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What to do withe Nostalgia?

I recently turned 35, which in the grand scheme of things isn't that old. I've been excercising, eating healthier (while not denying myself of the things I love), sleeping better, taking my meds. I've been going to therapy for myself and couples therapy with my wife so we can continue to strengthen our relationship. I've been working hard to have good conversations with my kids and build them up. We even got a dog that I'm training. Things are going well and fingers crossed, I hope to live a while more. We have worked through the hard times and while we are not wealthy and have to budget we don't have to worry about utilities being shut off or having enough groceries. I feel pretty lucky to have gotten here. So why have I been having so much Nostalgia lately? And what am I supposed to do with it?

More and more I have been finding myself in thoughts of the past, specifically the past of the Internet. I have downloaded programs to make my computer look and feel like Windows 95, complete with maze and pipes screensavers. Instead of having all my games sit in Steam I have icons on the desktop. I've been thinking about the old Internet, about crappy flash websites with spinning graphics, Xanga pages that friends program to play their favorite song of the week. Every time I got my hour on the family computer I would be so excited as the dial tone played about what I would discover that day.

It makes me sad for a time I know I am romanticizing from half remember moments and general feelings. What do I do with Nostalgia?

The Internet is sad to me in its current state. It feels like it has shrunk, congealed into four or five bland lumps of repetition where you can no longer assume that a human was involved. It feels like an angry place to be but it also feels mandatory.


Ok, I took a little break. I realized I was starting to catastrophize. It's not all that bad and there are good things about the Internet now.

I have never been Nostalgia before so I really am not sure what to do. My therapist said that when you refuse to feel your feelings you cause suffering. And I guess I just feel a little sad. I feel like I have lost something that probably isn't real, like the idealized version of the 90s as seen through the vapor wave genre. I guess this site, and some other similar ones, is feeding that feelings.


What do you do with Nostalgia? What is the main feelings you get from it? Do you avoid it or feed it? I'm just looking for an outside perspective.

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