#nostalgia

#nostalgia

According to the expert, young people have stopped looking to the future. Like the lost souls in Dante's Inferno, they seem condemned to look backward. The products they consume remakes, revivals, sequels, and reboots are stitched together from the scraps of the 20th century, especially those from the late 1990s and early 2000s. Everything new feels familiar. Disruption and innovation capable of changing the world still exist, Segal argues over the phone, but the dominant cultural landscape is saturated with nostalgic remakes.

When something becomes old and then new again during my lifetime, I might be forgiven for feeling at once quite aged and a little sentimental. But suggestions that the landline telephone may be having a cultural renaissance just make me feel old and somewhat triggered by experiences of fraught teenage social negotiations over the long obsolete rotary dial phone of my youth.

Nostalgia is everywhere. And while yearning for the past is nothing new, its ubiquity in modern marketing and commerce is fueled by digital platforms that make it easier than ever to revisit the imagery, music, and aesthetics of earlier decades-transforming memory into a shared, searchable experience. As of October 2025, TikTok's #nostalgia hashtag included 16.9 million posts, with almost 100 billion views, while #90s and #Y2K added tens of billions more.

Twenty-five or so years ago, one day after school I went to visit my dad at his office. We didn't have a computer at home at the time so whenever I was around his, I would beg him to let me use it to play with MS Paint. I was probably around 7 or 8, and my go-to artwork was a portrait of my him made with the spray tool - perfect to recreate his short, spiky hair and stubble -

Tom Hanks is a star who's always had one foot squarely in the past. As an actor he's forever been likened to James Stewart, a reincarnation of the charming, essentially good American everyman, a from-another-era lead who's increasingly been more comfortable in period fare (in the last decade, he's appeared in just four present-day films). As a producer, he's gravitated toward historical shows such as Band of Brothers, John Adams and The Pacific;

Corned beef hash first arrived in the U.S. during the 1800s with the culinary traditions of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from northern Europe. But, the dish didn't see its majorly popular U.S. debut until WWII, when resourceful home cooks worked to stretch limited meat rations. Post-war kitchens across the nation continued placing a special focus on canned goods during this period, and Armour Star Corned Beef Hash arrived right on time - innovatively packing a complete, ready-to-heat meal into a convenient can.

Nostalgia has become one of the most powerful drivers in the tech and collectible markets. From miniature consoles to pixel-perfect Lego sets, the formula is well established: take a beloved cultural touchstone and re-engineer it for a modern audience. Nintendo, more than almost any other company, has mastered this to the point of it being an art (remember the Poke9mon Tamagotchis from a few months ago?) Hallmark's Keepsake line has long been a partner with Nintendo, translating iconic characters and scenes into physical ornaments for collectors.

For those of us born a few decades ago, toys like the Gameboy signifies simpler times; a period when digital devices had a single - maybe two - functions and were less implicitly demanding of our constant attention. The Gameboy came with a whole host of programs, a color camera with an attachable printer, but not much else. The Tamagotchi did require our attention but at a pace more aligned with fundamental human interaction.

Many adults might name "Rolaids" as their favorite candy. But, children's digestive systems seem to be built differently, effortlessly cycling through sugary sweets and soft drinks. Still, foodies who grew up during the Disco Decade won't soon forget one particular discontinued childhood drink - the popular grape soda inspired by one of our highest-ranking grape juice brands. We could, of course, only be talking about Welch's Grape Soda, which dominated the '70s and has earned a place of fame among today's soda-lovers.

"In a sense, we are all time travelers drifting through our memories, returning to the places where we once lived." ~Vladimir Nabokov I found it by accident, a grainy image of my childhood bedroom wallpaper. It was tucked in the blurry background of a photo in an old family album, a detail I'd never noticed until that day. White background.

I got myself a weighted stuffed animal because I have pretty terrible anxiety, and even though he doesn't, my husband liked it so much I got him one, too. I'm 45 and he's 53, and we sleep with Bean (sloth) and Java (capybara) every night. I will NEVER judge anyone at any age for sleeping with stuffed animals. 💕

Nostalgia is running rampant in marketing, with myriad brands resurrecting old ads, taglines and mascots to build emotional resonance. What happens when an organization wants to do the opposite of nostalgia bait: make consumers forget its most-recognized slogan in favor of something fresher and more relevant? The National Pork Board was recently faced with such a challenge, and its journey to repositioning pig protein carries larger lessons for how legacy brands are adapting to the digital age.

