30 Times People Were So Blinded By Their Own Nostalgia, The Internet Called Them Out For It (New Pics)
Interview
Ah, The Good Old Days(™)! A time when everything was (allegedly) better: the music, the food, and even the fabric of society. Though… which era are we talking about, specifically? For some, it might be the ‘70s and ‘80s. For others, it’s the ‘90s and early 2000s. While others yearn to live a century or two ago, periods they never experienced firsthand.
Nostalgia is great in small doses, but too much of it can make you miss the beauty of the present. The r/lewronggeneration subreddit is a witty online community that is “dedicated to satirically mocking” folks who are completely and utterly “blinded by their own nostalgia.” We’ve collected some of their most cringeworthy posts to show you how many people wear rose-colored glasses to an unhealthy extent.
Bored Panda got in touch with the team that runs r/lewronggeneration, and one of the moderators, u/oh_dangit, was kind enough to answer our questions. Read on to see what they told us.
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J’accuse!
Like Three People Will Get This
Well, I'm one (I grew up with cassette tapes). So.... who are the other two here?
Inverse Reversal
I found my dad's old Gameboy today. Sad thing is it doesn't work, but his gamestar does
We were interested to get the moderator's take on why the r/lewronggeneration subreddit has seen so much success over the years. "I think that the anti-nostalgia baiting message that is attached to the subreddit and has been there since its inception resonates with a lot of people who don't have strong feelings of nostalgia for one thing or another," u/oh_dangit told Bored Panda.
"One of the core beginnings was based on music; such as people who becry musicians nowadays for creating their own sound and making it unique to themselves," they said.
We were also curious to find out more about what it's like to moderate an online community of this size. According to u/oh_dangit, being a moderator mostly "comes down to dealing with spam and people leaving comments that break rules."
Not Sure If This Has Been Thrown Around Before But I Think It Belongs Here
Romantic music then: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down Romantic music now: Yummy yummy yummy yummy (no offense, I just wanted to rickroll)
🦓
they did what they wanted around the world and created so the terrorists----
I Got No Words
Remember when: What other people might think of us controlled our lives.
They added: "Though there is a lot of reposting since heaps of [stuff] like this is reposted constantly. Maybe in the past, when there were more actual posts and popular posts, I think that there'd be far more time committed to moderating," they said that the times have changed a bit.
The moderator also shared their thoughts on where the line is when someone's become far too immersed in nostalgia: "Looking too much towards the past will only hurt your perspective towards the future," they said.
The r/lewronggeneration community has been going strong for nearly a decade now. Founded in mid-August of 2013, the sub has grown to house over 300k members since that time.
According to the moderator team running the whole show, the subreddit itself was created out of annoyance over the ‘born in the wrong generation’ that fans of ‘60s and ‘70s rock often express. So there’s a special emphasis on music on r/lewronggeneration, but other forms of nostalgia are welcome, too, from other forms of media to societal trends.
Kids Today Are So Stupid
Ah yes, because every young person is eating tide pods these days, definitely not just a small number of stupid people
Never Realised You Had To Listen To Modern Music, And That Statements Just Blatantly Untrue
That’s Probably Not The Flex You Think It Is…
Breaking news: teens of EVERY generation (yes, it’s true. Some generations worse than others) break the rules, do drugs, drink, cheat, push boundaries, swear, screw, steal, lie etc. You all did at least one of those things, and probably knew someone that did it all. That’s just what teens do, test waters, figuring c**p out, rebelling. It’s just a fact. The only thing that really matters is getting past it all and coming out the other end a sane, healthy, law abiding, loving, kind, well adjusted adult. THATS what’s worth bragging about and being proud of.
The mods ask the members to post images and videos that fit the spirit of the subreddit. In short, the content should be focused on “quasi-nostalgic attitudes, often with a sense of superiority.” However, posts can’t have anyone’s identifying information displayed in them, whether that’s actual names or internet usernames. The point is to gently mock over-the-top nostalgia, not the individuals themselves.
