Buena Vista Television

Simpler Times: Why Millennials Will Always Miss 'The Good Old Days'

Memory Lane is not an actual, physical street.

Lately, for Millennials, it's been displayed in the reboot of movies, food and fashion accessories. They're everywhere you look.

"Jurassic World," "Fuller House," "Girls Meets World," "Space Jam 2," you name it, they are remaking it.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and Internet articles (not much different than this one) are focusing on the “Remember when?” as they are front and center once again.

So, the big question is, why? Why are we so obsessed with nostalgia?

It's a big question with a simple answer. They were our “good old days.”

They are called the “good old days” for a reason. Every generation has them. We are not the first or the last generation to witness this revival of our past.

I'm feeling much like how I imagine my parents felt when I started asking them for bell-bottom jeans and peasant tops in middle school.

Just the other day, I said to my father, “I still love buying CDs as opposed to downloading the MP3 versions.”

And his response?

“I still listen to records, Alicia.”

Revivals and reboots will always exist because there will always be a built-in fan base, thanks to nostalgia.

Nostalgia has a way of erasing the daily annoyances we experienced, and it leaves behind only the warm, fuzzy feelings.

I come across a familiar smell, place or song on the radio, and I instantly feel comforted by days gone by.

I am transported back in time to childhood, when my world was just a few streets wide, when my main concern was running out of daylight before making it home for dinner.

They were the times before I had to worry about other things running out like time, luck or money.

Yes, even just for a moment, life is simple again.

Before the days of instantaneous uploading, endless retakes and airbrushing, there was me, my friends and a disposable camera.

It was cheap, rectangular plastic that housed grainy film. It didn’t matter if we blinked, if the angle was bad or if one of our fingers ended up in the top right corner.

I always framed the best ones to protect the memories, not the photos.

Before the days of anyone being able to reach you at any moment through a small mobile device ringing in your pocket, in your ear, on your wrist or through the speakers of your car, there were landlines.

My friends knew my siblings and my parents because they had to call my house and ask to speak with me. If I missed the call, I wouldn’t know it until I got home.

As my life continues to get stored more and more in “the cloud,” and not in the sticky pages of a photo album, I find myself thinking back to before it was the “norm” to watch a live concert through the screen of our phones.

I catch myself missing certain aspects of not only my childhood, but the days before we became so interconnected and complicated.

Sometimes, I feel better just by putting on Netflix and watching a TV show that has long since been cancelled.

Nostalgia is like a security blanket.

The “good old days” were a simpler time that allowed for a simpler life and, therefore, a simpler “us.”

And sometimes, I really believe we were simply happier then.