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Nostalgia has become increasingly common in our current climate of accelerated, unexpected change. More and more Americans are turning back with longing to what feels like simpler, sweeter times. You need look no further than the voluminous postings on Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday on Twitter. Boomers and Gen Xers alike seem particularly fascinated by the 1980s, recalling their youth or early adulthood in the years before the life-altering arrival of personal computers and the internet. They collect cassette tapes, vinyl LPs, Polaroid cameras, manual typewriters, even decades-old video games which they play on primitive consoles.
Is it a mistake to get too mired in the past? Some psychologists warn that too much devotion to the so-called good old days is an escape from reality; it can indicate loneliness or that a person is having a difficult time coping in the present. Writing about what she calls the “nostalgia trap” in