Moreover, members of r/lewronggeneration ought to avoid posting content that they created themselves. Meanwhile, if anyone’s in the mood for some satire, they’re welcome to go for it, but they have to add the ‘Satire’ flair to make it clear to everyone else.
In the meantime, everyone’s asked to be civil, and polite, and to “keep the elitism at the door.” While disagreements are perfectly fine (and, if we’re honest, completely unavoidable on the internet), calling other users names and insulting them is way over the line. What’s more, the mods frown upon low-effort posts, redditors who spam memes, and repost irresponsibly.
Quite Literally
We Are Not The Same
Men Today No Longer Want To Break Free
Valentina Stoycheva Ph.D. explains in a post on Psychology Today that nostalgia can lead to unhelpful behaviors and have negative consequences when taken to an extreme.
“The difference between helpful and harmful nostalgia is the difference between incorporating the positive emotions of reminiscing into the present versus renouncing the present for the sake of reinstating and perpetually reliving some moment in the past,” she writes.
Those Were Ye Good Ol' Days
Man, Boomers Who Post [things] Like This Completely Forgot The Message Of The Breakfast Club
![Man, Boomers Who Post [things] Like This Completely Forgot The Message Of The Breakfast Club](https://www.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/blinded-by-their-own-nostalgia-posts-14-64a28c0142b5b__700.jpg "Man, Boomers Who Post [things] Like This Completely Forgot The Message Of The Breakfast Club")
Modern Cartoons Suck Now
Looney toons is amazing but don’t knock gravity falls please, or the amazing world of gum all for that matter
Star versus the Forces of Evil and Steven Universe aren’t bad either.
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The “cartoons then” spans like 100 years. Every decade of animation can be marked by a specific style or styles. Even Bugs Bunny looks different depending on when the short you are watching came out. Very misleading.
Yeah, and especially more infuriating when you actually remeber just how "cheap", repetitive and derivative the animation in Hanna-Barbera cartoons like the Flintstones, Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, Top Cat, Huckleberry Hound, etc. Most of the times only the head and arms would move, the backgrounds were reused over and over and the animation poses were reused from production to production. So pointing out how four different modern shows who also share a lot of the same people working on them are similar in art style is disingenuous in the extreme.
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Right? I was 19 when it aired and still constantly rewatch! I also single handedly got my friends, uncle and younger cousins into it. XD
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doses anyone remember watching Darkwing Duck and Animaniacs back in the 90’s ? Those were Great too even if I was in my 20’s already. Lol
Animaniacs was another great cartoon with a lot of adult humor. My nieces and nephews never understood why I liked Goodfeathers. Last year new Animaniacs episodes ran.
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Accurate representation of how the art styles aren’t as unique nowadays.
Cow & Chicken. Sweet memories. I still have nightmares about it sometimes.
Invader Zim and the angry beavers were my faves. Although you can't go past old school looney tunes!
Although the face shapes are similar, all of the animation styles are very distinct
No, they have just picked specific images that fit this criteria, you can easily find minimalist cartoons "then" and more wackily overdrawn cartoons "now". This would be more convincing if they showed the same characters, like Bugs and Daffy, in their then and now counterparts. Also - Simpsons is both then and now.
I miss the cartoons of yore when there was more thought and detail to the characters. Cartoons back then gave me the drive to want to draw.
Going back further, Felix the Cat was amazing. Some of those old ones from the 30s,40s,50s can be found over on YT
They should have watched gravity falls before putting dipper in here. The "old cartoons" don't even come close to the maggot faces
It's funny cause the reason they all looked alike is cause they all had almost all the same people that worked each one, while the older ones were made by 3 to 6 diff artiests
Every cartoon in this picture is wonderful…and also the amazing world of gum all has like a million different art styles so…
Speaking as someone who was the target demo for the original Nicktoons: John K. was an absolute *nightmare* to his coworkers and a legit child-groomer. Also, anyone who's seen even 5 minutes of "Gumball" would *know* how absolutely varied the art styles are.
older cartoons sometimes were nightmare fuel but they sure were creative
I grew up with Bugs Bunny, the Smurfs, Bolek i Lolek and others. Later it was Sailor Moon, Tales of little women and stuff like that. I miss those
Animation is awesome and has always been awesome. I love that the stories are a bit more complex in the newer shows. I love all of the above shows. I am almost 50 and watch more animated shows than live action.
