Batcho told WebMD that nostalgia plays a role in maintaining emotional stability when you have to deal with conflicted emotional states. For instance, revisiting positive memories can counterbalance negative feelings.
“Nostalgia is an excellent choice for that. Because, by definition, it is itself bittersweet. And so, it’s one of the few parts of the way our brain and our mind function that tries to blend, or put together, conflicting forces, in this case, emotions.”
Meanwhile, Yağmur Karakaya, PhD, assistant professor of sociology at Yale University, pointed out to WebMD that memory is “extremely malleable.” And so, different groups of people experience events differently and can have different interpretive memories of the same events.
And so, you have some people who miss the lockdowns without work or studies, where they could binge-watch TV shows, play video games, exercise, or pick up random hobbies. In the meantime, others remember this period of time as deeply traumatic. On the other hand, you might feel nostalgia for your ability to weather any storm.
“Adversity in itself, while you’re going through it, can be an extremely negative, stressful experience. But if you come out the other end as a survivor, then, later in life, you look back at that longingly. Not for the adversity itself, but for the fact that you’ve overcome it,” Batcho mused.
The ‘OldSchool80s’ account on X (formerly Twitter) has been around since April 2009. Throughout the years, it has amassed a huge following of more than 301k internet users on the social network. According to the curator of the project, all of the pop culture reminders are “not meant to make you feel old.” The focus is on “just awesome nostalgia.”
The cool thing about the project, at least from our perspective, is that the curator posts images in their feed on the same day that they were published back in the 1980s. So, even when there’s a gulf spanning a few decades between us here and now in the 2020s and the 1980s, you can still feel a connection to the pop culture reminders, no matter if you’re freezing in February or looking to cool down in July.
Now, we’re turning the discussion over to you, dear Pandas. Which of these images made you the most nostalgic for your childhood or youth, and why? What do you think was the best thing about the 1980s, and what do you miss the most?
Do you think that life really was simpler in the past, or is it just nostalgia talking? Meanwhile, what do you do to make the most of your life in the 2020s, despite everything that’s going on in the world? Tell us what you think in the comments at the very bottom of this list.
