{"id":1591,"date":"2017-10-03T11:07:20","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T16:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=1591"},"modified":"2017-10-03T13:35:48","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T18:35:48","slug":"nostalgia-is-not-what-it-used-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2017\/10\/03\/nostalgia-is-not-what-it-used-to-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgia Is Not What It Used to Be"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Herry Lawford, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Worries about rapid technological change negatively affecting society abound — the advent of the internet, increased availability of smartphones, and ubiquity of social media have many concerned that people are constantly \u201cplugged in\u201d and, as a result, tuning out the world around them. These concerns were revitalized with the recent publication of psychologist <\/span>Jennifer Twenge\u2019s new research<\/span><\/a>, which finds that a social media heavy diet is associated with depression and social isolation among teens. However, Twenge explains, \u201cThe aim of generational study is not to succumb to nostalgia for the way things used to be; it\u2019s to understand how they are now. Some generational changes are positive, some are negative, and many are both.\u201d Social science research on nostalgia warns against idealizing the past, but also points to varied uses and meanings of nostalgia over time. <\/span><\/p>\n

Seen as a sickness when it first entered circulation centuries earlier, nostalgia became a common trope in the late 20<\/span>th<\/span> century, moving from the medical field to everyday life. Nostalgia is typically defined as a \u201csentimental longing for the past,\u201d and is often associated with an idealized remembering of \u201chow things used to be.\u201d In this way, nostalgia can be viewed as reactionary and regressive — calls for returns to \u201ctraditional families\u201d or \u201ctight-knit communities\u201d are often cast in a language that selectively highlights the positives of previous social forms and ignores the problems associated with them. For example, Stephanie Coontz finds that there has never been a \u201ctraditional family\u201d that protects people from poverty or social disruption. <\/span><\/h5>\n