It’ll never return…
90s nostalgia hits different, and it isn’t just because we got older. We were the last generation to grow up before the internet took over everything: an analog childhood, then the world changed underneath us.
Psychologists call it the reminiscence bump: you remember ages 10 to 30 more vividly than any other part of your life. Everybody has one. What’s different is what was happening during ours. In this video I break down the five reasons: everything was scarce, there was real mystery, we all watched the same things at the same time, we owned physical things, and we’re the bridge generation that saw the world before and after.
00:00 Why 90s nostalgia hits different
00:50 What nostalgia actually is
01:17 1. Everything was scarce
02:23 2. There was mystery
03:26 3. We all watched the same thing
04:10 4. We owned physical things
04:46 5. The bridge generation
05:42 Gen Z is nostalgic too
06:16 It’s never coming back
Sources:
Reminiscence bump (ages 10 to 30): Rubin & Schulkind; Janssen, Rubin & St. Jacques (2011) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3034034
Toonami launched March 17, 1997: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toonami
Pokémon Red/Blue North America, Sept 28, 1998: https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_Red_%26_Blue
First YouTube upload, April 23, 2005: https://www.wfmz.com/entertainment/first-youtube-video-uploaded-20-years-ago/article_5a42e935-bf5c-41e4-b3a2-17ff7f73ca5c.html
The last Blockbuster, Bend, Oregon: https://www.seattlemet.com/travel-and-outdoors/2024/05/last-blockbuster-video-bend-oregon
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Blockbuster store photos by Jon Konrath (CC BY 2.0); closed Blockbuster and SNES by Evan-Amos (public domain); Blockbuster membership card (public domain); VHS by Toby Hudson (CC BY-SA 2.5 AU); Game Boy by Sammlung der Medien und Wissenschaft (CC BY 4.0); Game Boy cartridges by Kigsz (CC BY-SA 3.0); 56k modem by Bortzmeyer (CC BY-SA 3.0); first iPhone at Macworld 2007 by ArnoldReinhold (CC BY-SA 4.0); 1998 living room by Infrogmation of New Orleans (CC BY 2.0). Toonami logo, Nintendo Power cover, Pokémon Red/Blue art and the 2005 YouTube homepage (via the Internet Archive) are shown for commentary. Stock footage and sound effects: Envato.
#90s #Nostalgia #Millennials #Pokemon #Toonami