Nostalgia is really having a moment lately - with ballet music boxes, Y2K fashion, and celestial decor from the '90s trending. You don't have to actually remember old-school products to feel nostalgic attachment to them; just knowing that something is from (or inspired by) the past can bring about feelings of comfort. You can revisit the charm of simpler times in all sorts of ways, and holiday gift-giving is a great time to do just that.

We hate to break it to you, but Stars Hollow, Connecticut, is not a real place. Yet the endearing small town depicted in Gilmore Girls was so flush with quaint details-falling leaves, quirky gatherings, and sweet little nooks such as Taylor's Olde Fashioned Soda Shoppe, Stars Hollow Books, and Weston's Bakery -that it's easy to imagine Lorelai and Rory Gilmore gabbing over coffee at the retro-style Luke's Diner at this very moment.

There are some days when the only thing that can lift your mood is seeing a man in a top hat play the flute to summon a jodhpur-wearing Oompa-Loompa. Luckily, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory has plenty of that and a lot more besides. I don't care if you've just received a terminal diagnosis or found out your wife's been having an affair with Chris Martin, you stick this film on and you'll smile.

The 1984 original, from German band Alphaville, was a gloriously histrionic ode to cold war anxiety. But in Youth Group's hands, synths were replaced by mellow guitar and the song was set to footage of kids skateboarding in Sydney in 1978. It was pure sun-dappled nostalgia that shot to No 1 on the Aria charts in 2006 after it was used on The OC.

Growing up, my family traveled to North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for one week every summer. It was the quintessential family vacation: sun, sand, surf, lots of food, and too many things to do to ever get bored. But you know how it goes - I got older, moved away, had kids of my own, and life just kind of took over. So, decades after my last visit, I recently headed back to North Myrtle to see if it still

It's the same at virtually every wedding I attend. Friends and family sit at tables throughout the reception tent, sipping wine and snacking on duck confit while the red-hot band on stage blasts out a festive wedding playlist. As darkness falls outside the tent, guests begin to migrate two by two from their tables to the dance floor until just about everyone in attendance is out there pounding the parquet to the beat of the band.

Growing up is weird. One day you're playing hopscotch and trying to land on your crush in MASH, and the next you're in your late 20s, trying to hit your daily protein goals, saving up for a $200 pillow, and wondering if you should start leash-training your cats. The things I once thought I'd never care about are now constant thoughts in my mind.

They say three is a trend, the rate of occurrence upon which one moves past the threshold of randomness and into the realm of fixed preference that we often identify as "taste." Levi seemed to like older movies and TV. Levi seemed to dislike newer movies and TV. I sat down to watch an episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse with him, and a hypothesis about why this is the case took shape.

For the generation that grew up in the '90s, it can feel like it was worlds apart from how we live in the present. Steeped in nostalgia and a general sense of optimism about the world, it was the decade that holds good, or perhaps romanticized, memories of a time gone by. Along with the music, the style, and the retro technology that marked the '90s, the food also played a huge role in so many of our memories.

The Nintendo Entertainment System was released in the United States on 18 October 1985: about a year after I was born, and 40 years ago today. It's as if the company sensed that a sucker who'd spend thousands of dollars on plastic toys and electronic games had just entered the world. Actually, it's as if the company had sensed that an entire generation of fools like me was about to enter the world. Which is true. That was the time to strike.

Welcome to the retro reset, where '70s, '80s and '90s aesthetics are getting a second life. It's not just in fashion and film but in home décor and tech. Whether you actually lived through it or long for a past you never experienced, nostalgia is fueling a surge of interest from Gen X to Gen Z in throwback styles that blend vintage charm with modern convenience.

I hate to say it, but they just don't make teen movies like they used to. To this day, if I have girlfriends over at my house in the evening, I still feel the urge to put on one of the best sleepover movies from the 2000s, ones that made us feel like crushes could really like you back, you might actually get that big-city job, and that friends could really be forever.

Wrapping up nearly 10 years of production, Stranger Things has been ramping up its marketing this past month, relying heavily on nostalgia. With many sayings such as "the end of an era" and "one last adventure" on Instagram, it seems like the directors, the Duffer Brothers, are really drumming up anticipation as Netflix's "best TV show" comes to an end.

Backstage, the "Bape" rapper spoke with VIBE about teaming up with fellow viral sensation, Druski, the hold he still has on Hip-Hop, and his newest surprise album. "That's my boy," he said with a grin about the social media comedian. "I've been rocking with Druski... he's funny as hell. When he reached out, at first, it was just one show... we rocked out in Atlanta, and it was so crazy, we knew we had to run the whole tour."