Highlights at Aspen Ideas: Health

Back to the Future, the Power of Nostalgia

Steve Burns and Clay Routledge talked about power of nostalgia on Tuesday night. The overall definition of nostalgia: memories you cherish from the past, even if they have a bittersweet feeling because you miss it. But at the end of the story, you recognize the redemptive arc — things you want to carry forward into the world.

There’s a misconception that if you’re focused on the past, you’re stuck in it. But Burns and Routledge asserted that to improve the future, you have to be thinking about the past. They pointed out that most innovative artists and scientists mine the past for ideas — what we’ve been passionate about and what has moved us forward. In that way, nostalgia is critical to moving forward. In other words, we find ways to be nostalgic for a reason.

People can be nostalgic for things that they haven’t lived through. Studies show that Gen Zers, the first of whom were born in 1997, are making things from the 1990s “cool” again. It’s as if they’re using the past to bring balance to their lives, the panelists said.

Gen Z is driving old-school experiences, from listening to records and cassette tapes (analog, as opposed to digital) to shopping at malls.

“There’s a tactile process to it … it’s about connection,” Burns said.

Buying a record involves talking to people and curating what you like within a community to share it with, Routledge said.

And yet, nostalgia can be dangerous, by romanticizing a past that never was, moderator Kate Bowler pointed out.

Different kinds of nostalgia exist, from personally experienced experiences to historic nostalgia and collective, or group-based nostalgia, the latter of which can be a mixed bag, Routledge said, because it can support a pessimistic belief that the future will be worse than the past.

Nostalgia works best when it generates a belief that the future can be better and gives people the boldness to improve things. In other words, the past can help us by looking at human examples of resilience to generate hope.

“Nostalgic memories are meaningful memories (that make) you feel that you matter —  that I have an important role to play — I have something to offer,” Routledge said.

“A lot of things that I hear at these fan conventions is that: You heard me, when no one else did,” Burns said.

“Nostalgia offers that feeling to look back and say: I am still that person,” Bowler said.

Journaling and creative activities that review life and highlight what defines us is important, Routledge noted, as is talking to people about the past to have personal experience within a broader world. It’s also a great ice breaker to open vast conversations between generations.

Watch a recording of the panel on YouTube.