This Nostalgic Video From 2008 Has Millennials Homesick For A Time They Can’t Go Back To
Stock four | Shutterstock A video of high schoolers in 2008 has been circulating online, making many millennials feel homesick for a time they can't go back to. The youngest millennials are entering their 30s, and that makes them a generation feeling the bittersweet sting of nostalgia.
Let’s talk about the early thousands, just after the new millennium. Ask millennials, and they'll tell you: Days were just simpler then. The world wasn't quite so connected. Facebook was a budding social media site, and iPhones were just gaining popularity. Instead of AI, we had the less convincing Photoshop, and 6-7 was just a couple of numbers in a sequence.
A nostalgic video of high schoolers in 2008 has millennials homesick for the past.
In the popular video, you can see a typical day in the life of a high school student in 2008. They are wearing simple clothes — t-shirts and jeans or basketball shorts. They are in the halls, at assembly, playing sports. There’s even an emo kid with the quintessential jet black hair and bangs covering their eyes.
The video looks like it was captured on what now would be considered a fossil, a digital video camera. Phones with cameras, let alone video capabilities, were just entering the market, so taking an actual recording was still novel. It's probably why all the teens featured seem much more uncomfortable than kids today, who are comfortable staring into a lens in the same way these teens were more comfortable talking face-to-face.
I can remember in 2008, my friend taking copious pictures on a digital camera, which he then went through the archaic process of saving photos to an SD card, then inserting this card into his Dell laptop to upload to the internet, and finally posting them on Facebook. I carried a generic phone that cost a penny with a phone plan. It had a grainy and pixelated camera that I often used to capture those early-day selfies and adventures with my friends.
Between comments about the simplicity of teen life back then and observations that no one even has a phone in hand, one commenter poignantly stated, "It’s so weird because that time feels so distant and at the same time like it was yesterday." Another shared, "Homesick for a place I can never get back to."
Millennials are now in the thick of adulthood, making the memories of youth feel bittersweet.
As Millennials, we are transitioning to the responsibilities of adulthood full steam ahead. Many of us now have families of our own, including Gen Z kids entering high school or more likely looking after Gen Alpha kids, as well as having real grown-up jobs.
One person commented on the video, “God I wish we knew what we had.” Another said, “Notice how nobody was addicted to their cell phones back then.” Another user observed, “I miss seeing just jeans and a t- shirt/ I miss the simplicity of it all.” But what makes millennials seem so hungry for those days gone by?
"The Culture Study" podcast took on the topic of millennial nostalgia and explained that the generation isn't unique. They just hit the age where those core youth memories are just far enough away to feel almost painful. Hosts Anne Helen Petersen and Gabe Bullard wrote in a companion piece for the episode that, "millennials are not the most nostalgic generation — we’re just in a deeply nostalgic moment in our lives, reckoning (sometimes gracefully, other times less so) with no longer being the Main Character in the generational story."
Every generation goes through this period. It's when adulthood is at its most stressful, and life is almost too hectic. The mind goes back and yearns for the simplicity of young adulthood. The carefree life of high school in this snapshot video makes the person who watches it and relates to it feel a deep longing and almost sadness for those years gone by. It's the reason the saying "Youth is wasted on the young" is so popular among older people.
Looking back to what seemed to be a simpler time can be beneficial.
It's easy to get in a funk thinking about times gone by, especially if you're feeling disillusioned with the “future is now” culture that we live in. Current trends in politics, technology, and lifestyle seem overwhelming, and with AI and “fake news," it is difficult to determine what is real these days.
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Add to that the fact that life's responsibilities have become more time-consuming, and the things that are popular among young people today become less relatable. That can spark a “remember when” mindset.
An article written by Agnes Arnold-Forster in The Guardian argued that we need nostalgia. Nostalgia has morphed from what was thought to be a psychological illness in the latter part of the 1600’s, as a way to "diagnose" homesickness among soldiers at war. Today, it is described as a “benign” sensation that passes quickly.
Arnold-Forster wrote, "Today, psychologists believe nostalgia is a near-universal, fundamentally positive emotion — a powerful psychological resource that provides people with a variety of benefits.” That said, reflecting back on the past can be a positive feeling you experience. So instead of avoiding nostalgic triggers, try to lean into the feeling.
Clay Routledge, a psychologist who’s vice president of research and director of the Human Flourishing Lab at Archbridge Institute, told Time, “Originally, I said, ‘OK. The best way to think about nostalgia is it’s this psychological defense mechanism—when life is uncertain and unstable, we look to the certainty and comfort of the past, and that makes us feel better.’” And while he insisted that looking to the past for comfort is absolutely true, what he found through research was that it's also an emotion that has the capacity to help us live well as we move into the future.
He explained, “It’s looking backwards, but it's because you want ideas for how to move forward.” Think of it like remembering a fond childhood memory that you hope to recreate with your own kids. Nostalgia is the birthplace of beloved traditions. Those moments spark as much joy as they do that feeling of homesickness. You just need to lean more into the joy.
Laura Lomas is a writer with a Master’s degree in English and Creative Writing who focuses on news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
