Deep inside our brains is an ocean of memories, emotions, and feelings that can be unlocked by the correct application of sights, smells, and sounds. Without warning, the theme song of a childhood cartoon or the smell of that one aisle in the corner store by your house can teleport you to another time. It might feel like magic, but nostalgia is a very real phenomenon.
The “Nostalgia” Instagram account is pretty self-explanatory, showcasing content that should be like a healthy blast from the past, both funny and relatable. So prepare for a little trip in time, upvote the images that unlocked some memories, and share your thoughts in the comment section below.
More info: Instagram | Facebook
This post may include affiliate links.
Because nostalgia focuses so much on memories of how things used to be, both real and imagined, it’s important to keep track of what is a cherished memory and what is a specific, focused-tested set of concepts put together to evoke a specific memory. As cynical as it might seem, politicians, movements and advertisers are all wise to the idea of nostalgia as a method to manipulate people.
The “return to the good, old days” is a common promise for many politicians, and many products will try to associate themselves with potential consumers’ childhoods. Little reminders of childhood do often come with a comforting wave of emotions, just make sure that you don’t let people hijack it to sell you anything.
That being said, it is a real and verifiable fact that nostalgia can provide a good amount of comfort through times of sadness and uncertainty. Psychologists believe that in certain “doses,” it’s actually pretty important to our mental health. Think of it this way, when current circumstances don’t provide joy, your brain has this nifty little ability to just reach into the past and scoop up things that made you happy before. There might be diminishing returns, but hey, it’s a start.
To maintain the metaphor of nostalgia-as-medication, it is possible to “take” too much. After all, if you feel the past was too good, you might end up longing just to return instead of focusing on the present. The Germans, as always, have a term for this, called “Sehnsucht,” which you can now use as a complicated and pretentious way to talk about longing, desire, yearning, and craving.
I'm convinced that if you didn't, you didn't have a childhood. Change my mind.
The origin of “Sehnsucht” (capitalized because the Germans capitalize every noun) is “suffering,” which is ultimately what someone would probably feel if they have trapped themselves in the thought that things will never be as good as they used to be. However, some psychologists believe that over time, this emotion can help a person start to develop and plan out the steps to actually improve things.
Ah yes, the shin shredders. If your foot slipped off of one of those puppies, it was immediate blood and pain and bandaids and getting your leg doused in hydrogen peroxide and triple bac.
Once you realize the potential of tapping into the past to draft people’s emotions, you might start to see how it’s used everywhere. You might notice that the Instagram logo is, in fact, a drawing of a Polaroid, despite the fact that 99% of the userbase are probably using a smartphone. But somehow, an old camera seems more special and emotional than the many, smaller and often more powerful cameras we carry in our pockets every day.
Up until 6th grade for me, and remember the “book fairs” would be held in the school gymnasium
They still do this, through scholastic. My kids bring them home about once a semester..
They still do this? My younger family members still bring these home.
I was so lucky and didn't know it at the time. I got to order $20 worth of books each time, basically all of them that I wanted. My order was always the biggest. Loved to read and it gave me an appetite for learning that made me very successful in life.
..I always had the biggest order too that's why I would get so excited when the box came...Third and Fourth grades especially....I became a teacher with a Masters degree in education...🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗
Load More Replies...
No! This isn't the book fair (although those were awesome) this is one of the some how double side printed tissue paper thin book order forms. Color came off in your hands were oddly indestructible and great for silly putty!
Aww I remember getting this Spy Kit that came with a book, invisible ink, a spy ear thing with s****y headphones and a couple other lil gadgets. Those were the days!
I remember loving the little catalog, but rarely getting to order books. I was so sad every time I didn't get any and my class received theirs. I loved to read, and my parents couldn't afford to keep up with my appetite for new books.
The smell of new books when the box is first opened is still my favorite!
I was that one that would pester my mother regularly to please get me more than the allowed limit every year!!
I will never forget the feeling of looking forward to the arrival of your book order at school and then it arriving......better than anything I have ever experienced since!!!
We always looked forward to getting these and going to the book fairs at school.
I loved the book fair. One year my mom volunteered and so I got to stay there the whole time and I was a hell of a bookworm so it was like heaven
I want that Dune book! I don't care what anyone says I love that film.
There are a lot of Dune books. Also, which movie adaptation are you talking about? There are at least three.
Load More Replies...
I used to love reading. These days, I just can't stop & focus on just one thing. Right now, I'm reading BP, watching a video on YouTube, and playing Hay Day all at once.
Still have some of my book fair books. I went to my kids book fairs the last few years, and it just wasn't the same.
My grand daughter still can do this. She loves bringing it home and trying to get her parents to allow her to buy a book.
Now I order digital ones, receive them in seconds and can read them on my phone...so anticlimactic....
Who remembers OTHER kids ordering books in school? Not me, no money. Used the library instead, but the library didn't have cool new books, just old ones.
