Are we just on nostalgia trips?
We often look back at the last century with rose-colored glasses, nostalgic for “the good old days.” We romanticize decades like the Roaring Twenties, the optimism of the 1960s–70s, or the pre-millennium excitement of the 1990s—only to realize that the new millennium didn’t turn out anything like people imagined. In fact, some might say it’s even worse.
What people forget is that every decade, era, and century has its good, its bad, and its ugly. Nothing is purely perfect or purely terrible. When we look at a particular period and think it was the best, it feels objective, but it’s really subjective—everyone experiences history differently.
Most of the time, nostalgia comes from childhood memories or positive associations. But just because we feel nostalgic doesn’t mean an era was free of negatives. Take the 1960s and 70s, for example—footage shows bright colors, smiling faces, and happy moments, but media often exaggerates that. Not everyone was happy, and serious issues like racism and the KKK were very real. Even the Roaring Twenties weren’t as “roaring” as we like to imagine.
It’s exhausting when older generations say things like, “It was better back then,” as if the problems of those times didn’t exist.
The truth is, history is complicated. Every decade has challenges, every era has struggles, and things aren’t as easy or cheerful as we sometimes think. Pop culture, ideas, norms, and society change every 5–10 years—and that’s just part of life.