We were interested to get the moderator's take on why the r/lewronggeneration subreddit has seen so much success over the years. "I think that the anti-nostalgia baiting message that is attached to the subreddit and has been there since its inception resonates with a lot of people who don't have strong feelings of nostalgia for one thing or another," u/oh_dangit told Bored Panda.

"One of the core beginnings was based on music; such as people who becry musicians nowadays for creating their own sound and making it unique to themselves," they said.

We were also curious to find out more about what it's like to moderate an online community of this size. According to u/oh_dangit, being a moderator mostly "comes down to dealing with spam and people leaving comments that break rules."

They added: "Though there is a lot of reposting since heaps of [stuff] like this is reposted constantly. Maybe in the past, when there were more actual posts and popular posts, I think that there'd be far more time committed to moderating," they said that the times have changed a bit.

The moderator also shared their thoughts on where the line is when someone's become far too immersed in nostalgia: "Looking too much towards the past will only hurt your perspective towards the future," they said.

The r/lewronggeneration community has been going strong for nearly a decade now. Founded in mid-August of 2013, the sub has grown to house over 300k members since that time.

According to the moderator team running the whole show, the subreddit itself was created out of annoyance over the ‘born in the wrong generation’ that fans of ‘60s and ‘70s rock often express. So there’s a special emphasis on music on r/lewronggeneration, but other forms of nostalgia are welcome, too, from other forms of media to societal trends.

The mods ask the members to post images and videos that fit the spirit of the subreddit. In short, the content should be focused on “quasi-nostalgic attitudes, often with a sense of superiority.” However, posts can’t have anyone’s identifying information displayed in them, whether that’s actual names or internet usernames. The point is to gently mock over-the-top nostalgia, not the individuals themselves.

Moreover, members of r/lewronggeneration ought to avoid posting content that they created themselves. Meanwhile, if anyone’s in the mood for some satire, they’re welcome to go for it, but they have to add the ‘Satire’ flair to make it clear to everyone else. 

In the meantime, everyone’s asked to be civil, and polite, and to “keep the elitism at the door.” While disagreements are perfectly fine (and, if we’re honest, completely unavoidable on the internet), calling other users names and insulting them is way over the line. What’s more, the mods frown upon low-effort posts, redditors who spam memes, and repost irresponsibly.

Valentina Stoycheva Ph.D. explains in a post on Psychology Today that nostalgia can lead to unhelpful behaviors and have negative consequences when taken to an extreme.

“The difference between helpful and harmful nostalgia is the difference between incorporating the positive emotions of reminiscing into the present versus renouncing the present for the sake of reinstating and perpetually reliving some moment in the past,” she writes.

In Stoycheva’s opinion, overindulging in nostalgia is similar to overusing salt or pepper in your dishes, leading to the present being “colored by the negative emotions, in favor of glorifying some moment in the past.” There’s a need for balance here so that nostalgia doesn’t consume someone’s life.

Some individual examples where people go overboard with nostalgia include getting excessive plastic surgery in order to create the illusion of youth, hoarding things, and using social media to track down their ex-partners. On a societal level, overindulging in nostalgia can lead to people glorifying their historical past without acknowledging the collective traumas of the past.

Nostalgia, according to Stoycheva, is focused on simplicity rather than complexity, so it can backfire as an emotional regulatory strategy because the world itself is so complex. According to her, this can be countered by coming face to face with our own biases and beliefs and tackling uncomfortable feelings of shame and longing. 

Stoycheva suggests that everyone who’s feeling nostalgic for an activity, a period of time, and people to ask themselves these questions: “What emotion am I after? In engaging in nostalgia, what former self-state am I seeking to recreate? How will this help me and also how can I stay rooted in the present while I also feel the positive emotions of reminiscing? Am I avoiding complex emotions? If so, what are they, and why are they so hard for me? Where else can I seek help in managing my emotions?”

In the meantime, Bored Panda has previously written about how people tend to be the most nostalgic for those periods of time when they were happiest. For many, that’s their childhood because they had fewer responsibilities. However, if someone had an awful childhood, you most likely won’t find them reminiscing about that period of time.

Though nostalgia can be a good coping strategy when you’re feeling blue, it can interfere with our daily lives. For instance, if we constantly compare the present to the past and feel like nothing ever measures up in terms of values and quality, then we’ll feel disappointed.

It’s vital to remember that our memories aren’t perfect: they’re not as accurate as we might think and we might be reliving only the moments we want to remember. Meanwhile, the present has many opportunities to be seized, even if the world has changed and will continue to change. 

For some more posts about nostalgia and r/lewronggeneration, check out Bored Panda's earlier feature over here.