Nostalgia

Aongus Von Bismarck · 24-09-2014 10:13PM #1

I'm a man in his early 30's. I've been noticing a trend lately whereby mawkish sentimentality and romanticised views of the 80's are things my peer group are indulging in. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy an episode of Reeling in the Years as much as any punter. I'm also a keen dilettante of modern Irish history.

It's this cheap nostalgia that I don't understand. If it isn't people posting videos on facebook of terrible 80's power ballads, it's sites like the journal looking for clicks by posting articles like: "These are 12 things you'll love if you grew up in the 80's". Usually tired and generic lists about going to bed after Glenroe and the tape recorder on the C64 not working. Something to do with a sodastream as well.

What causes this cheap nostalgia? I like to look continuously towards the future, and the opportunities it will present. Not harping back to a decade that was fairly awful when analysed against almost all social, economic and artistic barometers.

solomafioso · 24-09-2014 10:15PM

Ah j'member? Ah deh maudlin', j'member all the hings? Ah, was great back when. Ha? Maudlin.

Fr_Dougal · 24-09-2014 10:17PM

Tell us the story about managing wealth funds for individuals of high net worth in Germany again....

wretcheddomain · 24-09-2014 10:22PM

Usually people who harp on about the 80s don't really have much ambition to progress into the future - after all, why would they? The good times have already passed.

It's just old people trying to make themselves feel better than the current young generation by fantasizing about a feigned reality that never really existed in the first place. But, if you tell a lie over and over again, people are bound to believe it, and unfortunately, many of these people really believe their deluded waffle.

Peregrine · 24-09-2014 10:22PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

it's sites like the journal looking for clicks by posting articles like: "These are 12 things you'll love if you grew up in the 80's".

Considering almost half of thejournal.ie articles are Top 8/10/12 lists, I'm not surprised. They probably did one for every decade of the last two generations.

Aongus Von Bismarck · 24-09-2014 10:24PM

TheZohan wrote: »

Tell us the story about managing wealth funds for individuals of high net worth in Germany again....

If you have nothing of value to add to the discussion then you might want to consider not contributing to the thread. Have a cup of tea and a fun size Kit-Kat or something.

I'm talking about nostalgia. Why does it have such an emotional draw for some people. While some of us don't get that need to post our memories of white dog shíte, green Dublin buses, and yellow chocolate cigarettes.

Chucken · 24-09-2014 10:25PM

The 80s were great:)

Birneybau · 24-09-2014 10:26PM

Nostaliga, ain't nostalgia, which ain't what it used to be.

4zn76tysfajdxp · 24-09-2014 10:27PM

You never heard anyone talking about nostalgia when I was a kid.

TheBeardedLady · 24-09-2014 10:29PM

Those lists are just click bait and I think people just read them to kill a few minutes. I wouldn't take them so seriously.

24-09-2014 10:31PM

Leave the eighties alone. There's no night better than a night sitting in, supping on cheap wine, and blaring out the eighties tunes.

I WANNA LIVE FOREEEVEERRRR. I WANNA LEARN HOW TO FLY.

monkeysnapper · 24-09-2014 10:31PM

Aaagghhh the c64 , brings back so many happy memory's, I wrote this back in the 80s in 8 bit. ...I was such a amateur back then

http://youtu.be/G7HVrOkhuLw

catallus · 24-09-2014 10:31PM

I think nostalgia is just people trying to get positive reaffirmation of their past; to look back and remember things as they used to be, with a certain level of disconnect, is a way to recharge the batteries. The frisson of being able to say "Yes I was there then" and to be also able to say you are still here looking back, is a great comfort to lots of people.

AnonoBoy · 24-09-2014 10:32PM

Would you not be partial to an auld rewatch of Wall St. every now and then Aongus?

FloatingVoter · 24-09-2014 10:32PM

I remember trying to tighten my belt when Haughey told us to. It turned out we didn't have enough money for fancy things like belts. Bit of rope had to do me.

Pumpkinseeds · 24-09-2014 10:33PM

Chucken wrote: »

The 80s were great:)

Yeah, but the 90s were better.:)

Custardpi · 24-09-2014 10:33PM

Yeah, nothing wrong with a little bit of nostalgia, but the constant lists about a period which really wasn't that long ago are getting seriously tired by now. Especially those which imply that having lived through the 80s/90s imbues people with some kind of special wisdom & understanding of the world. Very good pisstake of the phenomenon in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJcoy0O54g0

Aongus Von Bismarck · 24-09-2014 10:34PM

TheBeardedLady wrote: »

Those lists are just click bait and I think people just read them to kill a few minutes. I wouldn't take them so seriously.

I don't take them seriously. Rather like posts 3-6 in the majority of AH threads, they tend to be shallow and quick written pieces designed to either get a few thanks or a few clicks.

My question is more about why people in their 30's are becoming so nostalgic? Did previous generations get this way, or has the Internet inspired a generation of people in their 30's to start posting silly videos and tired posts about a decade that really wasn't the May West?

sarkozy · 24-09-2014 10:35PM

Nostaliga? What's that? Feeling nostalgic for Liga biscuits?

Actually, there's an interesting German word for this sentiment, sehnsucht. Nostalgia is a generational thing, but more and more, I think it's also deliberately and cynically exploited for marketing purposes, especially when culture has run out of new ideas.