Okay so even my kid is in their last year of being a teen, but at least a decade ago they still do this at some schools, and my kid loved it too...
I spent a lot of money renting books from private libraries. That used to be a thing back in early 2000s
It still exists, but is no fun now with online ordering. Teachers and schools prefer it online for quickness and more cash to them. I had no idea. Sent my kid to school with a $20 bill! He wasn't allowed to shop!!! They don't shop!!! You guys? What the heck!
I had nearly the full collection of Goosebumps thanks to those! Then my sister stole them and sold them...
Oh my!!!!!! I had completely forgotten. The catalogue just brought me right back to sitting on the carpet in the lower juniors (7 years old).
Was R.I.F. the program where you got to pick a book for free each year?
I still remember one boy in class ordered a book, when it came in the teacher held it up and said "Dave, here is your order "Fresh as a Daisy". (it was a book telling twelve year old girls what magic was going to happen to their developing bodies).
We still have this at my School. Unfortunately, we are the last COVID batch to pass class 12, so were not allowed to order them before we left School.
I wish they had these for adults. There's too many choices now, I just need a small catalog to choose from 😅
I was always so excited but bummed bc I couldn't get all the books I wanted. It was always such a hard choice.
Heathcliff! My first school lunchbox! And thermos combo. I'm an 80s kid but was a teen in the 90s with a little brother then. Some of these are str8 80s.
This is how I got my first copy of a still-owned, very-much-frayed copy of The Lord of the Rings. I have other copies now, 45 years later, but that first one has a place in my heart.
Scholastic, some years ago I saw an order form in a coworker’s desk who had young children
And speaking of social media, you have probably seen how, for example, Meta products like Facebook and the aforementioned Instagram have “memory” functions that will randomly show you images from the past, normally on their one-year anniversary. This could of course be a bit misguided, as many people have documented randomly getting images from an illness or a breakup a year ago.
I still do this when I forget to bring along my cellphone to the toilet 😬
Other companies do their best to tap into this feeling as well. The Nokia 3310 phone was legendary for a variety of reasons, but it seems its reputation for being indestructible goes beyond the physical, as the company relaunched it in 2017. The phone seems like stone-age technology compared to any random smartphone from the last few years, but people do want to relive that two-tone snake game and the feeling of pressing some buttons.
Not a 90s kid, but I still had to learn this. I barely know my times tabels but I do know how to play 'hot cross buns' on the recorder 😁
The metal one at my elementary school had a 2 foot drop at the end. It was very dangerous, but so much fun! (Very few burns because of catholic school dress code)
Those plastic jugs of brightly colored sugar water! I never saw them in anyone's home - they only showed up at school or parties.
“Stranger Things” is another case-in-point, where much of the appeal is an idealized image of the 80s, alongside many of the tropes and cliches of 80s children's movies, such as the iconic “ET.” The show was a brilliant move by Netflix, as it managed to both attract gen x viewers who wanted to relive a past era while simultaneously creating nostalgia among younger viewers, a sort of self-perpetuating false memory of the past.
Some specialists have started to develop a concept of “forestalgia,” which is a sort of hopeful belief that in some imagined future, many things will be better. While an idealized future has existed for centuries, the advent of science fiction has created multiple generations who actively think about what the next few decades will bring.
In the UK we just call it writing as we have an education system.
I was ALWAYS taking pictures in high school with camera like this! Such good times! 🥺
I loved how the series got better with every episode. Not like most shows today
Sugar, spice, and everything nice These were the ingredients chosen To create the perfect little girl But Professor Utonium accidentally Added an extra ingredient to the concoction-- Chemical X Thus, The Powerpuff Girls were born Using their ultra-super powers Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup Have dedicated their lives to fighting crime And the forces of evil!
That’s why I always hate driving behind logging trucks on the highway.
Now with grimace’s birthday a lot of people are starting to realize.
The good 'ol days. Ditch weed and Night Train. Take the train to the city and jump in the pit at a proper Punk show.
Wowww forgot about this, now I can remember I was the leader of the bunch quite a bit cause I was one of those goody two shoes kids in class xD So I was always getting a “reward sticker” on the chart, from what I can remember by the time I got to 3rd grade teachers had done away with this, I couldn’t care regardless, was too young to think anything of it. But this just brought back such memories of something I totally forgot about 👌🏼
Even now they're all jumbled. Nintendo switch and Xbox have A+B swapped and X+Y swapped, so when I use one for a while then I'm disoriented when I use the other
I would get the paper never had money to order but always circled want I wanted hoping I'd magically get it lol
After seeing all four of my brother's boys growing up, I can confidently say having a young boy that refuses to ever wear clothing actually makes this show 100% accurate
As my son once said when he was a little boy, "You turn them inside out, and then they jump up and fart."
Kids still use these! I tutored 1st graders a few years and ago and these were part of the required school supplies. The kids were more interested in making towers than doing math with them though. :)
I must be a 90’s kid in disguise because I get most of these, this is CatDog
This book is really bad once you really think about it. If you brag a lot and your friends get jealous, just rip off your body parts so every one feels good about themselves!
they seperated but they're still chummy with each other
I worked for both of those companies in the nineties. Also Family Video and Dollar Video.
