If you’re the type of person to be interested in fandoms and in online spaces, you’ve probably at one point fawned over your favourite stories you’re read or watched either as a child, or if you’re old enough, a teenager. Memories of time spent with our family, friends, and even our favourite characters from our childhood to our teenage years influence us in ways that translate to our adulthood. From our lived moments whether it’s bravery from superheroes, quirkiness from movie characters, to responsibility from our friends and family, or simply a desire to live in comfort.
Nostalgia is a collection of these cherished memories, afterall, are we willing to let go of instances of comfort, community, and hope in times of challenge? Nostalgia can be a form of comfort in a difficult time like a warm coffee during winter, but it can also be a double edged sword in how we see the world around us. At first it sounds confusing, nostalgia as a double edged sword? Nostalgia seemingly welcomes everyone at face value. However, our love for the past and our fascination with memories could also lead us to feel isolated from the immediate world around us and be unable to connect with current culture and trends around us. I myself have been guilty of being self-limiting. When new slang and buzzwords came around from younger generations like ‘rizz’, I found myself cringing at them and gagging when my parents tried to use those words after my younger cousin introduced it to them. Ironically enough, I imagine if I was a millennial and I saw my zoomer younger cousin use the word cringe or even the phrase ‘slay queen’, I would have also felt my skeleton writhing out of my skin. Nostalgia seemingly has a bit of a bias towards one believing things were better in the ‘good old days’, but when we take off our rose tinted glasses, we understand a more vibrant view of our memories.
Nostalgia lately has not just been a social barrier, but also an advertising barrier too. I often encounter advertisements and even jokes on social media that try to appeal to me using their imagination of a memory or a feeling I might have enjoyed in the past, this has included favourite shows and games and even memories of home. From my endless hours of reading history books, I understood that it’s important to not see things at face value, and I started to reflect on my own experiences with nostalgia since I have encountered this style of messaging before. When I was 10 to 11 years old, I fondly remember the humour and the nostalgia millennials had to the 80s and 90s. The aesthetics and the comforts seemed to be fawned over while modern life was seen as a trial or as something ‘vegeterian’. Being from a family that practices vegetarianism though, it does put me in quite a peculiar spot hearing that description, but the implied feeling of boredom or at times discomfort is something I can empathise with. But besides the metaphor, I also saw how this manifested into attraction towards clickbait videos and even movie reviews that would lead many to sever friendships without hesitation. While severing friendships without a thought is something that even happens today, it presents an interest where the nostalgia and memories of one can be used to change present relationships. Being someone with strong feelings about certain topics, it does disturb me a little.
Having a collection of memories and fond comfort is a human trait all of us have, but increasingly as new shows, games, experiences, and tastes enter our public sphere, it’s important to have an open mind too. While I certainly don’t forsake my interests unless I want to, it’s unique moments like these where one could stop and picture a moment where rather than cringing at something new, you develop a unique art of cringing in a humorous way. Perhaps this sense of open minded humour could lead you to develop a unique moment where you can become that comedic relative, and poke fun at your younger cousin when they’ll cringe remembering the time they used outdated slang. Perhaps nostalgia doesn’t always lead you to limited barriers in your thinking, neither is it a fish hook for cheap money, but it could be transformative as a form of maturity and empathy. And that’s where it can really sell for the average person.