Fun thing, the bottom image was made by someone for this point. The characters are way off model!
Don't you DARE come for Gravity Falls! I was 19 when it aired and I STILL rewatch it constantly! That show is amazing!
Ahhh, the old days of cartoon violence where Tom & Jerry were permitted to be showing committing self-end on a railway track..
I think the biggest difference between animation back in the 70's & 80's and now is the tremendous amount of time, energy and skill required to produce a 20 minute cartoon. It was all done by hand using cells whereas the vast majority of modern animation is primarily produced using computers.
I don't think in the past there were so many series on-going as are now, each streaming platform has also own series. Also i don't mind complexity if it is pleasing and story is good.
In Stoycheva’s opinion, overindulging in nostalgia is similar to overusing salt or pepper in your dishes, leading to the present being “colored by the negative emotions, in favor of glorifying some moment in the past.” There’s a need for balance here so that nostalgia doesn’t consume someone’s life.
Is This Welcome Here?
Fyi - The Thing On The Right Is A Pencil Sharpener And The Thing On The Left Is A Pencil
The funny thing is, I seem to still be using these untensils now....
"Cars Now Don't Have Any Character"
Some individual examples where people go overboard with nostalgia include getting excessive plastic surgery in order to create the illusion of youth, hoarding things, and using social media to track down their ex-partners. On a societal level, overindulging in nostalgia can lead to people glorifying their historical past without acknowledging the collective traumas of the past.
For Reelz
Damn :((
Vintage Le Wrong Generation
Nostalgia, according to Stoycheva, is focused on simplicity rather than complexity, so it can backfire as an emotional regulatory strategy because the world itself is so complex. According to her, this can be countered by coming face to face with our own biases and beliefs and tackling uncomfortable feelings of shame and longing.
Ah The 80s, You Know The Time When You Could Make Real Friends And Walk Around Not Being Scared
They're All On Cocaine
Of Course All The Comments Were Saying "Sad But True"
Stoycheva suggests that everyone who’s feeling nostalgic for an activity, a period of time, and people to ask themselves these questions: “What emotion am I after? In engaging in nostalgia, what former self-state am I seeking to recreate? How will this help me and also how can I stay rooted in the present while I also feel the positive emotions of reminiscing? Am I avoiding complex emotions? If so, what are they, and why are they so hard for me? Where else can I seek help in managing my emotions?”
I Too Am Absolutely Horrified By Men On Scooters
In 79 a young adult could afford a clunker and it was simple enough to fix up. Today it might be 1 scooter is all the two could afford.
"Why Aren't Soldiers Like My Hollywood Heroes"
Today's Generation Is Lazy
As a Gen Xer, I disagree with this. I know people like to portray the Millennials and Gen Z like this, but it's nonsense. My generation got hosed. But nothing like these generations have. I admire how they don't take c**p from companies and challenge the idea of "work hard and you'll get ahead". The truth is their is a natural reaction to companies exploiting them. And all you need to do is open your eyes and you will see it. The model businesses operate under now demands that kind of response. They broke the social contract between between companies and workers. And they did it in a deceptive manner. Pensions, healthcare, and social security are a few examples. They made sure to take care of the Boomers so they wouldn't call foul and let Gen X & Y work old school style without the rewards. And we were too inexperienced to see it. From the time I turned 18 I have seen home costs jump from $30k for a house to $350k. While the federal minimum wage went from $2.35 to $7.25. Insane.
In the meantime, Bored Panda has previously written about how people tend to be the most nostalgic for those periods of time when they were happiest. For many, that’s their childhood because they had fewer responsibilities. However, if someone had an awful childhood, you most likely won’t find them reminiscing about that period of time.
Though nostalgia can be a good coping strategy when you’re feeling blue, it can interfere with our daily lives. For instance, if we constantly compare the present to the past and feel like nothing ever measures up in terms of values and quality, then we’ll feel disappointed.
