That’s why many people can relate to said feeling, which often encourages them to seek those who do, too. Cue online groups and communities. Today we want to shed light on the ‘Right In The Childhood’ Facebook group, sharing—yup, you guessed it—nostalgia triggers intended to take people on a journey through time, right back to their childhood. Scroll down to find some of their posts on the list below and see if they can take you back in time, too. Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interview with a Professor of Psychology at Stetson University, Christopher J. Ferguson, Ph.D., who was kind enough to share his insight on the topic. “For that reason, people can sometimes feel a sense of nostalgia even for experiences or places that weren’t entirely positive. In a sense, it is the earlier self that we miss, not necessarily the place or the event.” “Our memories are far from reliable and we may have a tendency to remember only parts of our past that fit whatever narrative we have about it,” he explained. “For instance, we may remember the times of our youth as having been far better than they actually were, and this can cause us to judge the present more harshly. You can see this in various memes expressing that the 1950s were a ‘simpler time’ where everyone lived happily, forgetting that the 1950s were marked by everything from polio to segregation.” “Generally, it is a way for us to connect with our past and give us a sense of continuity over time. Rather than merely living in the moment, it places us in the historical arc of our own life, creating narrative and a life trajectory.” According to Ferguson, it happens because in most such cases, there is some associative relationship between the stimuli and the time period in question. “The thing may look or feel, or show examples of things we remember from the time period or be associated with someone else we knew then who did have that experience. As with all memories, nostalgic ones can find themselves in associative networks.” According to a GWI survey of netizens aged 16 to 64 who feel nostalgic about the media, movies are the main trigger of nostalgia, followed by music, TV shows, photographs, books and magazines, video games, advertisements, and radio respectively. “It can also occur with significant life change. For instance, both the birth of children and the death of parents may cause people to feel nostalgic about their own childhoods. “Perhaps our childhood community has undergone significant changes, such that it no longer resembles what we remember from our youth,” the expert continued. “This can give us a sense of the world more or less slipping away from us. We seem to like to think of the universe as being fairly static, and as it moves away from that, it can remind us of our own mortality. Memories of the past can, as such, be soothing.” Follow Bored Panda on Google News! Follow us on Flipboard.com/@boredpanda! Please use high-res photos without watermarks Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
