Topic: The Sudden Inability to Feel Nostalgia
+Anonymous A — 1 hour ago #68,736
Does anyone else feel at least indifferent or slightly repulsed by whatever's supposed to be so-called nostalgic? Such as a classic film you've seen, animated cartoons, lost media, those games you played, those plastic toys in the fabric bin, songs you listened to, places you visited, those embarrassing posts you wrote before you could even speak & write properly, crappy/cheesy old memes, from around twenty years ago? Like a visceral sense of fatigue whenever old media gets pushed in front of you, in a patronising “Hey, remember ____? Those were good times” way. It doesn't feel warm or inviting anymore as much as it did when I was a teenager, but rather artificial and well-formulated nowadays. All I can think to myself is, “are these the only things we will remember in our entire lifetime?” Just a loop of mass-marketed media? Where there'd be no other incoming cult classics to reach the same level (because modern executives are too creatively-bankrupt, just re-using old franchises), no new cool aesthetic trends/fads, fresh graphical design choices, inventive genres, etc. since we've become more detached/alienated from each other, being out of the loop, seeing how hyper-centralized the Internet became. Think about those greedy/parasitic corporate entities trying to build brand loyalty in your developing brain, marketing products at kids with those wacky-ass commercials. I don't wanna look back at it ever again, I don't want to hear those '80/90s top hit songs whenever I'm at a supermarket. It feels like a symptom of Terror Management Theory, using these cultural artifacts as psychological buffers against the terror of time passing by too quickly and reaching our inevitable deaths, clinging to these corporate-manufactured milestones because facing the void is too hard. But the illusion has completely shattered for me. Those old, once-beloved tunes have just become annoying, inescapable earworms that repeat in your head all day, no longer evoking any intended emotions, mere sensory pollution carrying no significance whatsoever. You look back to realize your life's timeline has been occupied by media consumption cycles rather than actual human experience, you're nothing but a passive docile consumer. Even the aesthetic mediums would lose their magic as we try to understand them from a more technical deconstructive perspective. Maybe I was just beaten up by my family members too often as a kid. Autistic people could be assumed to have a stronger reaction towards this (consider those from DeviantART who do TV intro edits), I am autistic myself however. Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading this ranty Agora Road-ish trashtalk.