Vicarious Nostalgia, What is it and What Role Does it Play in the 2020s?

Vicarious Nostalgia. What is it? It is defined as “ a feeling of wistful yearning for a moment that occurred prior to, or outside of, the span of one’s memory, but is relatable (has sentimental value) due to repeated mediated exposure to it.”

I first became interested in the concept of vicarious nostalgia and the psychological reasons it exists last year while writing my Freshman Year Seminar final paper. The assignment was to write about an artist that you like (musical, painter, sculpture, film, etc.) and at the time, my favorite singer was Bryce Vine. I needed a term to describe the nostalgic feeling that I got when listening to his music even though he was singing about a time before I was even born: the 90s. It was then when I stumbled upon this term:vicarious nostalgia, and as someone who likes Psychology and is interested in why trends repeat themselves, I was hooked.

Interestingly, it seems that we are in the perfect climate for us to experience vicarious nostalgia as much as we can: everything is terrible in the world right now. Therefore, with the desire to escape our present reality, living vicariously through another reality that existed in the past is perfect for a past trend to resurface. This could be something as small as wearing a scrunchie, listening to music that references the 90s, like Bryce Vine does, or even using a polaroid camera.

My generation’s (Gen Z) vicarious nostalgia propelled trend repeating obsession could also manifest in something bigger like wanting to buy and refurbish a 70s hippie van to “escape” and travel across the country. Sound familiar? Why are 70s vans trending again? … because the political climate and protests are similar, but we cannot bear to exist in the present at all, so we crave something from the past to be trendy again so we can completely disassociate ourselves from the present.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong or unnatural with wanting this. I would love nothing more than to drop everything and travel with a group of friends in a refurbished 70s van, trust me. I would give anything to embody that vibe.

So why exactly is vicarious nostalgia so powerful? Firstly, it is an escape from the present. It is a way to escape from an individual’s present moment and any present stress. It is an escape from our current society, the pandemic, the political turmoil, climate crisis, all of it. All of that can go on pause when we bring the positive elements of the past into our present so we can live in those positive moments no matter their brevity.

Secondly, it only focuses on the positive aspects of the past. This is why it is purely vicarious and basically artificial nostalgia. One experiencing the positive elements of the past, whether it be through a song, movie, or recycled fashion trend, isn’t clouded with their own memories from that past time. Instead, they are placing themselves in their version of an ideal world from someone else’s past. Even though the past was not close to perfect in any currently “trendy” era, it is so much easier to live in a moment of blissful ignorance from a time before one was alive.

Thirdly and lastly, it gives hope for the future. It is well known at this point that history repeats itself. If we as the human race were able to survive similar troubling times in the past and take good music, fashion, and “aesthetics”, from them, then the future might not be that bad after all.

As we enter the 2020s, which should supposedly be the next roaring 20s, vicarious nostalgia allows us to read The Great Gatsby and take away the hope for greatness in love and partying in mansions, and ignore the impending global pandemic (which in the 1920s was the Spanish Flu), impending Great Depression 2.0, or perhaps (spoiler alert if you have not heard the story) getting hit by a car or killed by a poolside.