The Nostalgia Dictionary
I finally have some words to describe what I’ve been seeing.
Consider this episode a crash course introduction to the framework I’m developing around nostalgia. These are the terms I’ll be using as I continue formulating observations on how it can show up within individuals, communities, and society.
Warning: I say “nostalgia” and “nostalgic” a lot in this (Obvious reasons) I also tried my best to break everything down as clearly as I could, so hopefully you can keep up as I work through the framework.
Also in this episode I briefly touch on nostalgia within social media apps. These are just my beginner thoughts and observations, so it’s not much but I still think the patterns are interesting enough to share.
This framework is still developing, so the terms can change or evolve as I continue exploring the topic.
But for now, this is what I have:
Nostalgic Thinking
Optimistic Nostalgia
Pessimistic Nostalgia
Transformative Nostalgia
Dormant Nostalgia
Nostalgia-Based Community
Nostalgic Living
Overt Nostalgic
Covert Nostalgic
Concentrated Nostalgic Energy
Rooted Nostalgic Living
Flexible Nostalgic Living
Transformative Nostalgic Living
Nostalgic Personality
The full Nostalgia Dictionary is available at the end.
Nostalgic Thinking
We are constantly moving, changing, receiving new information, and being introduced to new ways of thinking, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we are changing with it. Sometimes the body physically progresses, but the way we think, relate, and navigate life remains rooted in the past.
Nostalgic thinking is how often or how strongly someone relates to or thinks about the past. I’m working with four ways of relating to nostalgia: optimistic, pessimistic, transformative, and dormant.
Optimistic nostalgia is a yearning for the past. You view the past in a positive or idealized light, and that yearning can make it difficult to fully move forward when something about the past still feels unresolved or not fully lived out. It can be something you thought about but never experienced, or something you fully lived through that ended and wasn’t continued.
Pessimistic nostalgia is a more negatively charged way of relating to the past. The past remains emotionally difficult because of unresolved issues, unresolved trauma, regret, resentment, or unresolved feelings. You remain connected to the past, but the relationship with it carries a more painful or pessimistic quality.
Transformative nostalgia is a way of relating to the past that allows your experiences, memories, and influences to inform your transformation without allowing them to become limitations on your present or future. The past still matters, but it becomes something you can learn from and transform through rather than something that determines where you remain.
Dormant nostalgia isn’t necessarily an active way of thinking about the past. You aren’t consciously looking back, yearning for what was, or constantly reminiscing. Instead, a nostalgic relationship exists beneath the surface but isn’t active in conscious thought, but it can become activated by certain experiences, situations, people, or environments, influencing how you navigate situations at that moment.
Essentially, all forms of nostalgic thinking can manifest through your actions, responses, relationships, and the way you relate to certain topics.
Nostalgic Living
Nostalgia can be a form of preservation, and I’m not saying preservation is always bad. But preservation can become stunted when transformation is viewed as opposition to the past, as if the past is something precious that must be protected from change.
Nostalgia-based communities are communities in which a collective identity is repeatedly reinforced through a shared relationship with the past. This becomes a way people establish belonging. I believe that when you can’t hold the past, present, and future together and navigate them cohesively, you can begin to sink into a form of maladaptive nostalgic living—a way of living in which a relationship with the past influences how someone navigates the present.
As new information is introduced and the world, systems, and people continue to change, there is a constant need to navigate complexity. When you struggle to navigate that change, it creates friction. Not everyone who experiences that friction becomes nostalgic, but when that friction remains unaddressed long enough, you can begin to retreat into what feels familiar, and that’s where I think nostalgia-dominated living starts to develop.
The more difficult it becomes to navigate the relationship between the past, present, and future, the more comfortable the past becomes. And when that way of living becomes dominant, you are more likely to surround yourself with nostalgia-based communities that reinforce the same relationship with the past.
So, nostalgic thinking describes the relationship itself; nostalgic living describes what happens when that relationship with the past begins to organize how you live.
