Nostalgia

Nostalgia means something to different to everyone. Nostalgia can take form in many different ways, be applied to many scenarios, and range from being sought after by some while hated by others. It’s no wonder nostalgia is much better understood as a unique “feeling” rather than defined by words. As nostalgia is almost always based around pleasant memories, it makes sense to interpret nostalgia as always being a happy feeling. What I feel defines nostalgia the most however, and separates the feeling from simply happily remembering the past, is the bittersweetness of nostalgia. Nostalgia is made up the Greek words nóstos, meaning "homecoming" and álgos meaning "pain" or "ache", so from the etymology we can tell the feeling of nostalgia is inherently tied partly to a bit of sorrow. Personally, I’m always looking for ways to be reminded of my past whether its songs I used to listen to, stories from family members, or just events from my childhood I’ve seemed to randomly remember, and while it is nice to think back on these pleasant events (as I actively choose to do so often) it is always accompanied by a twinge of sadness and a feeling of newfound emptiness. I think the reason for this sadness is a fear that those pleasant memories will never return, not just the memories themselves but the idealized feeling/aura of the “good old days” that I’m remembering. These nostalgic feelings don’t always have to apply to thoughts from years and years ago, they can be as recent as a last semester. There are times when I find myself thinking about how much better of a place I was in in early 2017 versus now in 2018. However, I have to constantly remind myself that it is not rational for me to be thinking of how much better early 2017 was, as I can vividly remember in early 2017 listening despairingly to songs I correlated with summer of 2016. So assuming my life isn’t a constant downward trajectory, I’ve realized lots of the driving forces of feelings of nostalgia are based in irrationality.

Usually when you think of nostalgia you think of your own personal memories, but I’ve noticed a feeling similar to nostalgia except a longing for a time that one wasn’t in. I think many share this longing for a non-personal memory, as everyone has heard people say something negative about “nowadays” (which is implying some time in the past was better). It’s the same reason many people feel they were born in the wrong generation, maybe thinking the music or fashion of the past was better. In an even more extreme case, I definitely think Make America Great Again may have some basis in these longings for the past, whether people were alive during that time period (whenever that was).

Why do we feel this extremely unusual feeling of longingness though? There are many theories as to why. One theory is that we’ve evolved to feel nostalgia as an incentive for social connectedness. So for those that are lonely, they’ll often look longingly in the past at close relationships, which makes sense because specific people can oftentimes be big factors in nostalgia. Another function of nostalgia is to improve one’s self worth and existential meaning, so the more people fondly look back at their past the better they feel about their lives and their place in this world (nice and happy interpretation). Lastly, I’ve read that nostalgia can act as a tool for comfort and that studies have shown that thinking reminiscing on the past can literally increase perceptions of physical warmth, pretty crazy.

How do you guys feel about nostalgia? Does it always make you happy, sad, something in between? What kinds of things trigger these nostalgic responses?

Also, check out the song Nosetalgia by Pusha T it's really good.

Thanks for reading.