When I think about the feeling of nostalgia, that extreme feeling of longing for a different time and different world, I think about the 1990s (and sometimes the 1980s even though I was not alive then). I see myself as a four year old, wearing carpenter jeans, a striped rugby style polo shirt, sitting on my twin bed in my carpeted bedroom playing Donkey Kong Country on my Super Nintendo hooked up to a 19-inch CRT TV with my cousins. I think about lunchtime at my elementary when we would watch Cow and Chicken on Cartoon Network through several similarly small TVs that were mounted in the cafeteria. I also think about cassette players in cars, anti-skip CD players, flash MP3 players, and Windows Millenium/Windows XP. Oh, the good ol’ days…
Recently, I watched Inside Out 2 and one of my favorite “new characters” was Nostalgia, who makes a brief appearance as an old lady and is sent back to her room after Anxiety tells her she still has “10 years, two graduations, and a best friend’s wedding” before she is needed. The comment immediately made me laugh, but I also found it particularly interesting because nostalgia has been more prevalent in my life as I start my 30s. I began thinking about how it is used against me in selling me tickets to a movie, video games, or even experiences, such as vacations. In my reflection of my own nostalgia, I have noted nostalgia began trending among my peers during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This may be partially due to the fact that my age group and social circle is within a stage of development where nostalgia becomes more common, but I believe it is also part of a cultural shift. While nostalgia is most commonly makes an appearance during times of loneliness, it serves a unique and interesting purpose.
Think about how you feel when you view old photos from 10, 20, or even 30 years ago. One of the main functions of nostalgia is that it allows us to reflect on “where we have been” and “where we are going.” That is, it solidifies our present identity. We may reflect on things about our past, like our customs, habits, hobbies, and memories of major social events like school dances, graduations, or weddings. Then, we may draw our future to be similar or different from the feelings of the past. Based on this reflection (or meditation, if you will) we adapt our present behavior. I like to think about it as a lesson in the history of ourselves to the extent that memory allows us to recreate emotions of the past.
But nostalgia is also an intensely bittersweet feeling that tears us between two different emotions — a mixture of happiness and sadness in the form of longing and appreciation. Oftentimes, we get a fix of dopamine through nostalgia, and that is why it can be such a powerful, complex emotion. That dopamine can have us chasing nostalgia, whether it be in the form of music, smells, films, video games, fashion, or some other form memory recreation. We need dopamine, but it can also be addicting and lead us to fall into a pattern of frequenting our past. We can get stuck in this cycle of constantly chasing dopamine because we lack it, either from a disorder or an abundance of stress, and that makes analyzing nostalgia (just like any other emotion) worthwhile.
Is nostalgia redefining your identity? Is it giving you a sense of comfort? Is it fueling depression? Is it being used in advertisements to manipulate you into spending money? Is it the reason you engage in certain behaviors?