For Gen Z, nostalgia is part of everyday life. Traditionally, nostalgia is a sentimental affection one has for a past experience, person or place. However, a different form of nostalgia is common amongst young adults. It often stems from a dissatisfaction with one’s present reality, but the sentimental feelings are directed towards unfulfilled experiences.
Social media, AI, video games and numerous other mediums contribute to the formation of this variation of nostalgia. Living in a technology-centered society leaves young people with a longing for a different reality, one without screens and algorithms. This is evidenced by Gen Z’s infatuation with old clothing, films, cars and music. Even slightly older forms of technology such as record players and Polaroid cameras are romanticized. These objects are not as convenient or advanced as today’s but possess a character or charm that Gen Z feels new technology is lacking.
One possible term for this phenomenon is “golden-age thinking,” a notion that is explored in Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.” Starring Owen Wilson, this film depicts a troubled screenwriter, Gil Pender, on a trip to Paris with his fiancée. Unfulfilled by his job in the film industry, Gil has aspirations to publish a novel. His unfinished novel follows a protagonist who owns a nostalgia shop. Gil embodies golden-age thinking, constantly romanticizing Paris in the 1920s, describing the art, people, city and time period altogether to be far superior than the current day.
Miraculously, Gil discovers a method to travel back in time to the 1920s. Night after night, Gil visits the past, meeting icons such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. Gil is enamored with everything about this past era and starts to become detached from the present.
While in the past, Gil meets a costume designer named Adriana. Adriana compliments Gil’s novel, saying that she too romanticizes the distant past. The two instantly form a connection and grow closer over time. Gil falls in love with Adriana, drifting further from his present life. When Gil discovers that Adriana is in love with him, he loses any remaining feeling of obligation to the present.
Unfortunately, Gil and Adriana’s romance is brief. Unexpectedly, the pair travels back in time to Paris in the 1890s in the midst of a period of French history known as La Belle Époque. For Adriana, the 1890s represent what the 1920s represented to Gil: an escape from the present to a supposedly better era. Noticing this, Gil begs Adriana to return to her present. He warns that if she stays in La Belle Époque, she’ll be stuck reminiscing about another time even further in the past. When Adriana refuses to leave the 1890s, Gil returns to the present and never seeks to go back to the 1920s.
Upon returning, Gil decides to separate from his fiancée and stay in Paris to continue working on his novel. Rather than chase happiness in the past, Gil makes changes to his present.
Golden-age thinking and nostalgia aren’t inherently harmful; however, these feelings can be an indicator of resentment towards one’s present. Oftentimes technology feeds into this. Social media depicts lives we’re not living, places we’ve never been to and things we’ve never tried. AI and video games allow us to engage in an alternate reality.
Take the recent 2016 trend, for example. People on social media posted photos from a decade ago, reminiscing over what they consider a better time. The trend itself is harmless, but it reflects a dissatisfied thought process that many share. The present is always somewhat lacking no matter the era, but that notion is dangerously amplified by technology.
Living in the present moment is a difficult task. We are simultaneously burdened by the past and stressed out about the future. All the while, we are occupied by a feeling that we are living in a dull or disappointing era of human history. Gil’s choice to return to the present and face his reality is a reminder that no matter where we are in life, we must make the most of it.
