What’s nostalgia to you? Millennials – or anyone 25 and over – nostalgia will look different to today’s youth! They’re surrounded by technology, and some even being known as the iPad kids. Is it a terrible thing? Not necessarily. But the question we want to ask is, is technology the new nostalgia? Read on to find out.
Retro Tech
There’s a growing trend in the technology market catering to nostalgia while boasting the latest technological advancements. Think vinyl record players with Bluetooth connectivity or digital cameras designed to look like their film predecessors – but with instant picture-sharing capabilities. We like this nostalgia; it mixes different people’s opinions about it. It mixes old with new, appealing aesthetically and functionally to consumers who long for simplicity and charm but require efficiency and power.
Social Media
Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are the perfect digital scrapbooks – they capture fleeting moments, turning them into a mosaic of personal history. They’re the new photo books, but you can use a photo book creator if you want to turn it into something physical. And it’s a cute idea – it’s mixing the old and the new with nostalgia. Creating a book is better than leaving it entirely on social media: what if you find yourself hacked out of your account?
Features like Facebook showing On This Day posts on friends’ timelines to create warm feelings or Snapchats monthly memories. There’s no denying there is an element of nostalgic feeling in there.
Video Games & Virtual Reality
Video games have always had a unique way of evoking nostalgia, but that nostalgia is changing. Video games nostalgia now is Fifa and Call of Duty. For a specific generation, nostalgic titles were Crash Bandicoot, Grand Theft Auto, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. It’s interesting to see many of these titles re-released on modern consoles where graphics are enhanced and controls updated for a smoother user experience – but the youth of today will never know how nostalgic the originals were.
But virtual reality (VR) takes this nostalgic journey one step further by placing players inside three-dimensional worlds – that will be the new nostalgia for the next generation.
Streaming Services
Netflix, Spotify, and other streaming platforms are time machines at our fingertips. With libraries full of decades-old TV shows, films, and music, these services allow users to travel back in time from the comfort of their living rooms. But this is the new version of going to the cinema – and if you’re over a certain age, going to the cinema to see these old films feels like the perfect day out. Popcorn and a film? You can’t beat it! It’s not the same as the sofa in your living room.
Accessing and binge-watching shows we grew up with or listening to playlists that soundtracked our teenage years gives us a direct line to the past, packaged in 21st-century convenience. Some people think of it as the new nostalgia.
There’s no escaping technology – it’s taking over our lives and becoming the new nostalgia. The things that make anyone 25 and over feel nostalgic won’t be the same for the younger generation of today. What do you think of the new nostalgia?
