A Trip Down Memory Lane: How Nostalgia is Affecting our Lives

If you could have any superpower what would it be? As kids, we were all asked this question, and while many answers ranged from teleportation, to invisibility, to flying, my answer was always the same: time travel. I thought it would be so cool to go back into the past and revisit memories for a second time. You could relive an old family vacation or birthday and soak up the moments all over again. You would even be able to visit loved ones that aren’t here anymore and tell them something that you may not have gotten the chance to say before they were gone. You could go back to your childhood and spend a day just being a kid again. Looking back, I’ve started to think more about why the past often sounds so appealing. Why do our old memories bring us so much joy? Why do we find ourselves craving old experiences again? Why do we long for the past even though we know we can never go back? It all has to do with a little emotion called nostalgia.

When someone says they feel nostalgic about something, it rarely needs any explanation. It’s the smell of your grandmother’s cookies that instantly fills you with joy and a sense of comfort. It’s the 90s song that comes on the radio that your parents instantly turn all the way up and start singing along to, reminiscing about their teenage years. It’s the old teddy bear you find in a storage closet, reminding you of when you were younger, transporting you back to your innocent childhood days. It’s smelling the same fragrance that an old friend wore, bringing back a whirlwind of emotions and memories. This universal feeling of nostalgia is a very complex and bittersweet emotion that is significantly influencing our generation and society today.

Missing the past has been part of our culture since the very beginning. Our humanity has always longed to feel safe and escape from the chaos of our daily lives, and nostalgia can help achieve that very goal. In fact, nostalgia reveals the deeper longing of our hearts and our desire to feel safe and comforted. It has become so easy for us to wish for the “good old days” of our lives because we are reaching for a time of comfort to escape from the struggles we are facing right now. Nostalgia has significantly impacted the world and left people longing for the comfort of the past, but instead people need to shift our perspective to hoping for our future and Christ’s return.

Before interpreting nostalgia’s worth as a Christian, it is first helpful to understand what nostalgia really is. It can be defined as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations” (Oxford). It comes from two Greek words: “nostos,” which means to return home, and “algos,” which means pain. Directly translated, nostalgia means “pain associated with home” or "homesickness” (Berry). It is a very complex emotion, and as Hughes described it, “Nostalgia leaves us with a strange feeling somewhere between pleasure and the sharp sting of pain. It’s bittersweet.” People often associate nostalgia with memories from their past because it provokes a sense of happiness and comfort, while also bringing a tinge of sadness because those moments may never happen again.

What triggers these nostalgic trips into the past? Many researchers point to sensory stimuli as the primary instigators. Pictures, fragrances, and noises can all act as sharp memory cues and cause us to reminisce. The brain areas active during nostalgia are those associated with self-reflection, autobiographical memory, and emotional regulation and processing (Campbell). For example, music is commonly known to spark nostalgia. A song from a specific era in our lives can instantly transport us back in time to relive ol d emotions and memories. In addition, certain smells are strongly linked to memory recall, a fact that can be attributed to the close proximity of the olfactory bulb - responsible for smell - and the hippocampus - associated with memory - in our brains.

In a study that was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers found that nostalgia was mostly triggered by negative emotions, specifically loneliness and depression. In many cases, nostalgia can serve as an escape from those feelings and from the broken world that we are living in right now. It has become our habit to look back on the “good old days” of our life and wish to be living in those moments again. It can be easy to idolize our past when our present life starts to get difficult. The problem is, we can often romanticize our memories and create a false, distorted view of the past. What’s interesting is that nostalgia can actually reveal a lot more about the present moment than it does the past. “[Nostalgia] is in the present that it is experienced, and it is the conditions of the present that prompt it” (Cooper). By looking back to our happier memories, we can find some comfort from whatever difficult circumstance we might be facing. There are many different triggers for nostalgia, but the most common one is a dissatisfaction with the present moment.

Next, it is important to understand what exactly is driving the rise of nostalgia in our culture today. One of the main driving forces behind our constant reminiscing is the media. It seems like the media is influencing almost every aspect of our culture today. Technology has negatively impacted how we connect and communicate with each other. The overwhelming presence of the internet in our lives is actually making us think about the past a lot more than we used to. It allows us to constantly relive memories at a rapid speed, which in turn, has made us more nostalgic. Technology has severely changed the way we look back on the past and has given us an unlimited amount of resources and access to information that we are constantly flooding our brain with. Studies have found that people spend about seven hours looking at a screen each day (Howarth). This is about half of our day and an alarming amount of time to be glued to technology. At this rate, the average American will spend twelve years staring at their phone screen throughout their lifespan (Release). Studies have also shown that about 49% of children ages 0-2 are interacting with cell-phones every single day (Howarth). So not only are we spending too much time on technology already, but we are also raising future generations to follow in those same footsteps, if not much worse.

