Millennials, Nostalgia, Social Media Oh My...
My observations on my generation's obsession with the past and how it created a foundational language of the internet.
“Only 90s Kids Remember”
This phrase is probably familiar to most millennials who spend too much time on the internet.
When I first joined Facebook there were “pages” people “liked” called things such as
You know, really goofy, quirky relatable things, for high school and younger millennials. These were shared experiences and as we college and high school kids joined the OG social media, Facebook, it gave us a silly way to connect over relatable things and ideas.
There were also lists of toys, movies, and references with the “If you recognize this you had an amazing childhood”.
Thinks like a picture of the Nickelodeon logo.
Literally, look at any Buzzfeed article it was, and mostly is still, millennial-orientated.
As internet culture took off millennials were at the front of things.
Did you know Mark Zuckerberg was born 1984 making him a millennial?
Okay, let's back up a tick. Let's define a few things before we continue.
Millennials are people born between 1981 and 1996.
Generations: “A generation typically refers to groups of people born over a 15-20 year span, such as the Millennial generation”
There are a few more nuances that define it and that's why some places will shift the years based on different factors.
Here is the Pew Research article quoted with quite a bit of interesting generational information.
I think memes are an important part of this discussion as well.
Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines a meme as “a concept, belief, or practice conceived as a unit of cultural information that may be passed on from person to person, subject to influences in a way analogous to natural selection.”
(Talk about a chunky definition)
I prefer the Britannica’s definition.
Meme: unit of cultural information spread by imitation. The term meme (from the Greek mimema, meaning “imitated”)
This NY Times Article talks about the history and subsequent evolution of the word and the concepts of memes.
Nostalgia: Let’s use Cambridge’s dictionary this time shall we?
“Nostalgia: A feeling of pleasure and also slight sadness when you think about things that happened in the past”
(Oof right in the feels)
Also a disclaimer.
I can only speak from my own lived experiences, of course. Many of the things I talk about are not necessarily universal to the world but are reflective of the lower middle-class white American, ie my experiences.
“Now back to our regularly scheduled program” (oh hey look how cleverly I intertwined a common pop culture phrase that indicates a shared experience to convey a feeling or information?)
With the rise of the internet and smartphones came social media.
This was a new way to communicate, a new way to connect a new way to share ideas and jokes, and so on!
It was not long after the debut of social media we started getting memes. Often these were references to TV or simple pictures that conveyed a common idea.
As the internet developed so did memes which added to the internet lexicon. The memes themselves became shared experiences to reference and build on. Even though memes are an important part of this conversation I think I’ll leave my thoughts there and revisit that in another post.
As a millennial social media like Facebook, Pinterest (where I mostly read tumblr quotes), and YouTube became an important part of growing up.
These were all new things though. Why if everything was so new and exciting did we keep circling backwards?
(Also there is a bit of irony here because millennials love to criticize Boomers and Gen X for their “good old days” and “back when I was a kid” mentality. I certainly do.)
For more hilarious comics follow EastCoastItNotes.
My theory is the reason why millennials bond over being millennials and the 90s and 2000s is it was our way of adjusting. Social media evolves or new ones take its place (hey welcome to my Substack which I only just became aware of 3ish months ago).
We pioneers of the internet used notalgia as our foundation, it is the building blocks of and for shared language and experiences.
Nostalgia has given us tools. A way to bond with strangers over the internet. A way to validate that growing up in a tumultuous time was difficult.
Another example, millennials often open up about what generational trauma is like and how we want to break toxic cycles. For example, in my experience, Gen X still debates the merits and harm of spanking children.
I’ve seen arguments like it’s to “make a safety lesson stick” and to “create a form of respect”. For that I rebuttle with this Tumblr post I think/reference all the time.
However, again in my own experience, millennials are mostly anti-spanking.
(Not to be preachy but here is evidence any sort of physical punishment is harmful to child development.)
I think the anti-spanking stance is partly because millennials have shared experiences and those experiences are sometimes trauma-based. Spanking can get out of hand at best of times and at worst is simply the build-up to something far more physical and sinister. The internet gave a place for millennials to open up and learn from others. (I think we were more open on the internet because we were young and didn’t know better. Now younger generations seem to have a better understanding of setting boundaries with social media)
Nostalgia is also a way to cope with the feeling of massive change that millennials experience.
Being born between 1981 and 1996 means experiencing events like 9/11, hurricane Katrina, the rise of mass shootings, and the Iraq war, and that's just some of the basics.
Reading the Wikipedia article on 21st-century events is insane.
Having the internet and social media at times has taken away our sense of normality, stability, and even security.
I once read an article (unfortunately lost to me, if found I will link in comments) that claimed that millennials are nostalgic because of technology and social media growing up with them.
We millennials have dealt with so much change and uncertainty from such a young age and it has left us feeling untethered.
Nostalgia and melancholy feel like sisters to me.
Both seem to have an ache to them, a longing. Millennials like talking about old TV shows because not only is it a shared experience to bond over but for even a second they get to remember what it was like to curl up on the couch on a Saturday morning and not have a single damn care in the world.
Social media is an embedded part of our society now. Most kids grew up with it or will grow up with it. Gen Y and Alpha are already creating their own language through lived experiences and references.
I have no idea what it was like to be in high school and watch the world shut down. Everyone needing to adjust to online learning because there were no other options. Watching experiences promised experiences like prom or even graduation snatched away.
I’m not going to understand what it is like growing up with parents who posted pictures and stories and maybe even videos about me before I was able to consent. Stripping me of the opportunity to start my own digital footprint.
Generations like baby boomers and the silent generation have had their defining characteristics.
Gen Z (now sometimes referred to as Zoomers) and Alpha will have their own as well.
As a millennial though if I had to pick our defining characteristic it would be nostalgia.
I found I am not alone in this connection. Here are a handful of articles that make this same connection.
(Also note the disturbing trend that this link is becoming a marketing tool, yuck)
Bonus Story:
Recently I was watching Iron Fist with my partner. The main character, Danny, for most of his life, was separated from Western society.
At one point Collen, Danny’s girlfriend, remarks about how much culture he missed out on. She references SpongeBob.
Danny replies something akin to ‘Yeah, big deal it’s a show about a talking sponge’.
At this point, I paused the show and turned to my partner furiously pointing with the remote.
“No. No. No. He has no idea. Because as someone who grew up in a religious home where we were not allowed to watch SpongBob, I miss out on so much! I wish I had watched it growing up not because I want to but because it comes up so much and there are so many references to it. This is vastly underrepresented the cultural significance of SpongeBob Square Pants.”
Do you have any idea how confusing it is to hear,
“No, this is Patrick.”
Or someone shouting
“Chocolate!!!”
No, you probably don’t because there is a good chance you grew up with SpongBob and have the SpongBob references as part of your pop culture language.
