Nostalgia, what is it?

Nostalgia; what exactly is it? We know what it feels like, how to navigate it in thought and action, and what it does for us. But nostalgia as a coined cultural phenomenon has a long history, dating back to the 17th century as a description of the plethora of feelings and anxieties that were present in Swiss mercenaries who were working abroad. In contrast, nostalgia can also be described as an emotional state which involves experiencing largely positive emotions while remembering autobiographical events; this autobiographical component is crucial.

Psychology

Nostalgia is a confounding variable in one’s waking life. It simultaneously enshrines oneself in the glory of the past; its idiosyncrasies, specifics, strangeness, and beauty, while also generating an intense, child-like yearning that cannot be satisfied. It is a feeling wrapped in memories, a phenomenon like no other. It can be defined as a mixed emotional state created by a trigger that evokes a distant memory of childhood, coming of age, or a time removed from the present in its recognizability or relevance, personally and collectively. It’s effects on one’s emotional state are largely positive when intentionally called upon in experimental settings and when done in a group or with others that share a similar lexicon. In contrast, they are more negative when triggered by a sensation, smell, taste, or other natural phenomena in daily life. This is largely due to the psychological purpose of nostalgia, which has been speculated to be to lift one's mood and make sense of the present when in a state of depression and low confidence. This is when natural moments of nostalgia occur most.

This connection is especially relevant when analyzing the grief process. To be specific, going through the objects of loved ones who’ve passed, and looking at old footage, occurs during the apex of grief. To rejoice in the memories of someone you love contributes largely to catharsis and closure. In fact, the roots of the word nostalgia itself can be broken down into two Greek words, one being nostos which means a longing to return, and algos, referring to the accompanying pain of this. The result of wading through the pain of grief with the beautiful complexity nostalgia brings to this process engenders a feeling of meaning, both of the one you’ve lost and your own experience. Nostalgia also contributes to death being less frightening, as it enriches the present with a uniquely experienced past in memories.

My Lexicon

• Era: 1996-2008 (childhood)
• Images/objects/palettes: Bold serif fonts, pastel color palettes, color-blocking, loose-fitting clothing, low-rider jeans and their counter, high waisted baby blue mom jeans, big hair and bangs, lip liner and turtlenecks, minimal jewelry, lip gloss, cartoon character merchandise (looney toons), Goosebumps books, nokia cell phones, gameboys, lanyards, cat’s cradle, jump rope rhymes, cheap nail polish, Fruit Stripe gum, pink pencil-topper erasers, clam-shelled VHS’s, dull stainless steel scissors, stacking chairs, pink lux barbie doll houses, barney, squirt guns, Lamb Chop, arcades, tearless shampoo, Walkmans, Mr. Rogers, cherry liquid Tylenol, the smell of pool chlorine, etc.
• Music: Shakira, Tori Amos, Bossanova, Cibo Matto, The Mama’s and The Papa’s, The Beatles, pre-set music that came with iTunes, Jimi Hendrix, The Strokes, punk and emo music, scene music, screamo, metal, etc.
• Tastes: Hi-C, Sunny D, Kraft mac and cheese, bologna sandwiches, school breakfast and lunches, microwavable burritos, dad’s spaghetti, tuna casserole, frozen lasagna, lots of milk, potato salad, Fruit Stripe gum, cherry liquid Tylenol, flavored lip gloss, etc.
• Textures: popcorn walls and ceilings, astroturf, compressed rubber tracks, polyester jackets, frosted plastic silverware, plastic coated chains, wet sand, moist dirt, dead grass, etc.
• Landmarks: The Westside Pavillion, The Big Chill
• Locations: West LA, Culver City, Santa Monica, Palm Springs, Indio, San Francisco, Riverside.

Boomers and Millennials

The content of nostalgia is heavily based in the era or time period in which you grow up, as you can see in the previous chapter. This is due to different levels of technological advancement, geo-political and social events like war and acts of war, economic prosperity or lack thereof, various cultural changes and fashion evolutions, the list goes on. To me, the clearest distinction in nostalgia content is when contrasting Baby Boomers and Millennials. This is due to their many differences in circumstances.

The baby boomer generation was impacted greatly by the ending of World War II starting in 1946 and ending in 1964. This directly led to the baby boom, a term for the huge spike in child births after the war. Baby boomers were also children and teens during the Korean War, the Cold War, and were late teens during the Vietnam War.

My father, born in the middle of the Baby boom era in 1957, has many memories traveling to various places in the country by car. He traveled in a seatbelt-less, bench-seated 1964 Pontiac Starchief with his three older brothers, mother, and father, an Air Force non-commission Chief Master Sergeant. His grandmother on his father’s side lived in Idaho in a cabin and his grandparents on his mothers side lived in Ohio; both houses were nestled in rural areas surrounded by mountain sides, creeks, and lush backwoods. He teared up as he told me about his memories of fishing with his uncles in the creeks and lakes of Idaho and picking berries in the backwoods of his grandmother’s property. He described getting lost in the jungles of Guam where his father was stationed, climbing coconut trees, and shooting lizards with BB guns alongside his brothers. I started to cry as I imagined him surrounded by such beauty, enjoying the pleasures of nature with his family, going from town to town staying in strange, eclectic motels, and eating packed lunches prepared by my grandma. It had been a long time since I had felt as close to my father as I did in these moments of sharing.

My mom, also a baby boomer born right at the tail end in 1963, has similar memories of traveling by car to visit her grandparents in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. She had a more atypical upbringing as she lived in Mexico when she was very young, and moved to Europe as a teen. Her most prized possession in childhood was her turntable, which she would use to listen to English and Spanish Disney records. When the records would warp in the summer heat, she would put rocks and coins on them to balance them so she could still play them. She remembers actual candles being hung on the Christmas tree, and she recalled that she would be sent upstairs while her parents would light the candles and when they were done they would ring a bell and call all of the children down to open presents, which was really touching to hear.

Millennials, being born between 1981 and 1996, had many more means of technological entertainment and media. I’m at the tail end of the Millennial generation, being born in 1996, but most of my classmates are Zoomers. Television was far more advanced by this time and broadcasted in color. The later invention of cell phones, the internet, social media, HD television, menu controlled cable, 3D, HD/4K, and IMAX movies in theaters, video games, and computers gave way to far more electronic media-based nostalgia than ever before. These differences alone lead to drastic differences in the nostalgia lexicon.

Historical occurrences impacting Millennials were a huge paradigm shift from an analog world to a digital one. This changed everything human beings interacted with around the world forever. Musical changes included this paradigm shift in the form of traditional music making with traditional instruments being generally replaced with a huge onset of electronically made music. Millennials also began to mature and form their identities at a time where all forms of entertainment were changed by the Internet. Joan Serra and his team at the Spanish National Research Council studied the massive Million Song Dataset and found that between 1955 and 2010, popular music has gotten louder, while the chords, melodies, and types of sounds used have become increasingly homogenized. Millennials are native speakers of the digital language of computers, so this is very present in our lexicon.