Why we went mad for nostalgia in the last year

Analysis: nostalgic consumption and experiences served a purpose for many of us throughout the pandemic

By Aisling Hoban and Valerie Gannon, TU Dublin

Nostalgia is a yearning for the past or the desire to recreate the past in the present. It's a socio-emotional experience and has been classified as either personal, a response to one's own past, or historical, a response to a general shared past or history, and even to times in the recent past.

It comes as no surprise that commentators have pointed to a rise in nostalgic feelings and nostalgia related consumption during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nostalgia tends to be experienced during unusual times, as individuals feel a sense of anxiety towards the circumstances they face. It's more likely when triggered by boredom, loneliness, feelings of meaninglessness or daily reminders of mortality, all of which were common during the period of forced isolation created by Covid-19 lockdowns.

Nostalgic memories help combat this by allowing individuals to revisit past experiences which serve to restore meaning. It allows individuals to create a coherent personal narrative in their lives when the world around them is spiralling out of control. Nostalgia promotes the feeling of continuity and counteracts feelings of discontinuity which have occurred as a result of this pandemic. Reminiscing on pleasurable, significant memories from the past encourages a connection to the past and a sense of stability of personal identity.

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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today With Claire Byrne, Donald Clarke from The Irish Times and Deirdre Molumby, from Entertainment.ie on nostalgic movies

During our periods of lockdown and self-isolation at home, thinking about the past was both past and future oriented. Individuals trigger the social dimension of nostalgia as they reach out to people from their past in order to re-experience the feelings they once had. Nostalgia can combat loneliness giving individuals access to memories of times once shared with family and friends.

Researchers have found that nostalgia is a highly social emotion as nostalgic memories usually include people such as friends, family and acquaintances from the past. Andrew Abeyta, a professor of psychology at Rutgers University–Camden, recently outlined how reflecting nostalgically on meaningful experiences with family and friends can act as a mechanism of reassurance while satisfying social needs in the context of coping with the pandemic.

Retro marketing aims to target those consumers who have a longing for the past and offers them products and services that satisfy these feelings. Retro branding essentially prompts nostalgic feelings or triggers amongst nostalgia-prone consumers. Marketers have realised that by bringing back brands and products from the past, they can tap into desires for simpler, happier and less stressful times.

From RTÉ Radio 1's Today With Claire Byrne, Patrick Freyne from The Irish Times and Deirdre Molumby, from Entertainment.ie on nostalgic TV shows

This is why there has been a proliferation in the use of pop-culture icons (Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe), music (Fleetwood Mac), and styles (Polaroid) from the past in recent years pre-pandemic. Retro styles and pop-culture icons have been used on various occasions on TV in remakes and revivals and even TV ads aimed at those consumers whose demographic factors render them susceptible to indulging in such media drawn from their youth.

Nostalgia presents numerous possibilities for brands to take advantage of. Consumers resort to retro brands to connect to communities they once shared those brands with. Nostalgia has been used as a tactic in many more scenarios such as heritage attractions, high street shopping, cinematic experiences like remakes, sequels and prequels and by celebrity artists.

Nostalgic consumption has been identified by many commentators during the pandemic. Historical nostalgia emphasises the added value of a product associated with a prior era which the individual has not personally experienced. The DisneyPlus streaming service, launched at an opportune time, has seen a huge uptake in subscribers with viewers accessing childhood favourites. Old style family games are back in use and fashion.

From RTÉ Radio 1's Brendan O'Connor Show, broadcaster and lead singer with Something Happens Tom Dunne; singer and TV presenter May Kay Geraghty and the Bord Gais Energy Theatre's Stephen Faloon on the best gigs they've ever been to

A study conducted by Nielsen/MRC in the early stage of the pandemic reported that over half of music listeners are opting for music from a bygone era. The report showed that streams of Bob Dylan and Dixie Chicks spiked along with Bob Marley, whose catalogue was up 23% during March 2020. Even Super Bowl advertisements, hotly anticipated and closely scrutinised each year as a bellweather of trends in marketing and advertising content, fell back on old favourites in 2021, with significant use of very well-established celebrities and associations with old TV shows and products.

Nostalgic trends are also evident on social media. The subreddit r/Nostalgia has seen steady growth since March 2020, and r/90s has grown by nearly 10% over the same time. Hashtags #TBT and #ThrowBackThursday were used over 43% more frequently during March 2020, while tweets containing "I Miss" are being posted over 63% more frequently. New nostalgic hashtag trends are emerging such as #MeAt20 and #DistractA90sKid. The #DistractA90sKid consists of Twitter users who grew up in the 1990s, detailing different products they would have consumed in the past to keep themselves occupied.

Nostalgia has been identified as stronger during adolescence and early childhood. As the millennial generation hit adulthood or early thirties, they might be expected to experience stronger nostalgic feelings. Given the insecure and disruptive nature of the pandemic this nostalgia should be expected to manifest strongly in this last year.

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From TED-Ed, why do we feel nostalgia?

This is exactly what recent research at TU Dublin addressed. The research asked whether there was an association between nostalgia-proneness, age and gender. While age was found to be a predictor of nostalgia, with older millenials more nostalgia-prone than younger millenials, gender was not found to be a predictor. Those surveyed were found to consume nostalgically to cope with feelings of uncertainty, and to evoke feelings of positivity associated with past times.

Nostalgia-prone millennials were found to be predisposed to consume retro and nostalgia-related products and services. Movies and music were found to be the most widely-consumed categories for nostalgia during the pandemic. It was clear that products and services with positive emotional associations from the past served a purpose in the lives of young adults during the extraordinary pandemic experience.

Aisling Hoban is a Marketing graduate from the College of Business at TU Dublin. Her dissertation 'A Study of Millennials' Susceptibility to Nostalgia During Times of Uncertainty: A Focus on Nostalgic Consumption During Covid-19' won the European Institute for Commercial Communications Education (Edcom) undergraduate award 2021. Dr Valerie Gannon is a Lecturer in Advertising at the College of Business at TU Dublin and was the supervisor for Aisling Hoban’s dissertation.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

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