Nostalgia
On social media there are many who lament rather regularly the apparent capture of modern life by our technology and pine for their childhood - a time they remember “before technology took over.” The implication is that the good old days were better somehow. I reply that my childhood - and theirs, too - was positively filled with the technology of the time, and in that sense we were no different from today’s youngsters. Today is not more taken with, influenced or controlled by technology. It only seems that way.
The thing about the good old days - if we consider them critically - is that, in fact, they weren't really as good as we think they were. They never are. We imagine our temporality astride the present, looking back to the past and forward to the future. The first is reconstructed in memory, the second is just constructed, and both play upon the ‘now.’
Rosiness, or excessive optimism is one of the characteristics of nostalgia. Human beings are programmed to remember the good parts and forget, or neglect the bad. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to live with ourselves. But then, we fail to reflect on the credibility of our own memories using right reason. Memoirs are not the same thing as memories. Some call nostalgia a social virus. Others call it an innate human feature that contributes to psychological and social lucidity. I am very nostalgic myself, and I have a high regard for the past, f or history. It’s what I studied at college. But regarding my own time - the time I have lived - I try to remember things accurately and not to misrepresent them, or get carried away with the romance of the dream time.
A point I try to put across is that this kind of nostalgia mis-remembers and mis-represents the past. The past is not better than the present. It never was. I understand that social media sites that cater to or are dedicated to nostalgia help cultivate a kind of maudlin reminiscence, but still …. It's fine for people to have rosy memories of their childhood. I have, too. But let's not get too carried away with the BS.
But I could be wrong.