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> The younger generation today seems to have very low levels of nostalgia and longing for the past. I heard the same thing about my peers. And now we have Sta

by csixty4 11y ago

> The younger generation today seems to have very low levels of nostalgia and longing for the past. I heard the same thing about my peers. And now we have Star Wars & NES games everywhere. I'd venture to say the younger generation's nostalgia is more for digital experiences & media than physical objects.

mikeash 11y ago
People are rarely nostalgic for the past. People are nostalgic for their past.
- jhbadger 11y ago
  There's a sort of general nostalgia for attractive parts of the past that exists in addition to nostalgia for one's past though. as the article brings up, "Mad Men" has started a fad for 1960s design even among people who weren't even alive in that period.
  - mturmon 11y ago
    Daniel Mendelsohn wrote a beautiful piece on this theme. That is, exactly which viewers have which nostalgic feelings as fans of Mad Men (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/02/24/mad-men-account/ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/02/24/mad-men-account/). Finale: "As for the appeal: Who, after all, can resist the fantasy of seeing what your parents were like before you were born, or when you were still little — too little to understand what the deal was with them, something we can only do now, in hindsight? And who, after having that privileged view, would want to dismiss the lives they led and world they inhabited as trivial — as passing fads, moments of madness? Who would still want to bash them, instead of telling them that we know they were bad but that now we forgive them?" Note: this is similar to, but critically different than, the comments above. Mendelsohn's assertion is that the nostalgia is for the past lives of one's parents. How did they live? Who were they? Can we forgive them?
  - mikeash 11y ago
    It definitely exists, but seems to be a lot less common to me. Now that children of the 80s are grown up and have good jobs you can hardly throw a stone without hitting some media capitalizing on our childhoods. Stuff like Mad Men is considerably less common.
- LordKano 11y ago
  Precisely. With the exceptions of people who really get into specific cultural phenomena like James Dean, Marilyn Monroe or Elvis, people want to relive the experiences of their own pasts. A couple of years after my grandmother passed away, my grandfather started dating again and he didn't realize that women who were decades his junior wouldn't have the same cultural touchstones that he does. One time, he was trying to woo a woman who is only about three years older than me and he was shocked and mystified that the music of his young adulthood was annoying to her. I asked him "Do you like listening to Benny Goodman and Count Basie? No. Well, that's what YOUR music sounds like to HER."
- technotarek 11y ago
  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/
geoka9 11y ago
And maybe clothes? Looking at hipsters, I get that feeling.
legulere 11y ago
Also like said in the article to mid century stuff. They are often said to be timeless, but I guess only time will tell if they stay looked after.

by csixty4 11y ago

mikeash 11y ago

People are rarely nostalgic for the past. People are nostalgic for their past.

jhbadger 11y ago
There's a sort of general nostalgia for attractive parts of the past that exists in addition to nostalgia for one's past though. as the article brings up, "Mad Men" has started a fad for 1960s design even among people who weren't even alive in that period.
- mturmon 11y ago
  Daniel Mendelsohn wrote a beautiful piece on this theme. That is, exactly which viewers have which nostalgic feelings as fans of Mad Men (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/02/24/mad-men-account/ http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2011/02/24/mad-men-account/). Finale: "As for the appeal: Who, after all, can resist the fantasy of seeing what your parents were like before you were born, or when you were still little — too little to understand what the deal was with them, something we can only do now, in hindsight? And who, after having that privileged view, would want to dismiss the lives they led and world they inhabited as trivial — as passing fads, moments of madness? Who would still want to bash them, instead of telling them that we know they were bad but that now we forgive them?" Note: this is similar to, but critically different than, the comments above. Mendelsohn's assertion is that the nostalgia is for the past lives of one's parents. How did they live? Who were they? Can we forgive them?
- mikeash 11y ago
  It definitely exists, but seems to be a lot less common to me. Now that children of the 80s are grown up and have good jobs you can hardly throw a stone without hitting some media capitalizing on our childhoods. Stuff like Mad Men is considerably less common.
LordKano 11y ago
Precisely. With the exceptions of people who really get into specific cultural phenomena like James Dean, Marilyn Monroe or Elvis, people want to relive the experiences of their own pasts. A couple of years after my grandmother passed away, my grandfather started dating again and he didn't realize that women who were decades his junior wouldn't have the same cultural touchstones that he does. One time, he was trying to woo a woman who is only about three years older than me and he was shocked and mystified that the music of his young adulthood was annoying to her. I asked him "Do you like listening to Benny Goodman and Count Basie? No. Well, that's what YOUR music sounds like to HER."
technotarek 11y ago
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1605783/

geoka9 11y ago

And maybe clothes? Looking at hipsters, I get that feeling.

legulere 11y ago

Also like said in the article to mid century stuff. They are often said to be timeless, but I guess only time will tell if they stay looked after.