Nostalgia can be seen throughout many aspects in our culture, especially in recent movies and television shows. Movies, television shows, and music all appear among the top three types of media which make people feel the most nostalgic (Harlow). For example, part of the reason the Barbie movie was so successful this year was because the producers used a common tactic called “nostalgia marketing.” This nostalgia-oriented marketing focuses directly on the positive feelings that we associate with our memories. Many people watched the Barbie movie because it held a special place in their heart and reminded them of their childhood. They were instantly brought back to memories of playing with their own Barbie dolls and houses growing up. Nostalgia has appeared several times throughout the media over the last few years. Disney films that were made decades ago are now being remade into live action films as an opportunity to look back at the stories associated with many people’s childhood. Sequels of many original movies have also been released, years after they first came to theaters. For example, Top Gun: Maverick was released 36 years after the original 80s movie, and yet it was still a box office hit, grossing over $1.49 billion. There are also many brands that are now using nostalgia in their ads to reach more audiences. The advertisements at the Superbowl were full of references from the 70s, 80s, and 90s (Harlow). As you can see, nostalgia has a tremendous influence on our culture, specifically through the media. By promoting memories from people’s childhood, more people are likely to watch it because they are searching for the positive emotion that nostalgia offers.

There are many different factors behind the increasing amount of nostalgia that has been in the media lately. One of the main factors is the constant pressure in the world we are living in today. We are living in a society that has become increasingly stressful. Many people are juggling their family, job, church, and education, while also dealing with financial issues like college debt and the cost of living crisis. Often, when people go through stressful experiences, they search for anything to serve as a coping mechanism. Scrolling through your phone, binge watching television, binge eating, and turning to drugs and alcohol have all become common coping mechanisms. However, when nothing in someone’s present-day life seems to help, many people resort to looking back to memories from their past.

The media is constantly trying to lighten the pain that our world is facing by bringing back memories from the “good old days” when life seemed to be a little happier. Nostalgia serves as a powerful tool for media creators to be able to connect with audiences on an emotional level and evoke particular feelings of comfort and familiarity. The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most traumatic events our world has seen in quite a while, and it significantly increased the amount of people that turned to nostalgia. People were constantly wishing for their old lives back before the virus took over the world. Four years later, it still seems that the world hasn’t fully processed and recovered from everything that happened in 2020. Even now, there is a strong sense of longing for the years back before the corona virus shut down the world. People’s lives significantly changed during that year, and our society is still trying to go back to the way the world was before.

Studies have found that nostalgia not only can positively impact your mood, but it also can provide comfort and a sense of security throughout a traumatic season of your life. When we go through times of difficult change or trauma, it is natural to long for the “good old days” back.

...In times of trauma and overwhelming stress, it’s a natural instinct to feel nostalgic and rely on those feelings for comfort and a sense of normalcy. Trauma takes away our gray areas. It divides our timeline into a before and an after, And while it has the danger of creating this longing for the before, when things were maybe safer, and when we were unaware of all of this and protected by our naïveté, there’s also something about nostalgic behaviors — fashion, clothes, movies, music — that serve as a transitional object. It increases your ability to self-soothe during a stressful time. (Karnad)

Reminiscing about our old memories can help when we’re going through hard times and help us navigate through trauma. Nostalgia is a bittersweet emotion that comes from a deep sense of longing. It’s more than just simply remembering your past - it’s about wanting to feel those emotions again.

Nostalgia is also displayed in the way that we capture every single moment through our phones. It seems like no one can enjoy something without recording everything about it on their phone to post to social media later. This winter, I went to see a Disney on Ice show with my little sisters, and we sat behind a family with three little girls. While the kids were watching the performance, their mom was live streaming the whole show through her phone the entire time, her eyes glued to the screen instead of the skating rink. This is just one recent example of how recording memories digitally has become such a common concept in our culture because it allows us to access those moments at any time we want. In her essay collection, On Photography, Susan Sontag wrote that photos “actively promote nostalgia ... by slicing out a moment and freezing it.” After looking at the history of recording memories in picture form, it’s clear our society has been doing this for a very long time now. But why? Is it purely to capture a moment, or is there a fear that if we don’t capture a memory in “permanent” form through our screens, it will be lost in time forever? Our phones constantly show us auto-generated “memories” and pictures from many years ago, actively promoting nostalgia for the past. They allow us to relive our memories any time we want. Our photos are significantly adding to our nostalgia because our past memories can look so perfect on film and on our devices that it makes us wish we were living in those times again.