Dragon tales was the favourite show in my house. 🎶Emmy wished on a dragon scale and that’s what started dragon tales🎶
I have nintendogs on DS and I haven’t played it in a while, I’m sort of surprised the DS still works
The smiley face fries a so mushy. Is it just me or does no one like these?
Skeletor.. In India, till 90s. we have the govt run channel called Doordarshan. But we had the best of shows and cartoons. Sunday morning were cartoon time... He-man was one such cartoon show. Since not everyone had TV, our house had the kids come in the morning to see the cartoons and all...
Roly Poly Olly? I remember my oldest kid watching this as a toddler.
But you want to stay in your nice bed and not have to go to school in the cold rainy weather. I know this feeling. Only as my dad was like "ok I'm leaving now" I would jump out of bed and get dressed at lightning speed
What 8 year old has an iPhone!?!? I’m 13 and I don’t even have an iPhone
A travesty compared to the original :( TBH, I haven't liked any of the live-action remakes yet.
I'm going to buy BGT Malakai Bayho's new CD tomorrow; still love CD's and records. Tapes are to much faff.
Load More Replies...
I'm not a 90s kid,but I was still able to relate to a few of these
Gen X from UK here could relate to a lot of that stuff; the rest reminded me of my kids childhood. Ps 1980 was 25 years ago OKAY
I haven't had this much fun reading BP in a long time. Laughed my butt off at the comments. This nostalgia is great stuff! After a while, I get sick of all the retaliation, boo-hoo and in-law stories.
Fanta or Jaffa (orange soda) for Finns. ✌️
Load More Replies... I knew most of these (South Africa). We had (have) a lot of american cultural influence.
I'm a late ish gen z kid and I understand a majority of this stuff, half of it because I went to a poorish, small, private Catholic school for 2-5, now 6-12 I'm in a richer public school, which was a culture shock on its own from the shared Chromebooks and the computer lab to having our own frickin frackin MacBooks.
I am not a 90s kid, I was born in 2001 but I still related to a bunch of these
At the end of the thread, you’ll find a very tiny “Note: this post originally had 137 images blah blah blah.” Click on the 137 and that’s it. It’s in every shortened post. Hope this gets upvoted so that many people can see it.
Load More Replies...
This was one of the best meme feeds I have seen in a very long time. This made me very very happy although making me feel quite old. I will be sharing most of these photos
There’s an Alec Benjamin song, called 1994 (when he was born), that describes some of these things! (Also the early 2000s)
So 90s is now what 80s was when I was growing up; the cool period of time children wished they'd been born in. lmao
HA! I recall ACTUALLY threading the 16 mm Birns and Sawyer projectors in grade school. Absolutely LOVED it. (No, I wasn't a teacher's pet otherwise.) But am ever indebted and grateful for being able to do this.
They should make a „57 glorious 30’s memes that you might be too young for” list.
I'm going to buy BGT Malakai Bayho's new CD tomorrow; still love CD's and records. Tapes are to much faff.
Load More Replies... I'm not a 90s kid,but I was still able to relate to a few of these
Gen X from UK here could relate to a lot of that stuff; the rest reminded me of my kids childhood. Ps 1980 was 25 years ago OKAY
I haven't had this much fun reading BP in a long time. Laughed my butt off at the comments. This nostalgia is great stuff! After a while, I get sick of all the retaliation, boo-hoo and in-law stories.
Fanta or Jaffa (orange soda) for Finns. ✌️
Load More Replies... I knew most of these (South Africa). We had (have) a lot of american cultural influence.
I'm a late ish gen z kid and I understand a majority of this stuff, half of it because I went to a poorish, small, private Catholic school for 2-5, now 6-12 I'm in a richer public school, which was a culture shock on its own from the shared Chromebooks and the computer lab to having our own frickin frackin MacBooks.
I am not a 90s kid, I was born in 2001 but I still related to a bunch of these
At the end of the thread, you’ll find a very tiny “Note: this post originally had 137 images blah blah blah.” Click on the 137 and that’s it. It’s in every shortened post. Hope this gets upvoted so that many people can see it.
Load More Replies... This was one of the best meme feeds I have seen in a very long time. This made me very very happy although making me feel quite old. I will be sharing most of these photos
There’s an Alec Benjamin song, called 1994 (when he was born), that describes some of these things! (Also the early 2000s)
So 90s is now what 80s was when I was growing up; the cool period of time children wished they'd been born in. lmao
HA! I recall ACTUALLY threading the 16 mm Birns and Sawyer projectors in grade school. Absolutely LOVED it. (No, I wasn't a teacher's pet otherwise.) But am ever indebted and grateful for being able to do this.
They should make a „57 glorious 30’s memes that you might be too young for” list.
