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Deep inside our brains is an ocean of memories, emotions, and feelings that can be unlocked by the correct application of sights, smells, and sounds. Without warning, the theme song of a childhood cartoon or the smell of that one aisle in the corner store by your house can teleport you to another time. It might feel like magic, but nostalgia is a very real phenomenon.
The “Nostalgia” Instagram account is pretty self-explanatory, showcasing content that should be like a healthy blast from the past, both funny and relatable. So prepare for a little trip in time, upvote the images that unlocked some memories, and share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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Because nostalgia focuses so much on memories of how things used to be, both real and imagined, it’s important to keep track of what is a cherished memory and what is a specific, focused-tested set of concepts put together to evoke a specific memory. As cynical as it might seem, politicians, movements and advertisers are all wise to the idea of nostalgia as a method to manipulate people.
The “return to the good, old days” is a common promise for many politicians, and many products will try to associate themselves with potential consumers’ childhoods. Little reminders of childhood do often come with a comforting wave of emotions, just make sure that you don’t let people hijack it to sell you anything.
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That being said, it is a real and verifiable fact that nostalgia can provide a good amount of comfort through times of sadness and uncertainty. Psychologists believe that in certain “doses,” it’s actually pretty important to our mental health. Think of it this way, when current circumstances don’t provide joy, your brain has this nifty little ability to just reach into the past and scoop up things that made you happy before. There might be diminishing returns, but hey, it’s a start.
To maintain the metaphor of nostalgia-as-medication, it is possible to “take” too much. After all, if you feel the past was too good, you might end up longing just to return instead of focusing on the present. The Germans, as always, have a term for this, called “Sehnsucht,” which you can now use as a complicated and pretentious way to talk about longing, desire, yearning, and craving.
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Canadian Cobra Chickens 1 year ago
I'm convinced that if you didn't, you didn't have a childhood. Change my mind.
The origin of “Sehnsucht” (capitalized because the Germans capitalize every noun) is “suffering,” which is ultimately what someone would probably feel if they have trapped themselves in the thought that things will never be as good as they used to be. However, some psychologists believe that over time, this emotion can help a person start to develop and plan out the steps to actually improve things.
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Lady Snowfall 1 year ago
Ah yes, the shin shredders. If your foot slipped off of one of those puppies, it was immediate blood and pain and bandaids and getting your leg doused in hydrogen peroxide and triple bac.
Once you realize the potential of tapping into the past to draft people’s emotions, you might start to see how it’s used everywhere. You might notice that the Instagram logo is, in fact, a drawing of a Polaroid, despite the fact that 99% of the userbase are probably using a smartphone. But somehow, an old camera seems more special and emotional than the many, smaller and often more powerful cameras we carry in our pockets every day.
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And speaking of social media, you have probably seen how, for example, Meta products like Facebook and the aforementioned Instagram have “memory” functions that will randomly show you images from the past, normally on their one-year anniversary. This could of course be a bit misguided, as many people have documented randomly getting images from an illness or a breakup a year ago.
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Heleen the Feline Panda 1 year ago
I still do this when I forget to bring along my cellphone to the toilet 😬
Other companies do their best to tap into this feeling as well. The Nokia 3310 phone was legendary for a variety of reasons, but it seems its reputation for being indestructible goes beyond the physical, as the company relaunched it in 2017. The phone seems like stone-age technology compared to any random smartphone from the last few years, but people do want to relive that two-tone snake game and the feeling of pressing some buttons.
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Tuesday's child 1 year ago
Not a 90s kid, but I still had to learn this. I barely know my times tabels but I do know how to play 'hot cross buns' on the recorder 😁
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Grudge-holding Treefrog 1 year ago
The metal one at my elementary school had a 2 foot drop at the end. It was very dangerous, but so much fun! (Very few burns because of catholic school dress code)
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Upstaged75 1 year ago
Those plastic jugs of brightly colored sugar water! I never saw them in anyone's home - they only showed up at school or parties.
“Stranger Things” is another case-in-point, where much of the appeal is an idealized image of the 80s, alongside many of the tropes and cliches of 80s children's movies, such as the iconic “ET.” The show was a brilliant move by Netflix, as it managed to both attract gen x viewers who wanted to relive a past era while simultaneously creating nostalgia among younger viewers, a sort of self-perpetuating false memory of the past.