Forms of Nostalgic Living
I see three forms of nostalgic living.
Rooted Nostalgic Living — predominantly maladaptive
This is where nostalgic energy is heavily concentrated within an individual and strongly influences how they live and relate to things. It can be overt or covert, conscious or unconscious, and it can exist alongside optimistic, pessimistic, or dormant nostalgia.
***An important distinction is that concentrated nostalgic energy describes where nostalgic energy is concentrated, (this can be anything; person, place, or thing) while rooted nostalgic living is a form of nostalgic living describes how deeply that energy has become rooted in an individual’s way of living.
Flexible Nostalgic Living — partially adaptive
In this form of nostalgic living you are still progressing and transforming while carrying nostalgic remnants with you. You have a progressive identity, but there are still pieces of the past present within it. Those nostalgic remnants can become blockages if they go unaddressed.
Transformative Nostalgic Living — adaptive
In transformative living, you have your nostalgic roots, but those roots anchor your transformation rather than keeping you stuck. You remain connected to where you came from, but that connection supports transformation instead of passive progression.
Concentrated Nostalgic Energy
Concentrated nostalgic energy is when nostalgic energy becomes strongly concentrated within a specific space.
That space can be a family, a community, an institution, a tradition, an object, or society. It’s when the relationship with the past becomes concentrated enough to influence the energy and way that a particular space operates or how it’s perceived.
Nostalgic Traditions and Customs
Concentrated nostalgic energy exist in physical spaces where nostalgic thinking and nostalgic living can be seen and reinforced.
I believe some cultural traditions and customs rooted in nostalgia are harmful in today’s time. (Low-key, you could consider them to be harmful during any time period, but hey, I digress) I’m not saying every custom or tradition has to be forgotten about, of course not. But some customs within certain traditions don’t necessarily enhance or advance anything. They can actually work against progress while continuing to be practiced because of nostalgia, tradition, and the desire to maintain belonging.
Overt and Covert Nostalgic Individuals
Overt and covert nostalgia describe how consciously someone recognizes their relationship with the past and the influence that relationship has on how they operate.
With an overt nostalgic, you know you’re nostalgic. You know that you think about the past often, reminisce, yearn for it, or consciously relate to it. But knowing that you’re nostalgic doesn’t necessarily mean you recognize how nostalgia is organizing your life. You can live nostalgically through a pessimistic or optimistic nostalgic lens.
Remember nostalgic living is more than a frame of thought. It is a way of organizing your life.
You can know that you think about the past without recognizing how that relationship with the past influences how you perceive things, process information, relate to other people, make sense of what is happening around you, or position yourself toward the future.
With a covert nostalgic, you may not consciously recognize that your relationship with the past is influencing how you operate. This can sound similar to dormant nostalgia, but the two concepts are not identical: dormant nostalgia describes a nostalgic relationship that is not currently active but can become activated by certain situations, causing you to navigate them through a nostalgic lens, while a covert nostalgic describes someone whose nostalgia consistently influences how they operate without consciously recognizing it.
So, you aren’t necessarily reminiscing or actively missing something, but you can still operate through a past-based lens. You process information, respond to people, interpret situations, or approach the present through ways of thinking that are rooted in the past without consciously recognizing that nostalgia is influencing you.
Overt and covert nostalgia describe the level of conscious awareness someone has of their nostalgic relationship, while optimistic, pessimistic, transformative, and dormant nostalgia describe the nature or state of that relationship. These categories can overlap rather than functioning as mutually exclusive types.
Framework
Nostalgic thinking = how often or how strongly the past is in someone's psyche.
Forms of nostalgic thinking = how that relationship to the past is experienced or related to.
Nostalgic living = what happens when that relationship starts organizing behavior and life.
Forms of nostalgic living = how deeply/differently that relationship becomes integrated into life.
Overt/covert = whether the person recognizes it.
Concentrated nostalgic energy = where nostalgia becomes concentrated/reinforced.
