Nostalgia: The Modern Day Currency
From algorithms designed for continuous scrolling, to news of how bad our world is getting, it’s difficult to be able to deal with the constant pressures of the modern world. What if you just want to escape the modern day struggles of our daily lives? Sometimes you just wish that you could get away from this back to when things were easier and more simple. That’s where our nostalgia comes in.
Back when things were not stressful and more enjoyable, it’s the mindset for people to go back to those nostalgic times. This has led to a culture of nostalgia being created where we reject modernity and all of its stresses. Many people are opting to reject the technical ease of such things as streaming platforms (Netflix, Disney plus, etc) to getting DVDs. The same for music, they want to buy vinyls and CDs instead of streaming music. It’s the want for the awkwardness of being encumbered by the work itself.
Yet the sense of ownership is a key component to this need for nostalgia. Being able to own what you like with constant access, without being tied down to a €12.99 monthly fee. Being able to hold it within your hands and display it, without the fear of it being taken away because of copyright disputes. It is the want of having those old memories of being in an Xtra-Vision, renting a movie to be played on an old PlayStation 2, when you were a kid. The tangibility of holding it is what’s so important.
Identity is often found throughout the clothes and cultures through a nostalgic lens. The ways in which we look back to the times we grew up and take inspiration from the fashion subcultures that were created and then get emulated. Gaining this cultural insight on identity through the subcultures of times past where pieces of certain communities get appropriated in the outfits themselves. The outfits are able to provide an interesting rebirth to styles for those looking to relive those nostalgic looks of yester years.
From the media in which it is consumed to the fashion itself there is a desire for "simpler times”, it is important to know that in terms of nostalgia it can be very much a blinding drug. While many talk about how good things were back then and how “shows were just better”, there is a deliberate ignoring of the struggles of the times. In digital spaces nostalgia has been treated as a coveted jewel of escapism yet it’s an ignorance that’s so bliss in comparison to what came before it.
Written by Niall Carey (Niall.030)
Edited by Alex Kelleher (@alex_kelleher_)
