COMMENTARY: Ignorance, the secret synonym for nostalgia

Everyone longs for stability. People get comfortable with their day-to-day routine and become content with the familiar. As pleasant as that sounds, change is completely unavoidable. It occurs at every moment and people have no choice but try to embrace it.

Nostalgia comes from two Greek words, with nostos meaning ‘return home’ and algos meaning ‘pain.’ It is a term most people are familiar with and many have experienced it.

It is the feeling accompanied by seeing a prom dress at the back of the closet or looking at old photo albums. It is a way to comfort one’s self during a time of boredom, loneliness or anxiety. So, what does the experience of nostalgia mean? Why would one’s mind create this emotional trip down memory lane?

On Feb. 1, Hank Green, an American video blogger known for the YouTube channels Vlogbrothers and Crash Course, sparked a conversation on the social media platform Twitter when he questioned the reason behind feeling nostalgic.

“The world has never been simple,” Green tweeted. “Nostalgia for simpler times is actually nostalgia for ignorance.”

Since Green posed the question, a debate has been sparked online. Is nostalgia a way for one’s brain to comfort them? Or does nostalgia create a desire for a lack of knowledge, therefore making life less complex to live?

Research has shown that people who are experiencing a period of transition, such as becoming an adult or coming home from the military, are especially likely to yearn for the past. These memories of the past are referred to as personal nostalgia. Personal nostalgia consists of memories that have occurred throughout life. The most common memories to look back on our childhood memories. So, how do memories from the past contrast with the present? Stress.

Stress level is one of the biggest contrasts between childhood and adulthood. This is why nostalgia occurs during times of strain; people choose to look back at times where they were not required to face whatever problem has caused such stress. Adults have no choice but to deal with things that children do not. As people begin to age, they begin to take on more and more responsibilities because, simply, no one else will. They cannot turn to an adult for help because they are the adult.

So, during times of discontent, people look back on when life was much simpler, remembering the good and trimming away the bad. Life seemed much easier as children because children do not have to worry about developed issues that most are not even aware of. People choose to look back on their childhood because life is so much easier when people are ignorant of what it takes to survive.

However, not all people experience nostalgia as personal. Historical nostalgia can be described as desiring an unrealistic version of a prior era. People who experience this type of nostalgia normally feel as though they were born in the wrong generation or even century. They create an idealized world during an era of their choice and tend to embrace the positives of the chosen era, excluding the abundant problems experienced in the past —at least some of which have since then been corrected. They consider this way of living a ‘simpler time.’

As Green said, the world has never been simple. Each time period has dealt with different catastrophes, but as the human race advances, they correct and create solutions as they go.

Feeling nostalgic for the past ignores the strides society has made toward equality for all. Those who lived during previous eras did not have access to the amount of education, healthcare, and possibilities of future advancements, economically as well as socially, that are available to society today. Seeking a time period that degrades the advancements that have been made possible can be described as actively seeking ignorance regarding the better experience of life that we now live. Historical nostalgia tends to ignore these obvious cons and highlights the pros, creating a longing for a circumstance that can never be and never was.

Nostalgia has the ability to provide texture within one’s life. It reminds people that their lives have roots as well as a community to look back on and confide in. In essence, it makes us a bit more human. This is the secret about nostalgia. Remember it all. Remember the trials and tribulations of every day, every year, every era. We have to remind ourselves that an old memory feels good to look back on, but so does creating a new memory. Face the present, the good, as well as the bad, and we can create a future that we can remember as better than before. Better than now.