Some specialists have started to develop a concept of “forestalgia,” which is a sort of hopeful belief that in some imagined future, many things will be better. While an idealized future has existed for centuries, the advent of science fiction has created multiple generations who actively think about what the next few decades will bring.
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French panda says ur worth it 1 year ago
They just get so hot in the car!! 😩 So annoying
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Austin Sauce 1 year ago (edited)
I live in Phoenix, everything in my car gives me second degree burns
CheshirePhrogg 1 year ago
Preach! Said 131 in the car yesterday. The upholstery burned and no it isn't leather
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Kimberlee Jackson 1 year ago
Is it wrong that I have three belts with these buckles? Love them all
Phoenix 1 year ago
We had vinyl seats in our car in the early 80's. In the summer we had to put a blanket down to keep from burning our legs. We tried to remember to tuck the buckles under the blanket when we got out but sometimes we forgot.
Sue User 1 year ago
So i finally got a decent car. Heated steering wheel, panaramic sunroof, leather seats. Black leather seats. Using a towel for now but looking for sest covers.
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village idiot 1 year ago
and if you live in Queensland you'll burn yourself in the winter too!
Lisa in Colorado 1 year ago
I still have a big burn on my back from when I was laid down as an infant on a metal seat buckle. Car was parked in Texas heat for hours with the windows rolled up and the buckle was ON FIRE. Had to go to the emergency room. Year was 1955. True story.
PrettyJoyBird 1 year ago
THEY LEFT YOU ALONE IN THE CAR?! so glad you are okay. That is truly horrible. So sorry.
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Bubs623 1 year ago
My aunt - the one with no little kids- always had plastic over everything, including the back seat of her new-every-two-years Oldsmobiles. And air conditioning used too much gas, so not only would you burn yourself putting on the damn seat belt she made you wear, but then you'd lose three layers of skin from the back of your thighs trying to peel yourself OUT of the seat once you'd gotten to wherever you were going!!!
Jestinna Welch 1 year ago
Yeah I remember! But now days I burn myself, even with the plastic ones, and the steering wheel and the door handle and literally EVERYTHING else inside the car. I live in southern Louisiana. We never stopped getting burned! 😅
Azure Adams 1 year ago
and long car trip being suffocated or strangled by one. Old seatbelts were out to kill us kids then
Katy McMouse 1 year ago
Buckle up? That's what they were for? My sisters and I (well, mainly I) would whip each other on the arms and legs with them. If you could smoosh yourself against your door, the door with no child safety locks, and the door didn't fly open going around a corner, you might have been juuust far enough away to be out of striking range. Those were some good times, I tell ya.
MrsFettesVette 1 year ago
I have a belt of this, it's in my bondage pants (Rocky Horror Picture Show costume)- I have no idea why I've never pulled it out and just put it in my regular jeans since I always seem to need a belt...
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 year ago
When I was a kid you only had to wear a seatbelt if you were under 18 in Oregon. Crossing the border into Washington meant the adults had to put their seatbelts on and they'd make a big deal about it.
RavenTheCat 1 year ago
Me , me ! God who also ever had to take a road trip in the back of a Ford ranger
jon gilbertson 1 year ago
And vinyl seats in shorts. Man that was gross trying to unstick yourself
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Audra Sisler 1 year ago
I was ALWAYS taking pictures in high school with camera like this! Such good times! 🥺
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Almarako94 1 year ago
I loved how the series got better with every episode. Not like most shows today
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ƒιѕн 1 year ago
Sugar, spice, and everything nice These were the ingredients chosen To create the perfect little girl But Professor Utonium accidentally Added an extra ingredient to the concoction-- Chemical X Thus, The Powerpuff Girls were born Using their ultra-super powers Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup Have dedicated their lives to fighting crime And the forces of evil!
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What do you think ?
TheReader19 1 year ago
I'm going to buy BGT Malakai Bayho's new CD tomorrow; still love CD's and records. Tapes are to much faff.
