Does Nostalgia Ever Wear Off?

[bikingjahuty]

I decided to post this topic in Off Topic since nostalgia can obviously involve many different things outside of video games, movies, or TV. It can also encompass a place or period of time as well as we all know.


I've found myself in a strange predicament for about the last year. I've noticed that my nostalgia for many things I once got the warm fuzzies over has been wearing off. What's weird is it's not just from old video games I used to play, but also movies, old places, and other things that had a sentimental value to me. I still obviously remember playing those games or going to those places, but they are just memories now that have little emotion attached to them, neither negative or mostly in this case, positive.


Funny enough is while my nostalgia has been fading, my focus on the here and now, as well as the future has been growing. I'd much rather be here in the present rather than day dreaming about experiences I had 20-years ago or whatever. Obviously this all sounds good, but at the same time it's also a bit foreign and concerning to me as well. I miss having those strong nostalgic feelings for the past; I always understood that those times were long gone, but the memory and feeling of them was still something I cherished. Now, it's hard for me to recapture that feeling I once had from long ago as now I feel ever grounded in my current feelings and state of mind.


Has anyone else experienced a decline, fade, or complete disappearance of nostalgia before?

[oldgamerz]

yes it can for me at least

I used to love to play more video games in my past like Doom Duke Nukem 3D and I just lost interest in them since I played them a lot until I got tired of them. I guess.

In my case I want to play all my games but I just don't feel well enough to play them most times

I think it can also from depression, I once read somewhere at a medical health clinic that losing interest in things you once loved in life can be one of the signs depression. and trust me there is nothing more depressing than today.

I think it has a lot to do with being stressed, and depressed or just plain tired of doing the same thing over and over again

I hope you feel better

[bikingjahuty]

yes it can for me at least

I used to love to play more video games in my past like Doom Duke Nukem 3D and I just lost interest in them since I played them a lot until I got tired of them. I guess.

In my case I want to play all my games but I just don't feel well enough to play them most times

I think it can also from depression, I once read somewhere at a medical health clinic that losing interest in things you once loved in life can be one of the signs depression. and trust me there is nothing more depressing than today.

I think it has a lot to do with being stressed, and depressed or just plain tired of doing the same thing over and over again

I hope you feel better

My issue isn't I've lost interest in anything; in fact I'm currently playing through a PS1 game at the moment. My issue is that nostalgic fondness is mostly gone. When I've played a lot of retro games in recent months it's mostly me playing the game with the same lense that I would a PS4 game in that there is no nostalgia because it's a newer game. This may not be a bad thing since it allows me to have a more objective opinion of an older game I'm playing, but sadly the nostalgia was a huge part of why I want to play retro games in the first place. In fact nostalgia is a big reason why I got into collecting, as it is for many of us. I honestly just miss that feeling and I'm not sure what happened to it.

[Warmsignal]

For me it's quite the opposite in all honesty.

As I've entered my 30s, I become more and more fond of my memories. Without a doubt, I'm one of those old soul types. I prefer things of the past to things of the present, and I tend to be either indifferent and somewhat resistant to the changes of the present. Nothing in the present day really inspires, or fills me with wonder. It's all just... whatever. I feel very cynically about the present. I can't even stand the haircuts that are considered fashionable right now. But it all seems to be a moving target with me as I age. The previous decade is looked upon more charitably than the one I'm living in, even while I felt far more cynical when I was living that period of the past. I look back now quite fondly on my days as a young adult, the 2000s particularly and pine for a return to the way things were then.

I often find myself comparing things "in my day" versus the way those things are now, and for the most part feel the current state of affairs is inferior. For example, back in my day we had arcades. Nowadays, there are none left in my area. With the way society progresses and moves on, it's likely I'll never see anything like an arcade again. It's simply gone with the past. Then there's the stark contrast of social behavior before and after smartphones. I feel like there was more humanity, civility, and realness to people before everyone had this collective mind in their palm all of the time. I often wonder what it would have been like to have been born much earlier than I was - to experience long bygone eras first hand, to feel like I could actually get lost when traveling, and like there might be something unique to see and do in the next town, before mega-corporatism hollowed out everything that made each place it's own. To be engaged in the things people did for fun before staring at a screen in any capacity ever became a national pass time.

But that's all an abstraction of my nostalgic feelings. I don't really know if the past is better than the present, but the grass always seems greener. I know that the times of my youth, seemed to be simpler and happier than the ones I'm currently living. It could just be that a younger mind doesn't perceive all of the negative things that become apparent when you grow older. My parents probably felt weary of raising kids in the 90s, and now I would feel weary of raising them in the 2020s.

Nostalgia is a complicated topic, but yes, I am very much a nostalgic person and I find that growing older makes me all the more fond of the past and that's never waned. If I didn't cherish where I've come from, I don't know that I'd have much to ground me at all. In many ways it informs the path that I want to take going forward in life, and tomorrow isn't a guarantee, so I refuse to put faith in any promises that the best is yet to come.

[oldgamerz]

For me it's quite the opposite in all honesty.

As I've entered my 30s, I become more and more fond of my memories. Without a doubt, I'm one of those old soul types. I prefer things of the past to things of the present, and I tend to be either indifferent and somewhat resistant to the changes of the present. Nothing in the present day really inspires, or fills me with wonder. It's all just... whatever. I feel very cynically about the present. I can't even stand the haircuts that are considered fashionable right now. But it all seems to be a moving target with me as I age. The previous decade is looked upon more charitably than the one I'm living in, even while I felt far more cynical when I was living that period of the past. I look back now quite fondly on my days as a young adult, the 2000s particularly and pine for a return to the way things were then.

I often find myself comparing things "in my day" versus the way those things are now, and for the most part feel the current state of affairs is inferior. For example, back in my day we had arcades. Nowadays, there are none left in my area. With the way society progresses and moves on, it's likely I'll never see anything like an arcade again. It's simply gone with the past. Then there's the stark contrast of social behavior before and after smartphones. I feel like there was more humanity, civility, and realness to people before everyone had this collective mind in their palm all of the time. I often wonder what it would have been like to have been born much earlier than I was - to experience long bygone eras first hand, to feel like I could actually get lost when traveling, and like there might be something unique to see and do in the next town, before mega-corporatism hollowed out everything that made each place it's own. To be engaged in the things people did for fun before staring at a screen in any capacity ever became a national pass time.

But that's all an abstraction of my nostalgic feelings. I don't really know if the past is better than the present, but the grass always seems greener. I know that the times of my youth, seemed to be simpler and happier than the ones I'm currently living. It could just be that a younger mind doesn't perceive all of the negative things that become apparent when you grow older. My parents probably felt weary of raising kids in the 90s, and now I would feel weary of raising them in the 2020s.

Nostalgia is a complicated topic, but yes, I am very much a nostalgic person and I find that growing older makes me all the more fond of the past and that's never waned. If I didn't cherish where I've come from, I don't know that I'd have much to ground me at all. In many ways it informs the path that I want to take going forward in life, and tomorrow isn't a guarantee, so I refuse to put faith in any promises that the best is yet to come.

I feel the same as @Warmsignal,