Nostalgia can also be described as a “mixed” emotion because it is so complex and multidimensional. In Clay Routledge’s Ted Talk entitled “Why do we feel nostalgia?” he explained,

I think part of the appeal of nostalgia is that it is safe. The past is gone, it is not a period of action but reflection; it is like a book or a movie that you have seen before and know how it ends and can be returned to for comfort and even the conflicts are now part of the plot and the pain distant over time. It is a safe oasis and a way to commune with people and places that no longer exist...and that includes yourself. Nostalgia takes you back to a younger time when you were a different person and life was fresher. However, after analyzing my memories, I realize many of the same problems I had in the past still linger and have never been addressed and overcome, thus making the present more difficult and the future dark and uncertain. This makes nostalgia all the more seductive. It’s a double edged sword.

The reality is, nostalgia can have both positive and negative influences on our life. It is important to make sure we have a careful balance between remembering fond memories from our past and dwelling on them in an unhealthy way. It can lead to both beauty and suffering, and as Cooper explains it, “nostalgia can be both a social disease and a creative emotion, a poison and a cure.” Before deciding whether or not this emotion is more harmful or beneficial, we must explore both sides of nostalgia.

At first glance, nostalgia seems to be a joyful, bittersweet feeling. Reminiscing about our good memories and moments from our past can help us learn a lot of helpful lessons and create a better future. Remembering is also essential for the purpose of renewal because it allows us to look back and see all the ways God has been good to us. Taking time to look back on our past allows us to remember how Christ has worked in our lives and has always been with us, which strengthens our faith. There can be great beauty in nostalgia, as it inspires reflection, inspiration, and helps us reconnect to our younger self. We don’t always long for that specific situation back, but rather the raw emotion that we felt from it. There is nothing wrong with cherishing our childhood memories. In fact, our childhood is one of the purest forms of nostalgia because it is tied to memories of innocence and joy: a time before we experienced the brokenness of the world. Nostalgia can connect us back to our past adventures, experiences, achievements, friendships, and places. A desire to go back in time to live in those moments again isn’t inherently a bad thing. It allows us to revisit a small part of our past and reflect on all the things that have made us into the person we are today. Romans 15:4 says, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope" (English Standard Version). Our past has a lot to teach us about ourselves and how good our God is.

However, dwelling on the past can be extremely dangerous if we aren’t able to move on from it. It can be very easy to fall into the trap of nostalgia and ache to have those moments back. We have a strong tendency to romanticize the past - both the good and the bad. It’s easy to look through “rose-colored glasses” and as Davis explained, “Nostalgia might take us back to a time that was truly pleasant, but it has a way of blurring out the inconvenient details of the story.” We need to be careful to not idolize those moments of our life or get trapped in the past, especially when we often may not remember them accurately. Dwelling on our distant memories can make us “[give] into fantasies of the past, [cheating] us of the opportunity to cultivate hope that overcomes despair” (Sabella). Reminiscing can become dangerous and turn into a means of suffering if we can’t pull ourselves back to reality.

Nostalgia also has a tendency to make us forget the moments we’re in right now. We are constantly rushing through life at a rapid speed, looking towards the next best thing our future has in store for us. But how often do we stop and appreciate all the things we have in our life right now? As time goes on, we’re going to wish that we slowed down and enjoyed all the little moments around us. A huge consequence of nostalgia is that it often makes us forget to appreciate the time we have right now. We’re so busy focusing on the time we’ve lost that we forget to be present in the time we’re living in today.

By rushing through our lives like this, we will inevitably look back and regret the moments that we didn’t value enough, wishing we could have the time back. Because of our nostalgia for the present and our fear of the future, our culture is heading down a spiral of memories and emotions. We are chasing after emotions we once felt in the past to try to help us cope with the pain of the world today. There is a bitter beauty that is found within nostalgia. There is pain in realizing that we can never go back to the way things once were, but it also helps remind us to take advantage of all the moments and opportunities we have right now. We have no guarantee for how much time we have left on this earth, so we need to be living every day like it’s our last and be present in all the moments we’re in right now.

