COVID-19 Lockdowns: What’s Up With Nostalgia for the ‘Outbreak Era’?
April 6, 2022 11:00AM CDT
Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, speaks at a news conference Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020, in Chicago, where it was announced that the first U.S. case of person-to-person spread of the new virus from China involves the man married to the Chicago woman who got sick from the virus after she returned from a trip to Wuhan, China. (AP Photo/Teresa Crawford)
COVID-19 Lockdowns: What’s Up With Nostalgia for the ‘Outbreak Era’?
Do you feel nostalgia for the early days of the pandemic? Some young people do.
Members of Gen Z (ages 10 to 25) have been vocal on social media about missing the early days of the pandemic, when they were forced to stay inside.
They’re expressing this nostalgia via TikTok, and post videos with background music that was trending around March, April, and May of 2020.
Psychiatrist Dr. Itai Danovitch says this might all begin with feelings of shared experience amid tragedy—even though people’s individual experiences varied. He also says some of the sentiment may come from making meaning out of adversity and stories retold about “what we’ve overcome.”
Psychologist Dr. Thea Gallagher adds, “There [are] parts of [the lockdown experience] that were kind of nice. But I think if you look at it in its wholeness—if you could choose to travel back in time and be there full time, I don’t think that would happen. We tend to not be great historians of the past. There is something in the brain that has a tendency to not remember, sometimes, the hardest part of things. That’s what nostalgia is.” She sums it up by saying, “[…] There weren’t the same expectations… Survival was the main focus. There was less pressure to do it all and survive [at the beginning of the pandemic].”
Reach back for more, here: (Fox)
- Members of Gen Z (ages 10 to 25) have taken to TikTok posted about their nostalgia for March, April, and May of 2020, when lockdowns first began
- Psychologists say this is likely due to the fact that there were some nice parts about the pandemic, but that our memories tend to make us look back with rose-colored glasses, and most of us likely wouldn’t choose to travel back in time and be there full time
More about:
