I've had quite a bit of time on my hands since the summer started.
Without the pressure of classes, assignments and tests, there's suddenly an overwhelming amount of free time. Sure, some of that's eaten up by a job, but most of the time I've been able to call the shots on what exactly I spend my day doing.
And while there's been plenty of gaming, sleeping and general laziness, one thing I've been frequently indulging in as of late is the addicting emotion of nostalgia.
While plenty of us indulge in nostalgia when times are tough, I've found it's also a fantastic way to pass the time. From reconnecting to my old love of Pokémon to watching TV shows from my youth (“Action Man,” “The Mole”), traveling back to the past like this brings back warmth that's hard to forget.
Unfortunately, nostalgia has had a bad rap in some circles for quite some time now. In previous centuries, it was seen as a mental disease or symptom of some disorder.
While most of us today probably don't see nostalgia as an indicator of poor mental health, it still is often portrayed as an obstacle to the development and progression of a person. Nobody thinks well of someone when they're described as “living in the past.”
It is with great pride that I now mention the fact that psychological research is beginning to show the upside of nostalgia. According to a 2008 study published in Psychological Science, nostalgia can actually have a restorative function in people's lives.
Writing that “nostalgia magnifies perceptions of social support ... thwarts the effect of loneliness ...[and] restores an individual’s social connectedness,” the researchers make a strong case for the use of the feeling as a coping strategy when faced with hardship.
Perhaps nostalgia isn't indicative of a deep-seated character flaw after all. Instead of escaping into it in order to ignore the problems at hand, it seems that the emotion actually helps us gain a more positive view of our situation, a valuable asset for tackling our problems.
So when your grandparents are glued to TV Land or you're nearby to witness VH1 airing one of those awful ’80s retrospectives, they're not keeping the previous generations stuck in the past. They're really helping them combat feelings of loneliness and increase feelings of social support. Because we all know how much support the children of the ’80s need.
So what's the take-away from all this? Reminisce more often. In our fast-paced world, people frequently don't let themselves have the time to unwind, let alone look back fondly on links to the past. So indulge in those late-night marathons on Boomerang or the Game Show Network; your brain will thank you for it.
Reach the columnist at tjgreene@asu.edu
