Trends of Nostalgia | By Puvanamanjari Manoharan
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| Illustration By @zenigiri |
For a long time now, I have found myself, and others, gravitating towards reminders of the past. From using my mother’s old iPhone 5 to take pictures to creating a Tumblr blog, I’ve fallen deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole of trying to recreate the past… or at least the version of it I can still remember. In the last few years, popular trends across social media have been heavily influenced by and centered around the romanticization of older trends and nostalgia, such as Y2K, Tumblr Girl, Millennial Optimism, Twee, “2026 is the new 2016,” and even trends of 2020. These trends of nostalgia are not limited to just collages on social media and the use of the “Sol De Janeiro" filter on Instagram, but are instead embedded within most of our media and “trendy” daily habits. In the last few years, we’ve seen an increase in movie sequels, prequels, and remakes of older fan-favourite films, from Disenchanted to the upcoming White Chicks sequel. Nostalgia has also seeped its way into our daily habits as we’ve seen a rise in toys such as squishies, slime, Tamagotchis, and fidgets, as well as an increased use of older or analog technology, such as film cameras, iPods, and record players.
The obsession with the past that currently plagues our lives can be interpreted as a coping mechanism. A study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology researched the types of situations in which people typically become nostalgic. It was then shown that nostalgia was frequently reported to be triggered by negative emotions and situations, particularly loneliness.
Our current world, post-COVID-19, has been fundamentally reshaped by the pandemic, changing our "norms" and perceptions of what the future holds for us. As the years go by, we witness wars, worsening climate issues, and ongoing humanitarian and economic crises.
Amidst all this unrest, the current youth choose to immerse themselves in an older and more familiar culture they believe to be representative of better and happier times compared to the world, which we can no longer afford and is being destroyed by climate change. This constant immersion in past aesthetics and trends prevents us from fully understanding our present and imagining a future for ourselves.
However, nostalgia not only stops us from confronting our reality, but our emphasis on old trends and the romanticization of past time periods negate the struggles and prejudices of the time and even the development of the global society to overcome problematic norms. The return of Tumblr trends in roughly 2021 also revived many harmful trends and beauty standards. These trends brought back toxic aesthetics like “sad girl," an Internet culture that romanticized self-destructive behaviours and the characterization of mental illness as a “quirky” trait, as well as trends that glorified harmful and inappropriate relationships and idolized pop figures like Lana Del Rey and media such as Lolita and Pretty Little Liars. “Thinspiration” and eating disorder culture also quickly rose back to fame as we began taking fashion inspiration from the 2000s and early 2010s, with figures such as Victoria's Secret angels, Kate Moss, and Bella Swan serving as style icons. The glorification of these fashion eras subtly reintroduces toxic, exclusionary beauty standards that threaten body positivity movements that worked hard for inclusivity.
As we romanticize 2016, we often fail to recognize the harmful events of the year, from political instability caused by Brexit and other political changes to the start of ongoing humanitarian crises. But this lack of awareness cannot be explained solely by youthful ignorance. We see this again with the rise of nostalgia surrounding 2020, a year we all very well know to be filled with tragedy and isolation, a time of racial violence, people losing their jobs and businesses, and millions of lives being lost to the pandemic. Nostalgia selectively alters our perception of the past and conveniently ignores the struggles of the time. This ignorance puts us at risk of repeating mistakes, undermines the impacts of issues and events, and pushes for false historical narratives. These detrimental trends, repackaged as “nostalgia,” promote regressive ideologies and trap youth in a cycle of reliving flawed trends and devalue our societal growth from the past, whilst blinding us from historical realities.
While nostalgia is a pivotal part of life that allows us to reflect upon our memories and serves as proof of a joyful existence, being trapped in it prevents growth. Our dependence on nostalgia for comfort and to deflect from our fear of the future can lead to hopelessness and stifle our ability for personal and societal progress. Without acknowledging and engaging with our present, we cannot work towards solving the issues we are afraid of and keep getting stuck in a place of rumination, sadness, and disconnection. It is important to learn from our past and see how far we have come, but it is equally integral to create new memories. The beauty of the future is that it holds endless possibilities for innovation, creativity, and change. There is so much around us we have yet to explore, but we cannot do that unless we step away from the doomscroll under #nostalgia.
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