What's with nostalgia?

[HeXen]

I'm curious, is it a pop culture thing of the millennium? Is it something all adults do at some point? My parents never reminisced about their youth nor did my grandparents to my knowledge, at least not the way many do today with collecting stuff and trying to re experience things from their youth. There's a guy on youtube who buys old cereal from the 80's and eats it..wtf? I notice discussions of nostalgia referring mostly to the 80's. From restaurants, books, toys, video games, movies, right down to prices and what food tasted like. My wife was a child of the 70's, yet never speaks much of it as fondly as she does her teen years of the 80's. Is it all about the 80's? Was it really that spectacular? I don't remember it being all that or anything. GI Joes and Ghostbusters cereal was fun and all but surely there was some cool stuff from the 60's and 70's too?

Has this always been the case? I never noticed such a market for retro stuff like I've seen this past decade. Although I think it's finally starting to die down a bit as everyone seems to have gotten nostalgic fix enough times to finally be bored of it.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

I remember a day when this thread wasn't on ATOT. Man, those were great times.

 

[Mixolydian]

I'm nostalgic with regards to technology. I think it's fascinating to think that what we consider primitive by today's standards was considered cutting edge (and ridiculously expensive!) back then.

I collect a lot of old technology.

 

[KillerBee]

I remember the day I read the funniest thing I had ever read on ATOT
I think it was in response to a thread called " What's with nostalgia?".
where GagHalfrunt said: I remember a day when this thread wasn't on ATOT. Man, those were great times.

here's the necrothread link:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2382403

 

[IronWing]

Advertising nostalgia tracks with the current high income group. People who were teens and young adults in the 80s are reaching the high income age bracket so they get the focus. In ten years, 90s nostalgia will be the rage.

Baby Boomers were probably the first and only group to get all nostalgic about shit they ain't even done yet.

 

[Ichinisan]

Music in the '80s was dominated by cassette (even CD). The record / phonograph, 8-track player, and media purchases declined sharply.

How do you explain the resurgence in popularity of vinyl records with hipsters and such? The format's heyday was really pre-1980s.

 

[MasterOfUsers]

I'm curious, is it a pop culture thing of the millennium? Is it something all adults do at some point? My parents never reminisced about their youth nor did my grandparents to my knowledge, at least not the way many do today with collecting stuff and trying to re experience things from their youth. There's a guy on youtube who buys old cereal from the 80's and eats it..wtf? I notice discussions of nostalgia referring mostly to the 80's. From restaurants, books, toys, video games, movies, right down to prices and what food tasted like. My wife was a child of the 70's, yet never speaks much of it as fondly as she does her teen years of the 80's. Is it all about the 80's? Was it really that spectacular? I don't remember it being all that or anything. GI Joes and Ghostbusters cereal was fun and all but surely there was some cool stuff from the 60's and 70's too?

Has this always been the case? I never noticed such a market for retro stuff like I've seen this past decade. Although I think it's finally starting to die down a bit as everyone seems to have gotten nostalgic fix enough times to finally be bored of it.

The 80's were awesome, take a look at the economy during the 80's and you'll understand why people praise that decade.

I went from wearing clothes my mum pieced together for me on her sowing machine to wearing designer everything. From underwear to sun glasses....

We looked like feckin hell with our short jackets and massive shoulder puffs but we were completely awesome.

 

[MasterOfUsers]

Music in the '80s was dominated by cassette (even CD). The record / phonograph, 8-track player, and media purchases declined sharply.

How do you explain the resurgence in popularity of vinyl records with hipsters and such? The format's heyday was really pre-1980s.

BS, vinyl was cheap as hell, when the CD came it bumped the price 4x (for the quality that took a lot more to produce, we were told).

You could go into a record store and leave with 5 records for £6.

 

[lxskllr]

You could go into a record store and leave with 5 records for £6.

Not around here you couldn't. A discount record was ~$7, and the prices went up from there. Cassettes you could get cheaper, but you get what you pay for; a 10¢ cassette, with $3 music for $5 :^S

 

[Rakehellion]

How do you explain the resurgence in popularity of vinyl records with hipsters and such? The format's heyday was really pre-1980s.

It isn't about nostalgia, it's about counterculture.

 

[Rakehellion]

You could go into a record store and leave with 5 records for £6.

I don't remember that ever happening. Vinyl has always been expensive.

 

[MasterOfUsers]

Not around here you couldn't. A discount record was ~$7, and the prices went up from there. Cassettes you could get cheaper, but you get what you pay for; a 10¢ cassette, with $3 music for $5 :^S

I got three U2 records, two Maiden and one Saxon for £6 on one buy.

I suppose what it depends on what you are buying, what store, what currency (now shit) and in what nation and city.

But it was never that expensive here, no matter where you bought it. I'm talking early-mid 80's.

 

[Rakehellion]

I got three U2 records, two Maiden and one Saxon for £6 on one buy.

Used or new?

 

[Rudee]

Nostalgia just isn't what it used to be.

 

[Lil Frier]

I'll bet everyone does it in SOME fashion, it just depends on the sentiments you hold. For example, I'm not really a sentimental or nostalgic person. I re-purchased a Nintendo 64 years ago (wasn't expensive), enjoyed it for a bit, then let it go. That's the only pseudo-nostalgic purchase I recall making. Otherwise, my main hobby has been video games, and I've always sold one console (home or handheld) when I got the next.