Quirky
So We've Come To This Now
Bruh
It’s vital to remember that our memories aren’t perfect: they’re not as accurate as we might think and we might be reliving only the moments we want to remember. Meanwhile, the present has many opportunities to be seized, even if the world has changed and will continue to change.
For some more posts about nostalgia and r/lewronggeneration, check out Bored Panda's earlier feature over here.
Being Against Racial Slurs ≠ Soft Generation
Can’t believe they’re not letting us use racial slurs anymore ffs, let’s go back to the good old days of getting away with racism and not learning and growing as people! /s
Got That Right ....!!!
weird that the best music off all time has allways been written in your puberty
Johnny Is Looking At You Snl ...craig Ferguson
Does This Count As Lewronggeneration?
As much as I love modern games I find myself looking for more 'pick up put down' games where you don't have to save them. Ones that entertain but you can just switch off...like Snake
Is It Considered Lewwronggeneration?
Yeah….no
Gentlemen .... This Is Not Xbox Rock Band
So Many Ways To Debunk This
Feel Free To Repost
I mean, I'm gen X but the lower comment definitely applies to me. My job has pretty much already disappeared due to AI and I have a family to feed (and a mother who wonders why the French are kicking up a stink about their pension rights).
The Wwe Wasn't Like This Picture Until The Late 1990's
After that whole WWE vs WCW and ECW takeover, I kinda lost interest. By that point wrestling had peaked for me after watching it since I old enough to change the channel. Macho man, Ultimate Warrior, The Rock before he became the rock, DX are all now memories seared into my brain.
There Are No Bricklayers Under The Age Of 50 Apparently
I Think He'd Still Be Considered A Psychopath Today
Anyone else who is an introvert hate it when you get these shows about killers and the first thing the experts say is "They were a loner, kept themselves away from others, had no friends, rarely socialised "
Dang Kids And Their Healthy Lungs!
Normal... Happier
Ahhh Yes. That Recent Development Of Cheating
Things People Complained About In The 2000s-Early 2010s But Now Love
This Has 4.2k Upvotes And Counting
Doesn’t Matter What Year It Is , Always Happens
More Of This From R/Cartoons
Ticktock App Bad, Brain Trauma Good
Aww Yes, Simple Plan Was The Height Of Early 2000s Music
The whole early 2000s pop punk is the best, New Found Glory, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Blink 182, Green Day just to name a few. I still listen to them daily!
Todays “Music”
Comment On A Morrissey Video…
"I was looking to be a n*b and then I became a n*b and heaven knows I'm miserable now."
Born In The Wrong Generation
No Title
🤦🏾♂️
Not Even Giving It A Chance Bruh
These People Are Common In The Gaming Community. At Least Someone Called Her Out
"The Patrick Star Show" Became A Top Rated Show. Their Reaction? This
Apparently Writing Notes Is No Longer A Thing
R/Memes Be Like
This Person Is Being Edgy For The Sake Of Being Edgy
And This Meme Is Trying To Make The She-Ra Then Look Like A Positive
Does This Fit?
This is less about nostalgia but more of the "Them V Us" conflicts that really should not be happening. History has taught us this time after time and yet it still happens.
I hate these nostalgia memes and I'm a middle-aged man. I love a bit of nostalgia but I hate the way it is weaponised to make younger generations seem bad. It's just dumb. Every generation complains about "kids today" while simultaneously contributing to the culture they are complaining about. Hate modern movies? How old do you think the studio execs are? Hate the internet? How old do you think the people who run TikTok (and benefit most financially) are?
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." --Socrates
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This thread... It's bad. Whoever thought it was a good idea to post should feel bad...
This thread sucks... and also, why did I get downvoted for saying I liked the art style of the GoldenEye game?
There's a lot of bigotry that BP calls nostalgia in many of these posts.
Sheesh, this article sucked. It was pretty much young people bad, old people good. This was a waste of an article.
