A friend of mine on Facebook shared an interesting post that attempted to explain why we feel nostalgic for things from our childhoods. The author of the post argued that we feel nostalgic for our childhoods because our present lives aren't any good.

Nah. That’s crap. Life isn’t worse for me. It’s different. In many ways it’s better. My personal life is at its best. I do think today’s culture sucks in comparison. I think the nostalgia comes from experiencing the first of everything. In our youth everything is new and exciting. Now we feel like there can’t be anything new or good under the sun.

Vaporman87 wrote :

Nah. That’s crap. Life isn’t worse for me. It’s different. In many ways it’s better. My personal life is at its best. I do think today’s culture sucks in comparison. I think the nostalgia comes from experiencing the first of everything. In our youth everything is new and exciting. Now we feel like there can’t be anything new or good under the sun.

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I much prefer this theory for the origin of nostalgia. The other one doesn't allow for an explanation for why those with happy lives feel nostalgic, and that leaves out a large group of people since I'd wager that everyone feels a little nostalgia sometimes.

Vaporman nailed it. When you're young and don't know much, the excitement of new experiences combined with more time for enjoyment (less responsibilities, etc.) becomes a powerful memory.

The simplest answer is not always best.

Firstly, I think we might have a positive bias through the lens of a child. 

I've been looking into this subject for a while now and in some cases, yeah that's the case. I'm with Vapor on this one. Though there can be numerous reasons for people to be nostalgic. 

Nostalgia has a psychological effect. Everytime we think about something nostalgic, we have smiles on our faces.

My life as an adult is far better than my life as a child and teenager, and even life in my 20s. Besides therapy and medication, pop culture, especially my love of the pop culture of the 1980s, is one of the reasons that I was able to survive 21 years of emotional turmoil, from September of 1991 to December of 2012, to become the man I am today.

It makes me think about all those nostalgia themed Twilight Zone episodes. Where the character was having a hard time coping with their life in the present time and then somehow goes back in time or something it's different depending on the episode. The episodes usually end in the same way saying something like you have to live in the present.

A few years ago I was depressed and I wanted to go back to 1993. Was my life really that much better? After I thought about it sure I was unemployed and miserable, but did I want to be 9 years old again being bullied by the kids who lived on my street in bad haircuts?

pikachulover wrote :

It makes me think about all those nostalgia themed Twilight Zone episodes. Where the character was having a hard time coping with their life in the present time and then somehow goes back in time or something it's different depending on the episode. The episodes usually end in the same way saying something like you have to live in the present.
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These last few evenings I've been watching Twilight Zone episodes, and it's apparent that nostalgia, or a longing for "the old days", was a theme used very, very often in the stories.