Now my dad's not necessarily nostalgic, but he had a pair of '60s Camaros as a teen/young adult, and now he's got a 2002 that he's had on blocks more than running in the years he's had it (though he claims to be finishing it this month). I'm sure if he owned Challengers or Mustangs in his youth, he would have gotten something other than a Camaro this time, so it's somewhat nostalgic.

I agree about the general ridiculousness with nostalgia nowadays, though. It seems most-prominent with hipsters, trying to get Power Rangers backpacks or something stupid like that. As with many hipster things, it's now seeping into the mainstream, and many young people (myself NOT included) are on the nostalgia train, going after vinyls, old video game consoles, and whatever else they enjoyed from their youth.

I guess it just depends on how much you enjoyed your childhood and how much happiness you find in things. Me, I have a terrible memory (don't recall much of my childhood, and I'm not quite 24), and I'm not big on repeating things (like movies, TV shows, or video game campaigns), so I don't have that desire to go back to the "good ol' days" much. I prefer getting new things and experiencing new things (like putting together a new computer or getting a new game console), as opposed to going and looking back on things.

 

[_Rick_]

Actually, I wanted to complain about nostalgia myself, last week or so, but in the end didn't come up with an intetesting hook and thus couldn't be bothered.

The gist of my train of thought was: Nostalgia ruins mankind's progress. It ruins mankind's happiness, too.

Nostalgia is what drives middle aged people to mostly become conservatists - they look back on such a long past of good experiences and forget about the bad ones, that to them maintaining that state appears to be the most logical course of action, and anyone thinking differently is a risk to their nostalgic dream world.

Nostalgia also means, that the memories of the past are almost always happier than present life experiences. This nakes people sad, because they feel they can never match past experiences and quality.of life - a straight path into depression in sufficiently imbalanced psyches.

I'm certain there are more bad influences, but these two are enough for me to declare nostalgia a mental disorder which negatively skews perception.

Fight it, because it's out to get you.

 

[NewbPCBuilder]

Getting caught up in Nostalgia is fairly unhealthy. The present is good, the past was good, but it's usually still not as good as the present because you're wiser and more experienced than what you were.

I can still go back to very old RPG's and play them, but they are not as interactive or as fun. And you realize you were just mashing the A button to get through most of the battles!

 

[Veliko]

Nostalgia is as old as humanity itself.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Nostalgia is as old as humanity itself.

Of course it is and there's nothing inherently wrong with it. I'll bet most here are relatively young but a time will come when age gets them. Then the realization that things aren't going to be better but worse strikes. At that point one remembers lost youth, family and friends and we recall associated surroundings. It becomes pathologic when we try to get those things back by the acquisition of old items.

 

[Ichinisan]

...

Welcome to Anandtech. How's the new PC?

 

[Majcric]

Actually, I wanted to complain about nostalgia myself, last week or so, but in the end didn't come up with an intetesting hook and thus couldn't be bothered.

The gist of my train of thought was: Nostalgia ruins mankind's progress. It ruins mankind's happiness, too.

Nostalgia is what drives middle aged people to mostly become conservatists - they look back on such a long past of good experiences and forget about the bad ones, that to them maintaining that state appears to be the most logical course of action, and anyone thinking differently is a risk to their nostalgic dream world.

Nostalgia also means, that the memories of the past are almost always happier than present life experiences. This nakes people sad, because they feel they can never match past experiences and quality.of life - a straight path into depression in sufficiently imbalanced psyches.

I'm certain there are more bad influences, but these two are enough for me to declare nostalgia a mental disorder which negatively skews perception.

Fight it, because it's out to get you.

Very well said

 

[Majcric]

I'm guilty of a lot of Nostalgia on different things. The one lately is I used to feel so much better when i was younger, nowadays when I get off from work I just want to go home and flop.

 

[mmntech]

1950s nostalgia was a huge part of pop culture in the 70s. You had Grease, American Graffiti, Happy Days.

As a pop culture phenomenon, I think nostalgia tends to pop up during eras of social and economic strife. People look towards memories of a simpler time in their lives when the going starts getting rough.

 

[Orignal Earl]

Music in the '80s was dominated by cassette (even CD). The record / phonograph, 8-track player, and media purchases declined sharply.

How do you explain the resurgence in popularity of vinyl records with hipsters and such? The format's heyday was really pre-1980s.

A couple years from now maybe we will be back to cassettes

Sony able to fit 3,700 Blu-Rays worth of data onto single cassette tape

http://thecelebritycafe.com/feature...3700-blu-rays-worth-data-single-cassette-tape

 

[brianmanahan]

nostalgia is weird, i feel it all the time and i am only 30ish

i remember feeling happier and more optimistic when i was 15 to 25, and then i think about what was going on then:

- 9/11
- dot com crash
- not being able to drive most of that time for medical reasons
- taking medications that had all sorts of negative effects on my mind and body
- college semesters which were super hard and took 60 hours a week of work
- working for low pay at internships
- had almost no money

and yet i STILL miss those times, and wish that i could go back. but i honestly don't know why.

i think it may have been that at that time i still had optimism. i thought the world could get better, and i might end up in a better situation someday.

now i realize that nothing ever gets better, it just gets different. there is always some calamity attempting to befall mankind. there is always someone or something conspiring to make life miserable. there is always spending 50+ hours a week doing a job you usually hate, and struggling to keep up with the changes to continue to be employable.

you work through 40 years of that, then have a decade or two of increasing medical problems, and then die.