Chucken · 24-09-2014 10:36PM

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Yeah, but the 90s were better.:)

Ah but are you analysing the 90s against almost all social, economic and artistic barometers.;)

FloatingVoter · 24-09-2014 10:39PM

The 80s gave us one great cultural achievement - designer stubble. Thanks to Don Johnson I can walk about looking like I slept in a ditch and get away with it.

solomafioso · 24-09-2014 10:40PM

Ah j'member dis thread? Ha? 'member the debayte and deh way we ust' t'talk and be with deh banter n'all. Ah, boards. Back in the day. Ahhhhhhh.

This thread was amazing at 22:12.

ceadaoin. · 24-09-2014 10:42PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I'm a man in his early 30's. I've been noticing a trend lately whereby mawkish sentimentality and romanticised views of the 80's are things my peer group are indulging in. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy an episode of Reeling in the Years as much as any punter. I'm also a keen dilettante of modern Irish history.

It's this cheap nostalgia that I don't understand. If it isn't people posting videos on facebook of terrible 80's power ballads, it's sites like the journal looking for clicks by posting articles like: "These are 12 things you'll love if you grew up in the 80's". Usually tired and generic lists about going to bed after Glenroe and the tape recorder on the C64 not working. Something to do with a sodastream as well.

What causes this cheap nostalgia? I like to look continuously towards the future, and the opportunities it will present. Not harping back to a decade that was fairly awful when analysed against almost all social, economic and artistic barometers.

Maybe the 80s were fairly awful when analysed objectively, but most people don't take those things into account when remembering their childhood. Looking back on something from a personal viewpoint rather than in a broader economic and social context doesn't make it 'cheap'.

I suppose people that are in their early 30s, myself included, might feel like they are getting old or are going though life changes like having kids or getting married. Possibly looking back to a simpler time is a way of dealing with this, who knows? Does it really matter? Not really.

Aongus Von Bismarck · 24-09-2014 10:45PM

sarkozy wrote: »

Nostaliga? What's that? Feeling nostalgic for Liga biscuits?

Actually, there's an interesting German word for this sentiment, sehnsucht. Nostalgia is a generational thing, but more and more, I think it's also deliberately and cynically exploited for marketing purposes, especially when culture has run out of new ideas.

I live in Germany. They have words for every type of cultural trope or fleeting emotion. They even have a word to describe why they can't invent new words that display brevity.

I think you've reached the crux of my point. Has the internet almost made a festish out of the 80's nostalgia scene? Youtube has thousands of terrible music videos from the 80's; those in their 30's are the first generation who grew up with the internet as part of their post-childhood experience and have disposable income; articles about a romanticised past are quick and easy to fire out. It all seems shallow.

Shakespeare's Sister · 24-09-2014 10:48PM

Speaking of Germany, "Ostalgie" was a thing in Germany 10-12 years ago, involving fetishisation of the days under communism ("Ost" meaning "east"). Ultimate example of smoothing out the rough edges of the past. Never mind naive Irish rose-tinted specs re the 80s.

AnonoBoy · 24-09-2014 10:49PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

My question is more about why people in their 30's are becoming so nostalgic? Did previous generations get this way, or has the Internet inspired a generation of people in their 30's to start posting silly videos and tired posts about a decade that really wasn't the May West?

Happens to everyone as they get older.

It's nothing new.

People just do it via lists online now as opposed to conversations about the things like in the old days. Conversations? Remember them?

Sure nothing's new anyway. In the 1970s people in America used to take photos of their cats and mail them to each other with funny slogans written on them. Now why does that sound familiar?

Chucken · 24-09-2014 10:49PM

I like to look continuously towards the future, and the opportunities it will present.(from OP)

I have an ex like this. He now 'has it all' apparently. He's 56 years old and has only ever been on one foreign holiday. Doesn't holiday at home either. All work and no play etc. He can tell you anything about 'his plans for the future' but god forbid you bring up the past. He's spent his life running from it. I've spent many years wondering why. Sad really.

Sunnyisland · 24-09-2014 11:16PM

80,s ppfft it's the 70,s where it was all at,

Shakespeare's Sister · 24-09-2014 11:22PM

Goodbye Lenin! is a great movie though.

Aongus Von Bismarck · 24-09-2014 11:24PM

Shakespeare's Sister wrote: »

Speaking of Germany, "Ostalgie" was a thing in Germany 10-12 years ago, involving fetishisation of the days under communism ("Ost" meaning "east"). Ultimate example of smoothing out the rough edges of the past. Never mind naive Irish rose-tinted specs re the 80s.

It was a "thing" in Germany about 15 years ago amongst a certain subsection of self-loathing middle-class graduates who pined for an era that they barely remembered. It culminated in a movie called Good Bye Lenin, and a couple of bars with cheap Soviet tat on the walls - all now long closed (rather like the ideals that they sought to romanticise).

nullzero · 24-09-2014 11:31PM

The 80's were sh1t. But looking back the 80's wasn't as sh1t as we thought at the time. A lot of the music seemed crap at the time but has aged quite well, although some of it remains crap.
People will always be nostalgic about their childhoods, it doesn't mean the nostalgia is completely warranted but it's never completely unwarranted either.

If you want to blame someone for 80's nostalgia, it all started in 2002 when GTA vice City came out (remixed versions of featured songs filled the charts for months afterwards). That made the 80's seem glamorous and exciting. The real 80's were nothing like that in Ireland but I suppose it's nice to pretend we really lived in some Miami Vice type fantasy instead of the reality of mass emigration and being designated as part of the developing world.

Nostalgia

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