Time goes by fast, it’s no secret. The older you get, the more apparent this fact becomes.
One of the theories why it happens is that when we’re kids, we experience new things nearly every day, which makes the time seem slower than it is. Then, as we get older, the number of new things decreases, and things start to appear more similar to each other, blending the days, weeks, and months, which makes time seem faster.
With time passing, sometimes we’re forced to leave people, places, and things behind, keeping them only in memory. Today's list is an example of this.
All these various images were collected from the r/Retro community, where people are welcome to post anything that could be considered retro – things that are consciously derivative of lifestyles from the past.
As you can see, netizens don’t shy away from posting whatever they can think of here and love what others post – ever since the community’s creation, 24K have joined as members, putting it in the top 5% rank by size on all of Reddit.
One of the reasons why people love to indulge in the memories of the past so much is nostalgia. In a nutshell, nostalgia is a sentimental yearning for the past that evokes feelings of both pleasure and sadness.
The feeling can be brought about by visiting a certain place, seeing an old photo, smelling something, or hearing a song. Here, when Bad Bunny released his song “DtMF” (which translates to “I Should've Taken More Photos”) in January of this year, many people preached it for being able to evoke feelings of nostalgia in them, despite it being completely new song, not the one from their past.
The song is the rapper's tribute to his home in Puerto Rico, an acknowledgment of the place's customs, spirit, history, and people. Yet, while the intended meaning was place-specific, the song still feels borderless.
The lyrics (you can read an English translation here), chord progression, and melody brought many people to tears, making them relate it to their experiences of what it is like to yearn for a place (or a period of time, a thing, a person) that is no longer in your life, and what it is like to exist between cultures, languages, and even identities.
As this ingenious tweet says, “Nostalgia is proof that you are living a life worth living, it is a privilege to yearn for your own memories.”
Even though nostalgia might make a person sad, it doesn’t mean it’s a detrimental feeling. In fact, studies show that it can be beneficial. It increases people's emotional intelligence, helps to build self-esteem, and allows them to focus more on being themselves and building a better future.
For instance, individuals may yearn for the time they spent with their loved ones who might no longer be with them, and so they promise themselves to spend more time with the people who are still here. In a way, it’s looking at the past so you know how to build your future.
What makes you feel nostalgic? Do any pictures in this list do the job? Share with us in the comments!
