We have all seen nostalgic comments on music videos on YouTube, and they generally tend to suggest that music was better in the good old days. This might lead many to conclude that nostalgia is only associated with the last remaining vestiges of the distant past, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, a new study published in Applied Cognitive Psychology revealed that this isn’t necessarily true.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the researchers conducting this study analyzed a wide assortment of YouTube comments. Such a study is crucial because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up contextualizing how nostalgia works in the internet age.
One thing that this study revealed was that people generally tend to have the fondest memories from when they were between 15 and 30 years of age. However, the study also revealed that nostalgia can be for any time period, and people of varying age groups experience it in equal quantities with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Furthermore, music videos for songs that were released in the 21st century were found to be more likely to contain nostalgic YouTube comments. Older songs did not contain the same proportion, although this may be due to the lack of old people online. Regardless, even songs that are just a decade or so old have people feeling nostalgic over them, and many of these individuals are within the aforementioned 15 to 30 year old age bracket.
Older pieces of content showed less nostalgia, but more gratitude. Social media is changing how people think about the content that they consume, and it appears that it is shortening the time period between watching something or listening to a song and viewing it through a nostalgic lens. While there is no way to no the age of the users leaving the comments, it is quite clear that recent content experiences just as much nostalgia as what came before and perhaps even more.
Read next: 45% of Teens Remember YouTube Ads After Watching Them
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the researchers conducting this study analyzed a wide assortment of YouTube comments. Such a study is crucial because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up contextualizing how nostalgia works in the internet age.
One thing that this study revealed was that people generally tend to have the fondest memories from when they were between 15 and 30 years of age. However, the study also revealed that nostalgia can be for any time period, and people of varying age groups experience it in equal quantities with all things having been considered and taken into account.
Furthermore, music videos for songs that were released in the 21st century were found to be more likely to contain nostalgic YouTube comments. Older songs did not contain the same proportion, although this may be due to the lack of old people online. Regardless, even songs that are just a decade or so old have people feeling nostalgic over them, and many of these individuals are within the aforementioned 15 to 30 year old age bracket.
Older pieces of content showed less nostalgia, but more gratitude. Social media is changing how people think about the content that they consume, and it appears that it is shortening the time period between watching something or listening to a song and viewing it through a nostalgic lens. While there is no way to no the age of the users leaving the comments, it is quite clear that recent content experiences just as much nostalgia as what came before and perhaps even more.
Read next: 45% of Teens Remember YouTube Ads After Watching Them
