Good Old Days (Nostalgia)
Do you remember your good old days? Actually, nostalgia can bring comfort and meaning, even inspiration. It’s about the future more than the past.
Before, nostalgia had a bad reputation. Some people viewed it as unhealthy, a mental weakness signifying fear of change and progress. Many saw it as a form of escapism, a feeling that people enjoyed because it took them away from reality and back to their youth. It is also argued that nostalgia was bad for business, as companies need to focus on the present and prepare for the future, not dwell on the past.
However, in fact, reflecting nostalgically on the past is a common and healthy experience that helps people find the inspiration and confidence needed to move forward in life, particularly during difficult times. In other words, nostalgia is about the future more than the past.
The term, good old days (nostalgia), was coined in 1688 by Swiss physician, Johannes Hofer, to capture what was believed to be a medical condition mostly confined to Swiss mercenaries (僱傭兵) longing for their mountain home while fighting wars in the lowlands of Europe. Symptoms included deep sadness, bouts of weeping, fainting, stomach pain, disordered eating, fever, heart palpitations (心悸) and suicidal thoughts. This medical disease persisted through the 18th and 19th centuries, though diagnoses expanded beyond the Swiss. With the arrival of the 20th century, nostalgia was no longer treated as a physical disease, but began to be thought of as a psychological ailment with symptoms associated with anxiety and depression. Later in the 20th century, some scholars began to see nostalgia in a more sympathetic light, distinguished from the more unpleasant state of homesickness. Consumer psychologists and marketing researchers documented ways in which sentimentality toward the past predicted product preference and consumer decisions.
We observe that nostalgia doesn’t cause distress. Instead, distress causes nostalgia. Running into an old friend, seeing an old photo on Facebook, or hearing music from one’s youth can trigger nostalgia. Nostalgic memories of people tend to be meaningful social memories, such as weddings, holidays, vacations with family or friends, family gatherings and religious rites. They often contain a mixture of happy and sad feelings, but the positive typically outweighs the negative. They are overwhelmed by pleasant and even energizing feelings—happiness, love, gratitude and hope. Furthermore, nostalgia makes people feel more connected to those they care about and feel a greater sense of meanings in life. Revisiting cherished memories of times shared with people reminds us that it is worthwhile to live. Indeed, nostalgia gives us psychological comfort in times of distress. It increases optimism, self-confidence, creativity and motivation for us to pursue goals.
Maybe the negative view of nostalgia comes from a misunderstanding of how it is experienced. Most people who feel nostalgic aren’t looking for the advances and comforts of modern life. It’s true that life has changed a lot in some aspects. First, education in schools was stricter years ago than today. But there are more courses to study and career opportunities. Many women were not seen in schools before. Nowadays, men and women are equal in education. Second, technology has evolved a lot compared to 60 years ago. For example, many years ago, if we wanted to look for a street, we would have to look at a physical map. Now, we have GPS and many tools that make things much easier for us, like the Internet in general. Technology has benefited us a lot for everything. Third, everything has been evolving at an incredible speed since the first cellphone was invented. It was difficult to see someone with a mobile phone years ago, but it’s very normal to have communications with smartphones among people. Finally, children went to places where they had recreational games, such as bowling, machine games or others before. Today, children are always attached to computers and screens.
Of course, it’s natural that our memory tends to forget about the bad events in our past, and we have a tendency to rehearse and dwell on the good things that happened in the past, so we only reinforce the good memories and criticize the present bad conditions. Thus, in this sense, we do need to be appreciating that there are lessons to be learned from the good old days in order for our current improvements. Nostalgia isn’t a form of escapism. It is a source of inspiration. It pushes people forward, not backward.
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