The last two years has seen a burst of nostalgia. This has led some social media commentators to see the current vibe for looking fondly at things past as some kind of ‘megatrend’. This is perhaps something related to the coronavirus pandemic and the measures in place, which has driven some people to look back at the past and relive happy memories.
The form of nostalgia appears in different walks of life, from wardrobes to Instagram feeds. With nostalgia representing sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations, psychologists are divided as to whether it is or is not a good thing for mental wellbeing.
From the positive perspective, GlobalWebIndex’s report “How Social Media Platforms Utilise Nostalgia Trends”, finds that nostalgia can make humans more optimistic and have a positive influence on their actions. Their research also unveiled that nostalgia was a highly common emotion. Results show that 8 in 10 say that they experience feelings of nostalgia at least occasionally and 4 in 10 say that they do so often.
It also stands that the so-called megatrend has been picked up by social media platforms who have developed different ways to facilitate this emerging longing for times-gone-by.
On the negative side, a recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (“Nostalgia and Well-Being in Daily Life: An Ecological Validity Perspective”) concluded that nostalgia can also be negative if it is random and unconscious.
This study concluded that: “Consciously making an effort to recall the past was found to elevate our moods. But everyday moments of nostalgia were found to be more likely to have a negative effect.”
For this reason, nostalgia has also been associated with a poor sense of self-worth and overall wellbeing. The inference is that there are different forms of nostalgia and too much hankering for the past can be a bad thing.