Nostalgic personality = when these patterns become consolidated into a person's overall way of operating.
Nostalgic Personalities
A nostalgic personality, as I’m conceptualizing it, is when nostalgic thinking, nostalgic living, and connection to nostalgia-based communities become consolidated into how someone operates.
They may think nostalgically, either consciously or unconsciously. They may live through a past lens, and remain heavily connected to spaces that reinforce that way of living. This can happen through social media, family, institutions, or other communities they are deeply involved in. After I started thinking about nostalgic personalities, I realized that the concept comes from a feeling I get from certain people.
Some people just feel nostalgic to me.
There’s something weirdly comforting about them, and sometimes they can feel very familiar. But there can also be something heavy and daunting about them. It’s almost like nostalgia itself becomes personified through their energy—bittersweet, well, at least that’s how I personally would describe feelings of nostalgia. It’s the sweetness of familiarity existing alongside the weight of what they carry from the past.
What I’ve noticed is that this feeling doesn’t always look the same.
People who openly yearn for the past through optimistic nostalgia can sometimes carry a heavier, colder, or more melancholic energy toward the present. Because they view the past so positively, they can have flashes of sweetness when they are within that nostalgic energy or chasing it. But when they aren’t experiencing that feeling, there can be a stronger sense of melancholy or heaviness.
Then there are people who carry nostalgia through unresolved or traumatic experiences, through pessimistic nostalgia, or people who operate through nostalgia without consciously recognizing it. They can carry a warmer and more sentimental energy. They can still be doleful or melancholic because of what they’ve experienced, but there can be a familiarity to them that feels comforting at times (at least to me).
I think the difference has something to do with how the person is positioned toward their past.
When someone yearns for the past, there is a tension between what was and what is. That tension can create a heavier feeling, especially when the present doesn’t feel like what they want it to be.
When someone carries the past through unresolved trauma, the relationship can become more sentimental and familiar, even when the memories themselves are painful. The pain and familiarity can exist at the same time.
So, from what I’ve observed, optimistic nostalgia can sometimes lean toward a more bitter presentation, while pessimistic and dormant nostalgia can sometimes carry a softer or sweeter presentation.
But both can still carry that same bittersweet quality.
The sweetness is what feels familiar, while the bitterness comes through unhealed nostalgic remnants that ruminate and destabilize a person’s sense of self and identity within the present. That doesn’t necessarily mean their personality is bitter or toxic, but that bitterness can show up in their life and in the way they relate to things.
The feeling of a nostalgic person reminds me of going back to my childhood home and realizing that I experienced both trauma and love there.
The nostalgic person has the ability to hold those two feelings at the same time—the sweetness of what was familiar and the bitterness of what also existed there. I’m still working my way around what exactly makes a nostalgic personality feel nostalgic beyond these observations. But so far, I see three components: a nostalgic way of thinking, a nostalgic way of living, and a nostalgia-based community surrounding the individual.
Together, those three things can consolidate into a nostalgic personality.
Concentrated Nostalgic Energy in Social Media Apps
We live in the digital age, and I believe these apps create levels of consciousness and ways of living that reinforce how people think, relate, and position themselves toward the past.
People can begin to absorb that way of thinking or become stuck within it. I think this is one of the main forms of nostalgic living, especially among younger people.
And it’s funny because, like, we’re so young. Why are we so nostalgic?
I’m going to go over some apps that I think carry nostalgic energy, and I’m not really talking about the actual apps themselves. Digitally, these apps aren’t necessarily nostalgic. They constantly update their features and change how they’re used.
But the people and energy within them can be.
These are my observations of these spaces, not a statement that everyone who uses them is nostalgic.
First on the list: Facebook.
I remember there was a joke going around on Twitter, now known as X, back in the day that whenever something would happen, Facebook would be the last to know about it (LOL), I think the joke is worth noting , it’s not the main observation though. I think it’s interesting how there is an energy behind the way people within the space relate to information, topics, culture, and what is happening around them.
