Week 2:

One of the  more significant activities in class today was discussing the topic of nostalgia, specifically delving into our own past and creating a timeline of technology: when we first encountered it and how our relationship with it had changed over the years. I reflected on the topic, and why exactly I had felt nostalgic about old forms of media from my childhood, be they old video games, or antiquated ways of watching videos and media. 

It also got me thinking about ways to try and feel like that again. Like in Johnny Harris’ The Nostalgia Theory video (2020), I had recently undergone a phase where I sought nostalgia through old objects (although nowhere near the extent that he depicted), and bought old collectables and games that I had wanted as a kid. Fulfilling the dreams of a 7-year-old me by buying a LEGO Star Wars set I had always wanted was a nice full-circle moment, but didn’t feel the same as ‘the old days’ I was chasing, and I think that comes down to the context. Back then I was a kid with no worries about the world, and that simply isn’t replicable as an adult, and I think that’s why nostalgia is so powerful. Our collective “obsession with the past” (2021:3) as described by Matthew Leggatt has led to countless nostalgia chasing, both by individuals and by media corporations at large, trying to cash in on how people felt as kids. It’s why old classics are constantly being remade and 20-year-old properties being revived, all to chase that feeling of being carefree again and to chase that nostalgia. 

Harris, Johnny, ‘THE NOSTALGIA THEORY’ 2020, Youtube, viewed 10 March 2023, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvN7GxrRtNA>.

Leggatt, M (ed.) 2021, Was it yesterday? nostalgia in contemporary film and television, State University of New York Press, Albany.