No one likes to admit to the passage of time. No one likes to think about how each and every day they get older and more and more people die while new ones get their chance. There’s no reason to deny it, or be afraid of it, it's a fact. It's how things are. You don’t have to like it.
What you do have to do is admit that it’s there. Admit that there is an ever-present feeling that’s wrapped itself around your brain: admit that you wish things would go “back to the way they were”, whatever that means.
Sometimes it feels like life goes too fast. One day, everything is exactly where you left it, and then you wake up and you don’t even recognize the world around you. Your entire life feels different, for the good and the bad, and you can’t help but think about how you got there.
At this point you look towards your memories, those little bubbles in your brain that share with you the details of your life (true or imagined.) You might remember things like the first time you heard your favorite album (sitting in a common area in-between classes my freshman year of undergrad), or playing a game after school that you had looked forward to for months (MW2 & Black Ops come to mind here.)
You smile, and remember a time that’s long since passed. A time that was simpler. You lament over the fact that everything is worse now: “they don’t make movies like they used to”, “these games suck”, “I wish rap would get back to lyricism.”
I know you think things are worse, that you’ll never be able to rekindle the fire that was your passion for these things because the new versions outright stink. I know you think kids these days have it horrible because they’ll never be able to experience what you did. You had the perfect life then, I get it. I really do.
That’s not the case though. Things aren’t really worse, you think they are. That’s the trade-off that comes from nostalgia.
Nostalgia is that feeling of yearning you get when you think about things from your childhood, things you loved that you associate with that easier time in life. Nostalgia can come from anywhere. For me, it’s the Prequel Series (really The Clone Wars), The Black Parade (literally listening to it as I’m writing), and early COD games (the Reznov reveal still confounds and shocks me.)
In the last decade or so, more and more things are created that play into that yearning (nostalgia porn!) explicitly to bait people into seeing and buying things by reminding them of the things they love. The clearest example is The Force Awakens, which played on fans finally seeing the return of some of their favorite characters to the silver screen while essentially remaking A New Hope. An even more recent example is Halloween Kills, which brought back minor characters from Halloween (1978) in an attempt to create sympathy when in reality that time could’ve been spent crafting original characters that audience members can care about, instead of casting Anthony Michael Hall as Tommy Doyle.
South Park did an entire season on this six years ago, I’m not alone in thinking this. That season whipped ass too. Nostalgia porn is terrible and seeks to exploit the hopes that many people have of rekindling that feeling of childhood. It strives only to make money, to profit off of which makes people comfortable. It’s a pure cash grab.
Nostalgia porn convinces you that the things you are nostalgic about are the only good things and the things that are worth your time and money. They turn you against everything new and original that comes out, whether you realize it or not.
Nostalgia isn’t a bad thing: we should all have happy memories. We should all have things that take us back to our childhoods and make us think about the past. It’s okay to be nostalgic about things.
The issue stems from thinking things are worse today. I promise you, they aren’t. COD is exactly the same today as it was in 2012. Music, as it always has, continues to evolve. More and more artists are getting opportunities today than ever before; the stuff you like still exists and it always will. It just might be a little harder to find.
You refuse to let go of the things that made you happy when you were younger, the things you associate a lot of your positive memories with. You subconsciously link those things with being better because life was easier then. Now you have bills to pay, people to take care of, expectations that you feel you need to fill. Everything just sucks.
That’s nobody’s fault, and definitely isn’t the fault of modern-day content. It’s aging.
It’s the curse of nostalgia; you remember the best things about your life but refuse to acknowledge that future generations can also enjoy what they want. You might think Black Ops is a classic and that Vanguard is terrible, but kids today are going to remember Vanguard as a classic and say whatever new game comes out is terrible.
That’s how life works. Things aren’t worse today. Kids today are going to see the things that release and fall head over heels in love with them. Instead of being so negative and pessimistic about current content though, you can assess yourself and figure out why these things make you feel the way you do.
Relax a little. Reach out and try something new. Let yourself enjoy something new. You might like it!
Howdy! If you have like this, have problems with it, or just want to tell me I’m an idiot, leave a comment! You can also find me on Twitter @B1GOPE if you have any stronger feelings about it.
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