Nostalgia could be the key to battling loneliness and disconnect during the isolation of lockdowns
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Engaging in nostalgia can help us feel connected to others and build mental resilience during times of isolation and uncertainty, says Manuel Menke, Professor of Communication at the University of Copenhagen. How has that manifested during the pandemic in Britain?
According to Professor Menke, the relationship between nostalgia, culture and community is borne of the psychological advantages gained from being in a reminiscent state:
“On the individual level, the main benefit of being nostalgic is that we can mitigate certain experiences of distress and of threats in our everyday life, and remember the positive elements.
“This helps us see the meaning in life, see our own continuities and how we understand our own identity… it helps us to handle moments in which we need comfort and safety because the past is the time when we already know what happened.
“There is no insecurity or uncertainty when we think about this past.”
If there has ever been a time when we’ve needed comfort, safety and certainty, it’s now. During the pandemic our social and professional lives moved online almost overnight and human interaction became rare.
Over the last 18 months people sought to deal with this change by developing social connection in a different way – seeking online community.
Noughties nostalgia
One example of these online communities are the social media accounts that focus on hun culture, a digital subculture that celebrates and remembers noughties Britain.
Its content mainly consists of reaction memes which reflect the current mood following big and far-reaching events.
The hun accounts’ specific brand of humour recycles iconic moments from 00’s British TV and the wider media and make them relevant to the daily news cycle – particularly coronavirus-related – with witty captions. Think Girls Aloud, X Factor auditions, the Spice Girls and seminal soap moments.
This example was posted on the 12th April when outdoor hospitality opened after months of closure. It shows Davina McCall at the Big Brother House in 2005 and has been viewed 543,000 times:
A still from Love of Huns’ account: Davina McCall at the Big Brother House Credit: Instagram
Hun culture’s popularity is at an all-time high. The biggest account, Love of Huns, gained approximately 3,000 new fans each month. After the first lockdown announcement, and with each one since, that changed dramatically.
In March 2020 the follower count leapt up by 40,000, then in November by 25,000. In January of this year it rocketed to 60,000 new followers as people searched for light relief and community in difficult times.
The subculture is now jumping off-screen and into the real world. Creators of hun content are now selling enough merch to pay off mortgages and putting on boozy brunches for the community to meet each other. The sarcasm and affection that comes with the word hun is now ubiquitous among its target demographic and for many, it captures the zeitgeist.
The power of nostalgia
Professor Menke explains that the inherent nostalgic nature of hun culture content could be a big factor in the phenomena’s timely success:
“I am not surprised at all that during corona times [hun culture] is very attractive for a lot of people to engage in because community is something we are lacking a lot.
“We are searching for some place even though it is only online. It’s something that many people like to do anyway and in times of stressful confrontation with heavy news and and the virus news every day, it’s just something that people I think like to engage in… to think back to times where we did not have to deal with a pandemic on a day to day basis.”
Harnessing positive energy through memes of Gemma Collins in Celeb Big Brother might seem frivolous. But Professor Menke says the role of the media in memory, nostalgia and community is very important. Shared cultural references form strong foundations of social connection:
“The role of the emotional and effective bond is what is particularly interesting about nostalgia. It is what makes it so powerful when you look at communities, we see that you are longing for something you shared as a collective.
“There is a sense of being in the same situation and remembering the same things which results in strong development of an ‘in-group’ thinking.
“Being of the same generation is often one of the tropes we see in our research…collective memory is usually connected to some sort of media references. We are able to link our past identities and move into intimate interactions, and this is where we find support in difficult times”.
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HeadlineNostalgia, community and surviving lockdown online
Short HeadlineNostalgia, community and lockdown
StandfirstCan looking to the past help us cope with the challenges of the present?
Engaging in nostalgia can help us feel connected to others and build mental resilience during times of isolation and uncertainty, says Manuel Menke, Professor of Communication at the University of Copenhagen. How has that manifested during the pandemic in Britain?
According to Professor Menke, the relationship between nostalgia, culture and community is borne of the psychological advantages gained from being in a reminiscent state:
“On the individual level, the main benefit of being nostalgic is that we can mitigate certain experiences of distress and of threats in our everyday life, and remember the positive elements.
“This helps us see the meaning in life, see our own continuities and how we understand our own identity… it helps us to handle moments in which we need comfort and safety because the past is the time when we already know what happened.
“There is no insecurity or uncertainty when we think about this past.”
If there has ever been a time when we’ve needed comfort, safety and certainty, it’s now. During the pandemic our social and professional lives moved online almost overnight and human interaction became rare.
Over the last 18 months people sought to deal with this change by developing social connection in a different way – seeking online community.
Noughties nostalgia
One example of these online communities are the social media accounts that focus on hun culture, a digital subculture that celebrates and remembers noughties Britain.
Its content mainly consists of reaction memes which reflect the current mood following big and far-reaching events.
The hun accounts’ specific brand of humour recycles iconic moments from 00’s British TV and the wider media and make them relevant to the daily news cycle – particularly coronavirus-related – with witty captions. Think Girls Aloud, X Factor auditions, the Spice Girls and seminal soap moments.
This example was posted on the 12th April when outdoor hospitality opened after months of closure. It shows Davina McCall at the Big Brother House in 2005 and has been viewed 543,000 times:
A still from Love of Huns’ account: Davina McCall at the Big Brother House Credit: Instagram
Hun culture’s popularity is at an all-time high. The biggest account, Love of Huns, gained approximately 3,000 new fans each month. After the first lockdown announcement, and with each one since, that changed dramatically.
In March 2020 the follower count leapt up by 40,000, then in November by 25,000. In January of this year it rocketed to 60,000 new followers as people searched for light relief and community in difficult times.
The subculture is now jumping off-screen and into the real world. Creators of hun content are now selling enough merch to pay off mortgages and putting on boozy brunches for the community to meet each other. The sarcasm and affection that comes with the word hun is now ubiquitous among its target demographic and for many, it captures the zeitgeist.
The power of nostalgia
Professor Menke explains that the inherent nostalgic nature of hun culture content could be a big factor in the phenomena’s timely success:
“I am not surprised at all that during corona times [hun culture] is very attractive for a lot of people to engage in because community is something we are lacking a lot.
“We are searching for some place even though it is only online. It’s something that many people like to do anyway and in times of stressful confrontation with heavy news and and the virus news every day, it’s just something that people I think like to engage in… to think back to times where we did not have to deal with a pandemic on a day to day basis.”
Harnessing positive energy through memes of Gemma Collins in Celeb Big Brother might seem frivolous. But Professor Menke says the role of the media in memory, nostalgia and community is very important. Shared cultural references form strong foundations of social connection:
“The role of the emotional and effective bond is what is particularly interesting about nostalgia. It is what makes it so powerful when you look at communities, we see that you are longing for something you shared as a collective.
“There is a sense of being in the same situation and remembering the same things which results in strong development of an ‘in-group’ thinking.
“Being of the same generation is often one of the tropes we see in our research…collective memory is usually connected to some sort of media references. We are able to link our past identities and move into intimate interactions, and this is where we find support in difficult times”.
This fantasy period, which it has been dubbed online, often encompasses themes from all three eras, and is a mythical period which exists with the beautiful clothes but no disease or death.
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