Excerpt:
Nostalgia fluctuates. Some generations are more nostalgic than others. And not all generations are nostalgic in the same way. Psychologist Clay Routledge, author of Past Forward: How Nostalgia Can Help You Live a More Meaningful Life (2023), has been studying this phenomenon for years. According to his survey of 2,000 Americans, 60% of Generation Z would like to return to a time before they were “connected,” even if that time predates their own lives; 68% feel nostalgic for eras before they were born; 73% are drawn to media, hobbies, or styles from those times; and 78% think that current technology should incorporate design elements from the past.
For Routledge, what’s curious about young people is that “they aren’t nostalgic for past moments that belong to their own lives, but for a historical era they didn’t live through.” He explains that the key lies in observing that the time they yearn for coincides with the period just before the emergence of new technologies. “They maintain an ambivalent relationship with technology: in surveys, many say they enjoy its benefits, but at the same time express concern about its consequences. Hence their connection to the pre-digital age,” he notes via video call.
Read the full article (English translation) at El Pais.
El Pais
Share:
Related Posts