As Christians, it is important to consider if our nostalgia is beneficial or hurtful specifically to our faith. It is first helpful to take a look at what Scripture has to say about remembering the past. In many cases, reminiscing leads to incredible renewal when we reflect on how good God has been to us. Psalm 77:10-11 says, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will consider all your works and meditate on all your mighty deeds” (English Standard Version). We are called to reflect on the good works of the Lord, as it strengthens our faith and our love for God. Deuteronomy 32:7 also calls us to “Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you” (English Standard Version). We learn the most about God from His Word, but we also learn about Him through looking back on history. As we study the dark times of the past, we see a glimpse of how God worked back then, giving us hope for how He will work in our lives now and in the future. Hebrews 13:8 declares the powerful truth that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (English Standard Version). We can find peace in the fact that God will be with us just the same as He has been for generations before us. Remembering the past allows us to find comfort in God’s goodness and strengthen our faith as we recall the ways He has been faithful.

However, there is a fine line between reflecting and idolizing. We should never get stuck idolizing the past because as Ecclesiastes 7:10 warns us, “Say not, ‘Why were the former days better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask this” (English Standard Version). A wonderful example of this is Lot’s wife. She was transformed into a pillar of salt because she looked back on Sodom, becoming fixed in time like the past she longed so desperately for (Sabella). It’s important to understand the weight of dwelling on the past and how easy it is to get stuck there and start to idolize our memories. Sabella explained it this way:

In small doses, nostalgia can replenish us: who hasn’t felt refreshed after reminiscing with old friends? But unbridled nostalgia causes us to cling to the golden calf that reminds us of the past rather than recognize the pillars of cloud and fire guiding us through our uncertain present. As the Psalmist reminds us about idols: ‘They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths.’ The passage closes with a warning: ‘Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them’ (Psalm. 135:15-18).

The past can have a dangerous grip on us, and we must remember not to idolize the comfort that nostalgia may bring us. There is great beauty in our memories, but there is also danger when we begin to dwell on them. Our longing for the past is truly a longing for Eden. As humans, we are always longing for the Garden and to go back to how the world was before sin entered it. Instead of putting our hope in our past memories and the comfort they may bring us, we need to put our hope in the promise that Jesus will one day return. We are on a journey of a continual pursuit for happiness, and many people are trying to fill the emptiness in their lives with the wrong things.

Nostalgia can trap us in the memories of our past and leave us searching for a feeling we won’t ever have until Jesus comes back. We can seek after our perfect Eden as much as we want, but we won’t ever be truly satisfied until we shift our longing to God instead. As Wilson explained,

“It’s ok to long for the Garden. But we cannot go back. We must go forward...But don’t be surprised when the memories being made don’t quite satisfy, don’t quite live up to the feeling we anticipate their bringing to us. We weren’t made to dwell in the dream. The golden age is still before us. So we can give thanks for all God’s done...but we hang our hope not on some recaptured memory, but on the Blessing to come.”

Our Blessing to come is far greater than anything we’ve ever experienced. We must do our best to not get stuck longing for the past, but instead shift our perspective to the promise of Jesus’s return. The Lord instructs us to trust in Him and not dwell on our memories, however tempting it may be. It is important to trust God’s promises and not get stuck in wishing for our old life back. Our nostalgia can be spiritually dangerous because the work of the Spirit often unfolds in the present. (Sabella).

It’s easy to go down a spiral of anxiety when we try to plan our own future. Sometimes longing for nostalgia can result in facing fear - fear about the present and uncertainty for the future. That fear isn’t resolved by shutting away our problems and turning to the past for an escape, but it can be calmed by God and only God. There are so many uncertainties in our world right now, but luckily Jesus holds our future securely in His hands. We may feel a sense of comfort from our nostalgia, but there is an even greater joy in turning our perspective to the future.

In turning our perspective to the future, it is also very helpful to focus on the promises of God. Throughout the Bible, God makes countless promises to His people, including promises of hope, love, and redemption. By remembering these promises and believing in God's faithfulness to fulfill them, we can find comfort and assurance that our future is secure in His hands. Deuteronomy 31:8 says, “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed” (English Standard Version). The Lord goes before us in everything, and He has every part of our lives planned out. We don’t need to worry about our future or present-day because God is always in control.

