Many of us are intimately familiar with nostalgia. We spot something that reminds us of our childhoods and we allow ourselves to daydream about “the good old days.” A trip down memory lane can be pleasant. But it’s a jarring experience, too, as you realize just how much the world around you has changed.
The ‘Ouch, Right in the Childhood’ social media project invokes this bittersweet nostalgia by sharing funny memes related to the movies and animated shows that Millennials and some members of Gen Z used to watch. Scroll down for a total blast from the past!
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Nostalgia is a very powerful force when it comes to business. As BBC Future points out, consumers are yearning to recreate their (idealized version of the) past, so they’re happy to snap up products that are in some way related to their childhood media, toys, and technology.
Research shows that consumers are more likely to spend money on nostalgia-evoking brands. This is a goldmine for companies if they can harness this well. For instance, if they recreate or reissue products from two to three decades ago, they’re making themselves more appealing to Millennials and members of Gen Z, who are in a prime position to spend money on leisurely pursuits.
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The popular social media project has carved out a sizeable niche for itself online. At the time of writing, ‘Ouch, Right In The Childhood’ boasted 1.2 million eager fans on Facebook, as well as a further 275k followers on Instagram.
Nostalgic content, especially when presented in an easy-to-digest meme format, is a very powerful hook because of how relatable it is. It’s hard to look away when you see frames from your fave cartoons that shaped your childhood show up in your feed.
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Nostalgia, like most things in life, is neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad.’ It’s a mix of both. It’s a double-edged sword that can improve your life or detract from it depending on how you ‘use’ it.
On the positive side, nostalgia can boost our moods when times are tough. When we’re stressed out about the present or anxious about the future, it’s looking back to when things were good in the past that can calm us down.
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However, it isn’t all good. Nostalgia is extremely enticing… as some of us can tell you. When you start living only in the past at the expense of the present, you’re effectively reducing the quality of your life. It’s not healthy to think that everything was awesome back in the past and there’s nothing good about modern times.
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This sort of past-oriented mindset is going to ensure that you miss out on genuinely good career and creative opportunities, as well as getting to meet new and interesting people.
Yes, the Digital Age has plenty of problems. But there was never a ‘perfect’ Golden Era that was completely problem-free. It’s up to us to make the best of what life has to offer no matter what decade we’re in right now, warts and all.
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We tend to romanticize the parts of our past when we were the happiest, full of energy, and had fewer responsibilities. For many of us, this period of time was childhood.
However, it’s also possible to be nostalgic about early adulthood or absolutely any other time in your life: it all depends on your perspective. Generally speaking, if you’re overly cynical, jaded, and stressed, you won’t remember those days, months, and years very fondly.
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It would be naive to assume that everyone’s longing for the past or their childhoods, however. Someone who’s had a rough upbringing or had a very tough time just putting food on the table probably won’t remember those years with carefree fondness.
These life lessons can certainly toughen someone up, make them resilient, and prepare them to take on the world later on. However, they’re most likely not going to have the same sense of lighthearted wonder when they see clips from the cartoons they used to watch.
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It’s when you get lost in nostalgia and yearning for the good old days that it helps to remember what you’re grateful for. Yes, times have changed and you’ve lost a lot of things as the decades rolled by. However, there are lots of things in your present to be thankful for.
That might be as simple as remembering that you have a roof over your head and food on your table. Or you may need to think harder about all the people whom you care about (and who care for you!) in your life right now. Gratitude helps ground us.
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The important thing is to learn to enjoy small trips down memory lane without getting lost in the past. Nostalgia can help us cope in the present, but we want to avoid constantly comparing the past with what surrounds us now. If we think that nothing is or ever will be ‘as good’ as way back then, then we’re only going to sour our mood.
If this sort of thinking starts affecting the quality of your day-to-day routine, you may want to reach out to a therapist for help. They’ll be able to give you a fresh perspective on how you relate to the passage of time. We must all learn to be present in the here-and-now, and have something to look forward to in the future.
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Which of these nostalgic memes caught your attention the most, dear Pandas? Which of the cartoons and movies featured in these pics did you enjoy the most when you were younger? What do you miss the most about the past? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Scroll down to the comment section to tell us all about it!
In the meantime, for some more blasts from the past, consider taking a peek at Bored Panda’s earlier features about the ‘Ouch, Right in the Childhood’ social media project.
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