothes and popular songs, but not its whole reality.
Because of that, an unrealistically positive image about the past, while many hardships did happen back there, like as some tragedies during the 60s such as the Vietnam War, Cuban Missile Crisis and the Assassination of Martin Luther King.
Again, psychologist Denise Berá says that “nostalgia works almost like an emotional regulation mechanism. The past looks simpler, because it’s already “edited”: we only see what was good. Social media reinforces this idealization, they offer very well built aesthetic cuts from other decades, creating a romanticised version that doesn’t match with that time’s real complexity.”
As she also told, “psychologically, idealizing the past can be a way to deal with present’s anxiety and future’s uncertainty. In general, it’s more comfortable to fantasize of an era which has already ended than sustaining the pain of building something new in such a speedy world.”
The article above was edited by Helena Maluf.
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