Ultimately, as Christians, we are called to trust in God's timing and plan for our lives. While it is normal to long for the past and reminisce about the way things used to be, we can find hope and peace in knowing that God has a purpose for our lives and is always working for our good. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (English Standard Version). We have an everlasting hope in Jesus that can’t be found in anything else in this world. By turning to God in prayer, reflecting on His promises, and trusting in His faithfulness, we can transform our longing for the past into hope for the future. Our hope is not found in our past, but rather in the promises of God and the future He has in store for us.

In order to turn our longing for the past into hope for the future, we must learn to appreciate the memories that we hold so dearly to while also looking towards the future. When we find ourselves longing for the past, we can turn to God's word for comfort and guidance. His Word reminds us that God has a perfect plan and purpose for each of our lives, and He is always working for our good, even in the midst of our longing and struggles. In Romans 8:28, we are reminded that "in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose" (English Standard Version). This verse gives us hope that our past experiences can be used by God to shape our future and ultimately bring us closer to Him. Through reflection and prayer, we can seek His wisdom to help us let go of the past and trust in His plan for our future.

Nostalgia reveals a universal feeling of longing for the past, which ultimately points to the brokenness of our world. We are constantly striving after something to fill the void in our hearts that will never be filled without Jesus. With Him, we have an everlasting hope that overcomes times of despair and brokenness. Psalm 33:20-22 declares, “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you” (English Standard Version). We wait in hope for Christ’s return. When we go through trials, we have a reason to keep going and keep fighting the good fight of faith because we have a beautiful finish line in front of us. Because of Christ’s sacrifice, we get to shift our perspective from longing for worldly things to His return.

In addition to chasing after things of the past, it has become quite normal for us to idolize our present-day life. When thinking about Christ finally returning, it can be easy to feel like you’re not ready to leave the life you’re in now. Many of us still have several things we would like to accomplish in our life before it’s over. Whether that’s marriage, traveling the world, becoming a grandparent, or starting a family, we all have our own “to-do lists” for what we would like to happen in our lives. However, no matter how many good things we still have left to experience, Jesus will be even better. As Revelation 21:4 tells us, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (English Standard Version). We have an amazing future ahead of us that will surpass any worldly expectations we may have.

On the other hand, hoping for Jesus’s return is also a desperate call to action for us. Not because we still have things to cross off our bucket lists, but because there are still so many people in the world who don’t know God. If Jesus comes tomorrow, you may not be able to take that trip to Hawaii like you always dreamed of. But if Jesus comes tomorrow, that one friend who is struggling with their faith won’t have any time left. Justice will be served over the whole earth, and there’s still an overwhelming amount of people who will be left behind.

For non-believers in this world, they will always be chasing after something to fill the void in their hearts. The things of this world will never satisfy, and they will always leave us feeling more empty if that is all we’re chasing after. The world does nothing but provide false hope for its people. Even when something seems like it will be good and fulfilling, it will leave you feeling more and more dissatisfied in the end. Jesus’s return should encourage us to take every chance we get to share the beautiful hope that is found in Christ. As Christians, we get the privilege of shifting our perspective from the goodness of the life we’re in now because we have a better future ahead of us. Our memories teach us a lesson and can bring us great joy, but we have an even greater joy that is found in Jesus. However, for everyone else that is left who doesn’t know God, they will still be living in the trap of nostalgia, and that is exactly what we are called to help save them from.

Our continual longing for Eden is a clear sign of how the world was meant to be before sin entered it. By transforming our nostalgia into hope for the future, we can provide a beautiful message to others and help bring them closer to God. In 2 Corinthians 4:18 Paul declares, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (English Standard Version). We need to shift our eyes from dwelling on the things of this world - the things that are seen - to building up Christ’s kingdom and awaiting His return - the things that are unseen. We may find some comfort in the memories of our past and the times we’re living in now, but there is an even greater, everlasting comfort that can be found in God. Psalm 62:5-6 says, "Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken" (English Standard Version). Our hope in Christ is the one thing in our lives that will never be shaken.

In summary, nostalgia is a bittersweet, complex emotion that has impacted many areas of our life. There are several different factors that are driving our nostalgic mindset within our culture today. Because it is such a multifaceted emotion, there are many positive impacts and negative consequences of nostalgia that we need to be diligent about in our walk with Christ. Instead of longing for the past and the things of this world, we need to shift our mindset to hoping for Christ’s return, be intentional with every day we have left, and prepare for when He will make everything new again. It’s ok to wish for a superpower to travel through time and revisit fond memories - but we can’t get stuck there. We must be careful to not allow our trip down memory lane to become a detour from our path to Christ.

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