Nostalgia
College is a time of a lot of new experiences and a lot of emotions. One of the main feelings that everyone goes through at some point, either freshman or senior year, is nostalgia. At some point in every college experience, whether it be at Christmas break, when football season starts up, or just late night when someone throws the lion king on tv, it hits like a ton of bricks. Then, all of the sudden, you want to call your friends from home and reminisce about backyard football games, birthday parties, and Friday nights at the ice rink open skate. (That last one may have been a local thing, but insert your middle school traditions.)
Null Hypothesis: The past was better than today
So is this true?
What is nostalgia, and why is it that memories of the past seem so vividly ideal, with no stresses, no worries, nothing but bliss? Is it that the past really was just a better time? That in our youth we experienced an unburdened lifestyle that we were too young and immature to truly appreciate? According to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, that in fact these memories are not even real, just tricks our minds are playing on us.
In Greek, the words for return and suffering are nostos and algos. This means that in greek, nostalgia literally translates to “the suffering caused by the yearning to return to one’s place of origin.” Nostalgia is the longing to be home. One of the most recognized pieces of literature ever, Homers The Odyssey, is a tale of a man trying to make it back home, with his nostalgic memories of his wife and homeland as his only motivators throughout his 10 year journey.
What we see when we look back is actually something referred to in psychoanalysis as screen memory, in which many memories are all put together into one, and during which all negative emotions were screened out, hence the name. This means that the memories that we think back on are really a lot of memories, and the positive emotions that went with them, with all negative emotions left out. Its no wonder everyone loves seeing a film, TV show, or even a picture from their childhood.
In the end, our null hypothesis turned out to be wrong, the past was no better than today, our brains just trick us into remembering it as being a perfect time in our lives, and to be honest, whats so wrong with that?
For a little fun here, lets play a game. If you feel nostalgia, you lose.
This is very interesting post! I can relate to reminiscing the past. Every time I see something that reminds me of home or my friends I immediately call them. I do find it interesting that you say the past is just as good as the present. I would like to find some more information and evidence on this topic because it is very interesting.
I really enjoyed this post and could relate to it. I spend a lot of time (much less now but a lot in the beginning) thinking about all of the fun times I had growing up and missed them. It makes me feel a lot better to think that the past isn’t as good as we think but is just a collection of our good memories. Awesome post and idea!
I am a freshman and whenever I am reminded of something that I used to do, I immediately have to call one of my friends back home. Now thinking about some of the memories that I miss so much were not always great times, and now I understand that the brain blocks out some of the negative memories that we have had.
Very interesting and relevant post! As a freshman, I spend a lot of time reminiscing with my friends over our high school memories and wishing that we could go back to them. Sometimes though, we will remember something two completely different ways. One person may remember it very positively, while another may think of that as one of the worst nights. I wonder if this has anything to do with nostalgia and the way that our minds play tricks on us. I would like to know more about the study that you found, because it seems interesting that you are able to claim that the past is no better than the present, because I believe you would find a lot of people who strongly disagree with that claim, especially with the lack of evidence provided.