When the Past Feels New: Some Gen Zer’s Nostalgic for a Time They Never Knew By: BrentLee Threlkeld

For some young people, nostalgia doesn't necessarily come from memories.

It can come from a thrifted sweater, a vinyl record, an old movie or a song released years before they were born.

Shaianne Overall, a Bellarmine University junior majoring in exercise science on the pre-physical therapy track, said her interest in older clothing started when she was young and her parents would take her thrifting. Sometimes, she said, she finds herself wishing she had lived in another decade.

“I feel like I belong in a different decade,” Overall said.

For Overall, thrifting is not just about finding inexpensive clothes. She said older clothing can offer styles, fits and quality that are harder to find in modern stores. She also sometimes thinks about the people who owned the clothing before her.

“You could tell, like, a grandma probably wore that, and, you know, she was feeling cute and maybe like, she got it at the beach. And I just I loved it,” Overall said.

That feeling raises a larger question: How can people feel nostalgic for something they never actually experienced?

Dr. Frank Hutchins, a Bellarmine University anthropology professor, said looking toward the past is not necessarily unique to young people. Throughout history, people have looked backward during periods when they feel unsettled by the present. He said people may create an idea of a “golden era” when the past seems easier or better than the present.

Hutchins said the disruption caused by COVID-19 may be one factor that contributes to Gen Z’s desire to look backward. He pointed to his own daughter, who is 24.

“She didn't get to walk across the stage for graduation because of COVID. She didn't get a prom. She was packed up and ready to go to college and move into a dorm and it got called off within a week of her leaving,” Hutchins said. “She stayed at home and did it all online. It was a really difficult time for her.”

Nostalgia does not necessarily require a personal memory, Hutchins said.

He said younger people can connect with earlier periods through music, books, movies and material objects such as vintage clothing. People can experience a version of a time period through the stories they hear and the media they consume, even if they were never actually there.

The version of the past people encounter, however, is rarely the entire story, Hutchins said.

“When you go back in time, you're only stopping to reflect on part of it,” he said. “You're not taking the bad with the good.”

That selective view of the past may help explain why certain eras become fashionable again. Young people can pick the pieces of a decade that appeal to them without having to experience the less appealing parts of that period.

Overall sees that distinction in her own interest in vintage clothing. “I think it's more so for the aesthetic because I think if we brought back, like, true older things, like older ways, older motions, older ways of thinking, that people would be really against it because we have moved a long way in society,” she said. “But I think it's definitely just the aesthetic that's a good thing.”

Social media has also made it easier for young people to encounter styles and cultural trends from decades before their birth. Overall said platforms such as TikTok provide her with outfit inspiration and expose her to clothing styles she may not otherwise see.

“I see these, like, cute clothes, these cute outfits, and they're always put together so nicely, but you don't see those clothes in regular stores,” Overall said. “It's like, you know, that has to be thrifted because of the look and, like, the make of it and the quality of it.”

The same phenomenon can be seen in music.

At Bellarmine's BU Radio, students Sydney Collins, Andie Royce and Ethan Bivens have seen an interest in older music and physical media among their peers. Their experiences with vinyl also show that nostalgia does not always begin with the individual.

Royce described growing up listening to records with her father, including music from artists such as Queen, Pink Floyd and AC/DC. “Growing up, my dad would play Queen, Pink Floyd and AC/DC on his vinyl while we were making dinner and acting like idiots,” she said.

Older generations can essentially pass their own cultural memories down to younger people.

Collins, Royce, and Bivens said their parents and grandparents introduced them to music they might not have discovered on their own. “Growing up, we hear so much about our parents listening and playing on their vinyl records,” Royce said. “I just always wanted to do that because I wanted to feel like I was closer with my family in that sense.”

That means nostalgia can sometimes be inherited.

A young person may not remember hearing a particular song in the 1970s or 1980s, but they may remember hearing it in their parents' car. They may not remember shopping in a 1990s mall, but they can find clothing from the decade at a thrift store. They may not have owned a record player as a child, but they can buy one now and create their own connection to the physical experience of listening to music.

Dr. Kyle Barnett, a communication professor at Bellarmine, said media has made it easier for people to encounter cultural trends from different periods all at once.

“Media businesses sell us the back catalog and new releases all at once. This is a relatively new dynamic, in terms of this scale,” Barnett said.

He said this has changed how people experience different eras, because “the lack of context has accelerated somehow, so that we could experience a variety of eras and places within the same few minutes.”

That exposure can make nostalgia feel personal, even when someone has no firsthand memories of the period. Barnett said, “Nostalgia is never an exact mirror of what things were like.”

Instead, he said, people can develop an attachment to an imagined version of the past based on the pieces they encounter through media.

For Hutchins, the appeal goes beyond simply liking an old song or an old sweater. He said objects can become connected to people, memories and identity.

“Material things, they become infused with meaning,” Hutchins said.

He used family heirlooms as an example. An old crocheted blanket or handwritten letter can carry meaning because it connects someone to a person or relationship that may no longer exist.

That same process can happen with objects that do not belong to a person's own family.

Overall said that when she finds an older piece of clothing at a thrift store, she sometimes thinks about the person who wore it before her.

Hutchins said that connection to the past can also play a role in identity. People can use things from the past to understand where they fit within the larger world.

“I think that this allows people to connect with identity by moving back into the past a little bit,” Hutchins said.

For a generation surrounded by rapidly changing trends, endless digital content and social media, perhaps looking backward offers something that the present sometimes doesn't: a chance to slow down and decide what is worth keeping.

Overall said she believes trends will continue to cycle. “I think it'll be a come and go like everything else,” Overall said. “I think trends always arise and come back around and we're always on it.”