I need to observe it more, but I’ve noticed a similar attitude among the people concentrated on this space.
Next on the list is Instagram, specifically with an emphasis on The Shade Room.
I can’t completely put my finger on what creates that feeling yet, but it has a similar energy to Facebook, just in an Instagram sense.
And again, I’m interested in seeing how people relate to information, topics, people, and what is happening around them.
Still exploring Snapchat…
Okay, so I’m in between with this one.
Snapchat feels nostalgic as an app itself.
I haven’t used Snapchat in a long time, but I recently went back on it for research purposes, and what stood out to me was how individualized it feels. It may carry nostalgic remnants, but when it comes to the people on it, I’m not sure they necessarily carry that same sense of nostalgia. There isn’t the same kind of feed-driven commentary or nostalgia-based community that I associate with some of the other platforms.
So I’m still figuring this one out.
Not So Nostalgic: Twitter/X and TikTok
Twitter/X and TikTok are also extremely popular apps, but in my opinion, nostalgic people don’t necessarily dominate these spaces.
Even when nostalgic people use these apps, I feel like the dominant energy is different. The algorithms can feel more out there, more spaced out, and more connected to free thinking and platforming. I wouldn’t necessarily call that energy progressive, although these platforms can expose people to more progressive information depending on their algorithm and what they’re exposed to. There’s just a different level of interaction happening within these spaces. Preservation and programming are still happening, but I don’t see Twitter/X and TikTok as nostalgia-based communities in the same way.
Instead, I think they bring on a different energy that leans more toward pessimism.
So, to me, there is something like progressive pessimism happening, an energy that can be more progressive in its attitudes but still carrying nostalgic remnants and ties. (Just my personal opinion) I won’t be expanding on this in this series but maybe in another blog post.
But that’s where I’m at with the vocabulary and the social media side of this theory so far.
Stay tuned for more!
Dictionary
Nostalgic Thinking
How often or how strongly someone relates to or thinks about the past.
Optimistic Nostalgia
A yearning for the past in which the past is viewed positively or idealized, potentially making it difficult to fully move forward when something about the past remains unresolved or not fully lived out.
Pessimistic Nostalgia
A negatively charged relationship with the past rooted in unresolved issues, trauma, regret, resentment, or unresolved feelings.
Transformative Nostalgia
A relationship with the past that allows experiences, memories, and influences to inform transformation without becoming limitations on the present or future.
Dormant Nostalgia
A relationship with the past that is not currently active in conscious thought but can become activated by certain experiences, situations, people, or environments and influence how someone navigates them.
Nostalgia-Based Community
A community in which collective identity and belonging are repeatedly reinforced through a shared relationship with the past.
Nostalgic Living
A way of living in which a relationship with the past influences how someone navigates the present and future.
Overt Nostalgic
Someone who is consciously aware of their nostalgic relationship with the past and recognizes that nostalgia influences how they think, but they may not understand how it influences the way they operate in their life.
Covert Nostalgic
Someone whose nostalgia influences how they think, relate, and operate without consciously recognizing that nostalgia is influencing them.
Concentrated Nostalgic Energy
When nostalgic energy becomes strongly concentrated within a specific space—including a person, place, thing, family, community, institution, tradition, or society.
Rooted Nostalgic Living
A form of nostalgic living in which nostalgic energy becomes deeply rooted within an individual, strongly influencing how they live, navigate, and relate to the present.
Flexible Nostalgic Living
A form of nostalgic living in which someone continues to progress and transform while carrying nostalgic remnants from the past. Those remnants can become blockages when they go unaddressed.
Transformative Nostalgic Living
A form of living in which nostalgic roots anchor transformation rather than prevent it. The past remains connected to the individual while still allowing them to move forward.
Nostalgic Personality
A conceptualization of personality in which nostalgic thinking, nostalgic living, and connection to nostalgia-based communities become consolidated into how an individual operates.
Thank you for reading.
— Sibyl¹¹
꒷꒦♛❤︎