Millenial Identity & Nostalgia: Looking Back for the ‘Burnout Generation’

In a previous blog post I talked about how nostalgia is more prevalent and accessible in the internet age. As part of that discussion I mentioned that millenials have a stronger sense of nostalgia and promised that it was a blog post for another day…and that day, my friends, has now arrived.

There’s something about millenials and nostalgia that really fascinates me. We’ve been called the most nostalgic generation; we’ve bought into the comeback of 90s fashion, Pokémon Go, vinyl records and more Disney remakes than you can shake a Polaroid at. What is it about us, as young adults, that provokes this fascination with the past? And just what the heck makes millenials so special anyway?

More than most previous generations, we grew up in a period of extraordinary change. The generally accepted definition of millenials is people born between the early 80s and mid 90s (putting your lovely author among the youngest millenials), which means we were growing into adulthood as the internet started to become more commonplace.

The major impact this had was to mark a divide between our childhoods and teenage/young adult years. Everyone from all generations has romanticised their childhood as a time when things were simpler; this was literally true for millenials, who were the last group of children to grow up without the World Wide Web at their fingertips. (I realise that being shipped off to fight in World War One, for example, was even more life-changing for young people, but the rise of the internet was subtler and more insidious, presenting a different kind of danger.) As we figured out our first steps into being grown-ups, the world around us was changing almost too rapidly for everyone to keep up. The most advanced technology I had in primary school was a GameBoy, and having a mobile phone in secondary school was still a luxury, at least until the last year or so (and none of them were connected to the internet).

When we look back at our childhoods, they genuinely were easier to navigate and less complicated because we didn’t really have social media to contend with – we were the last set of kids who played outside, watched (regular) TV or read books as the absolute norm. Looking at social media now, I’m so incredibly grateful that it wasn’t around when I was a teenager; I stressed about my friendships enough without a record of all our interactions online forever!

For older millenials, there was also the issue of the 2008 financial crisis that resulted in a global recession. Graduates in their early twenties were starting their careers, leaving university and trying to find jobs when suddenly there were none, which made the transition into adulthood far more challenging than anyone had anticipated. As I mentioned last time there’s evidence to suggest that change triggers nostalgia, as does a craving for stability and emotional connection; as so many people watched their futures shift into something they hadn’t planned for, it’s unsurprising that they yearned for the ‘good old days’ when things were far more simple. (We might see a repeat of this with Gen Z, who are coming into adulthood now, while a pandemic wreaks havoc on economies worldwide.) It also feeds into the use of social media to find connections – in a time of uncertainty and loneliness, reconnecting with people from the past and sharing memories is a comfort.

It’s been reported that millenials are, generally, more affected by mental health issues than previous generations. This might partly be due to reduced stigma about reaching out for help, but some experts argue that we’ve been raised to experience burnout and suffer accordingly. Many millenial childhoods were optimised for maximum benefit, with pressure to get the best grades, join every after-school club (“it’ll look great on your personal statement!”) and make themselves “valuable” in every way possible – i.e. best suited to get a job and make money. As they grew up (and this is even more pressing for Gen Z) there was the additional pressure to have the perfect life portrayed on every social media account; the successful yet carefree businesswoman looking perfect in a suit, or the backpacker who jets around the world while seemingly never having to work. No wonder we all look back to a time when we were kids and had none of this pressure to live our absolute best lives 24/7!

For my part, I don’t feel that I was unduly pressured into being valuable at every minute of the day. I had a lot of hobbies, as both a kid and a teenager, and I’m incredibly grateful to my parents for giving me those opportunities without ever making me feel I had to gain multiple skills to be valuable. But I do put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed and live up to my own high standards. If I hadn’t had the unwavering support of my family, I would have continued to follow a career path I didn’t love because leaving it would have been considered a failure. I can see exactly how burnout occurs and how my generation might be particularly affected. And I definitely join the ranks of nostalgia-hungry young people – I live for old episodes of The Simpsons, rom-coms I watched as a teenager, music that soothed me at university. As I edge further into my mid-twenties the past does seem a lot more appealing.

Of course, major companies are beginning to tap into this millenial nostalgia to support their marketing campaigns. Millenials are sometimes seen as a difficult market to capture, as rising rents and stagnant wages mean they have less disposable income to spend on non-necessities, and their views on products rely heavily on word-of-mouth and internet reviews. Using their nostalgia for days past (but updating it so they don’t seem outdated) can forge emotional connections to products: just look at the success of Pokémon Go (and Detective Pikachu for that matter!) or the hundreds of Disney remakes that keep arriving in the cinema. It’s a loop that seems unlikely to change anytime soon.

So where does that leave us? We entered adulthood in a period of extreme change and uncertainty, having been told all our lives that success can be ours as long as we’re willing to work hard, and had that illusion shattered. We believed that social media was a reflection of real life, before any of us twigged that it was curated, filtered and edited more than any magazine. We look back for something simpler to offer some relief, only to have it exploited by the big businesses that have caused us all this hardship, so they can sell us films and games and Polaroid cameras. Without wishing to sound cynical, no wonder we all feel a little stuck in the past from time to time.

There’s nothing wrong with looking back, to be comforted or reassured that simpler times once existed and might exist again. Especially right now, as we face a global pandemic and economic crisis caused by The Great Lockdown (a catchy name for an ongoing event). The only danger is in letting it take over our lives, and forgetting that we have to move forward, like Harry Potter stuck in front of the Mirror of Erised. And with that in mind, please excuse me: I have some witchcraft and wizardry DVDs to rewatch.