New rule! Anyone who does some sort of "Blah Blah Blah.... We are not the same" whinge gets an instant swift kick in the shins so that they actually have some real and legitimate pain to whine about.
Your name is Marno, my name is Marco. We are not the same.
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Yes. That is exactly what happens to most people and there's nothing you can do to stop it. It's all perfectly normal, unfortunately.
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wow what a wonderfully hateful article. keep it up! /s
Couldn't even make it through the whole list. Griping about how "things were so much better at (insert time in the past)" is boring, depressing, predictable and stupid. YOUR parents said the same thing about your generation. So just stop.
Remember that it's good to look back and reminisce every now and then, but people often start romanticizing the past because maybe their present isn't looking all that great and their future brings a lot of uncertainty. I get it, life seemed much simpler and less complicated back then compared to today. But, they start having a distorted view of the past while both ignoring problems of the past while currently ignoring the present.
The one about "vibrant LA chicks" is a picture of the three girls who were part of the Manson family and involved in killing a senator's wife.
The title says that this is about seeing the past through rose-colored glasses, and forgetting about the bad stuff. That's what the title says, but that's not what the list is about. Like, at all.
As a boomer (born when Truman was president) all of this nostalgia nonsense is nonsense. Times are better now, even with all of the current drama. In 30 years people will be talking just as nostalgically about the 2010s.
Generational politics does not equal nostalgia. It amounts to bigotry and stereotyping which helps no one.
I was hoping (as the title suggests) to see the internet calling out the misplaced nostalgia... not just the misplaced nostalgia posts
The posts on BP are getting steadily worse.
Load More Replies... This is less about nostalgia but more of the "Them V Us" conflicts that really should not be happening. History has taught us this time after time and yet it still happens.
I hate these nostalgia memes and I'm a middle-aged man. I love a bit of nostalgia but I hate the way it is weaponised to make younger generations seem bad. It's just dumb. Every generation complains about "kids today" while simultaneously contributing to the culture they are complaining about. Hate modern movies? How old do you think the studio execs are? Hate the internet? How old do you think the people who run TikTok (and benefit most financially) are?
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." --Socrates
Load More Replies... This thread... It's bad. Whoever thought it was a good idea to post should feel bad...
This thread sucks... and also, why did I get downvoted for saying I liked the art style of the GoldenEye game?
There's a lot of bigotry that BP calls nostalgia in many of these posts.
Sheesh, this article sucked. It was pretty much young people bad, old people good. This was a waste of an article.
New rule! Anyone who does some sort of "Blah Blah Blah.... We are not the same" whinge gets an instant swift kick in the shins so that they actually have some real and legitimate pain to whine about.
Your name is Marno, my name is Marco. We are not the same.
Load More Replies... Yes. That is exactly what happens to most people and there's nothing you can do to stop it. It's all perfectly normal, unfortunately.
Load More Replies... wow what a wonderfully hateful article. keep it up! /s
Couldn't even make it through the whole list. Griping about how "things were so much better at (insert time in the past)" is boring, depressing, predictable and stupid. YOUR parents said the same thing about your generation. So just stop.
Remember that it's good to look back and reminisce every now and then, but people often start romanticizing the past because maybe their present isn't looking all that great and their future brings a lot of uncertainty. I get it, life seemed much simpler and less complicated back then compared to today. But, they start having a distorted view of the past while both ignoring problems of the past while currently ignoring the present.
The one about "vibrant LA chicks" is a picture of the three girls who were part of the Manson family and involved in killing a senator's wife.
The title says that this is about seeing the past through rose-colored glasses, and forgetting about the bad stuff. That's what the title says, but that's not what the list is about. Like, at all.
As a boomer (born when Truman was president) all of this nostalgia nonsense is nonsense. Times are better now, even with all of the current drama. In 30 years people will be talking just as nostalgically about the 2010s.
Generational politics does not equal nostalgia. It amounts to bigotry and stereotyping which helps no one.
I was hoping (as the title suggests) to see the internet calling out the misplaced nostalgia... not just the misplaced nostalgia posts
The posts on BP are getting steadily worse.
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