Sunday, April 5, 2015

"Will the Web Kill Nostalgia?"

A piece by Paul Hiebert at Pacific Standard asks "Will the Web Kill Nostalgia?":

"2015, sometimes it seems as though our not-so-distant pop-culture past is just as prevalent as our pop-culture present. In the movie world, for example, producers are currently developing new live-action films based on the animated adventures of '80s fixtures He-Man and Jem and the Holograms. .... Then there’s Throwback Thursdays and Flashback Fridays, the weekly reminiscing fests that involve thousands, if not millions, of people sharing bittersweet memories across social media.... 
Nostalgia is everywhere. Childhood merchandise, music, and music videos are archived and readily accessible on sites such as eBay, Spotify, and YouTube.....

But here’s the thing: For nostalgia to work, the objects that evoke it have to go away for a while, or at least be beyond reach. There must be distance. With the Internet, smartphones, and a 24-hour news cycle, however, everything from the recent past is relentlessly present. There's simply too little to long for if it's always available. If we take nostalgia to strictly mean a wistful longing for, or melancholic memory of, someone's past personal experiences (as opposed to, say, someone alive today yearning to live at the height of the Roman Empire), it seems conceivable, then, that for coming generations the feeling of nostalgia might eventually disappear—not due to over-exposure or diminished effect, but because of its inability to form in the first place."


1 comment:

Tim 'Space Debris' said...

This seems to be going over old ground that perhaps you have covered yourself Simon, doncha think?

I've even covered this area myself here http://cardrossmaniac2.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/nostalgia-for-nostalgia.html

Nostalgia for articles about nostalgia for articles about nostalgia.