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TheReader19 1 year ago
Gen X from UK here could relate to a lot of that stuff; the rest reminded me of my kids childhood. Ps 1980 was 25 years ago OKAY
Janet Howe 1 year ago
I haven't had this much fun reading BP in a long time. Laughed my butt off at the comments. This nostalgia is great stuff! After a while, I get sick of all the retaliation, boo-hoo and in-law stories.
the quickening 1 year ago (edited)
Fanta or Jaffa (orange soda) for Finns. ✌️
Load More Replies... censorshipsucks 1 year ago
I knew most of these (South Africa). We had (have) a lot of american cultural influence.
Eva 1 year ago
I'm a late ish gen z kid and I understand a majority of this stuff, half of it because I went to a poorish, small, private Catholic school for 2-5, now 6-12 I'm in a richer public school, which was a culture shock on its own from the shared Chromebooks and the computer lab to having our own frickin frackin MacBooks.
Broncordelia 1 year ago
I am not a 90s kid, I was born in 2001 but I still related to a bunch of these
Michelle M 1 year ago
At the end of the thread, you’ll find a very tiny “Note: this post originally had 137 images blah blah blah.” Click on the 137 and that’s it. It’s in every shortened post. Hope this gets upvoted so that many people can see it.
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Michelle McCarson 1 year ago
This was one of the best meme feeds I have seen in a very long time. This made me very very happy although making me feel quite old. I will be sharing most of these photos
StitchIsCuteAndFluffy 1 year ago
There’s an Alec Benjamin song, called 1994 (when he was born), that describes some of these things! (Also the early 2000s)
the quickening 1 year ago
So 90s is now what 80s was when I was growing up; the cool period of time children wished they'd been born in. lmao
William Neal 1 year ago
HA! I recall ACTUALLY threading the 16 mm Birns and Sawyer projectors in grade school. Absolutely LOVED it. (No, I wasn't a teacher's pet otherwise.) But am ever indebted and grateful for being able to do this.
Moosy Girl 1 year ago
They should make a „57 glorious 30’s memes that you might be too young for” list.
TheReader19 1 year ago
I'm going to buy BGT Malakai Bayho's new CD tomorrow; still love CD's and records. Tapes are to much faff.
Load More Replies... TheReader19 1 year ago
Gen X from UK here could relate to a lot of that stuff; the rest reminded me of my kids childhood. Ps 1980 was 25 years ago OKAY
Janet Howe 1 year ago
I haven't had this much fun reading BP in a long time. Laughed my butt off at the comments. This nostalgia is great stuff! After a while, I get sick of all the retaliation, boo-hoo and in-law stories.
the quickening 1 year ago (edited)
Fanta or Jaffa (orange soda) for Finns. ✌️
Load More Replies... censorshipsucks 1 year ago
I knew most of these (South Africa). We had (have) a lot of american cultural influence.
Eva 1 year ago
I'm a late ish gen z kid and I understand a majority of this stuff, half of it because I went to a poorish, small, private Catholic school for 2-5, now 6-12 I'm in a richer public school, which was a culture shock on its own from the shared Chromebooks and the computer lab to having our own frickin frackin MacBooks.
Broncordelia 1 year ago
I am not a 90s kid, I was born in 2001 but I still related to a bunch of these
Michelle M 1 year ago
At the end of the thread, you’ll find a very tiny “Note: this post originally had 137 images blah blah blah.” Click on the 137 and that’s it. It’s in every shortened post. Hope this gets upvoted so that many people can see it.
Load More Replies... Michelle McCarson 1 year ago
This was one of the best meme feeds I have seen in a very long time. This made me very very happy although making me feel quite old. I will be sharing most of these photos
StitchIsCuteAndFluffy 1 year ago
There’s an Alec Benjamin song, called 1994 (when he was born), that describes some of these things! (Also the early 2000s)
the quickening 1 year ago
So 90s is now what 80s was when I was growing up; the cool period of time children wished they'd been born in. lmao
William Neal 1 year ago
HA! I recall ACTUALLY threading the 16 mm Birns and Sawyer projectors in grade school. Absolutely LOVED it. (No, I wasn't a teacher's pet otherwise.) But am ever indebted and grateful for being able to do this.
Moosy Girl 1 year ago
They should make a „57 glorious 30’s memes that you might be too young for” list.
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