Nostalgia: A Dangerous Drug

With the recent reinvigorated obsession with Seinfeld thanks to every episode being made available on Hulu, it feels as though a time warp back to the 90s is, once again, in full effect. Between Hulu’s re-creation of Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment as a museum in the Meatpacking District and the Brooklyn Cyclones re-making Kramerica Industries Park, the passion for the show is more crazed than it was even when it was actually on the air. The same thing happened when every season of Ally McBeal and Friends became available on Netflix.

So what’s the harm in revisiting pop culture past? It limits one’s ability to grow and change with the present. Sure, it’s one thing to occasionally revisit a show you loved as a teen or child, but to re-watch every episode back to back borders on the regressive. Enjoy an episode here and there, but don’t binge watch until you’re gorged on memories of the past that didn’t even happen to you personally.

The dangers of giving in to this overt sort of yearning for the past force you to remain trapped in that particular pocket of time, convinced that nothing can ever be better or as good as the way it used to be. This mode of thinking is a breeding ground for negativity, of thinking that only one specific point in time was worth being happy in because of the pop culture one associates with it. But alas, it’s important to move on with the times, while still having a healthy reverence for the past without remaining completely stuck in it. Consider this the next time you nearly overdose on nostalgia.