OPINION: Why nostalgia is taking over pop culture, and what that says about us?

By Trinity Agosta

 Everywhere you look, every time you open your phone, you see different ways that pop culture is stuck in reverse. Original Disney movies are being remade instead of new storylines being produced, every pop star is the new “modern Britney Spears,” low-rise jeans refuse to die, and even our parents are posting 2016 throwbacks. Nostalgia isn’t just trending. It’s dominating. To me, this clearly says less about our love for the past and more about our impending, unavoidable discomfort with the future. 

Celebrity culture makes this particularly impossible to ignore. Addison Rae’s most-liked Instagram post is a blurry mirror selfie taken on an iPhone 4 – it drastically outperforms carefully curated content in an era obsessed with perfection, high-definition photos, and aesthetics. Hailey Bieber proudly carries a flip phone. Kylie Jenner revived her “King Kylie’ era, defined by matte makeup, colored wigs, and reels to “Black Beatles” by Rae Sremmurd. Artists like Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish have built their entire careers around sounds borrowed from the late 90s and early 2000s.  

This isn't a coincidence. It's painting a (matte) picture of cultural yearning for a time that felt less exhausting and less artificial.  

 For young people, especially, the present feels too heavy. The “bright” future we all stand in front of is expensive, riddled with hostility, and uncertainty. Careers feel fragile, burnout feels inevitable, and success feels constantly out of reach. Oh, and forget the idea of buying your own house. Nostalgia offers an escape, not because the past was better, but because it felt simpler. It came with fewer choices, clearer expectations, and less pressure to optimize every part of existence. And pop culture is feeding this desire fervently.  

Corporations are more than willing to capitalize on this mindset. Nintendo released mini versions of the Switch, Coca-Cola revived its vintage glass bottles, and my roommate's digital camera is a hot commodity every time we go out. Nostalgia is safe, profitable, and easy to sell. Social media algorithms reinforce this loop, constantly resurfacing “simpler times” and shared memories that keep us emotionally anchored backward. Nostalgia itself isn’t the villain; remembering the past is important and meaningful. However, when an entire culture refuses to move forward and reside in the comfort of complacency, it reveals something uncomfortable: a generation unsure whether the future is worth looking toward.  

Pop culture and Gen Z’s obsession with the past isn’t about honoring history—it’s about discreetly avoiding what comes next.