Netflix and Nostalgia
Nostalgia has crept up on us all at some point or another, but now for the first time in history, it has become such a widespread and intense phenomenon that Millennials and Gen Z’s have been dubbed the “Nostalgia Generation”. Were the Hannah Montana movies that good? Is everyone genuinely that attached to the Ice Bucket Challenge and conspiracy theories about hearing subliminal satanic messages when you play an Ariana Grande song backward? Maybe. There are many possible theories behind why nostalgia has such a hold on this generation. One explanation that has come up time and time again in conversation is that of the modern economy, namely the instability of it, and the rise of mass production in American media as a marketing strategy.
For decades, most of the capital goods, consumer goods, industrial goods, automotive, and a significant amount of food, feed & beverages have come from importation, leaving America in a trade deficit as it spends more on importation than it gains from exportation (Webber, 2020). Hypothetically, what happens to a country heavily involved in international trade if a deadly pandemic hits the world, reducing domestic and global consumption? American consumption went down, as did the consumption of citizens in the countries importing American goods. America witnessed its steepest quarterly drop in economic output, a new record as this has been the first time since 1947 that quarterly Gross Domestic Product experienced a drop higher than 3% (Bauer et al., 2020). Job losses were at an all-time high as quarantine had forced many businesses and sectors to shut their doors. People who worked in the tourism sector were among the many who found themselves struggling as well since travel had come to a halt and tourists were no longer strolling into American airports by the thousands. Among many of the studies done on job loss during the pandemic, one focusing on jobs that included employer-sponsored insurance found that roughly 7.7 million workers were let go during this recession – a hit that affected both them and their dependents who relied on that health insurance (Woodbury & Fronstin, 2020). All of this doesn’t paint a pretty picture, and it’s understandable that people were going through a rough time, considering the effects of isolation during quarantine, the uncertainty of what a post-covid world would look like, and the economic instability resulting in job loss. People were struggling financially and mentally – and still are, judging by the spike in mental health problems that hit both during COVID-19 then once again at the end of 2021 where it has remained at a consistent low, as the world moves on from one issue to the next and living costs continue to climb (Blanchflower & Bryson, 2022).
Young adults especially have been taking a mental and emotional hit during these times. With one foot in the future, many of their plans have been disrupted or thrown into chaos. After all, no one had a deadly pandemic and the international boycotting of Russia on their bingo cards. One way of coping with these events and uncertainty has been nostalgia, defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period with happy personal associations”. When one is scared or anxious over the present or future, it’s not unlikely that they’ll look to the past for comfort and stability, a time when there was an established routine, and where outcomes were predictable. As a generation, it isn’t surprising that this is happening on a collective level since everyone had to deal with COVID-19 and its effects in some way or another. It has happened historically as well, after outbreaks and political problems, and other issues that affected the public en masse. In fact, when nostalgia first became a topic of discussion back in the 1600s, it was referred to as “the evil of the heart” and considered a medical diagnosis until the 19th century (Johnson, 2020). Clearly, then, nostalgia has been around for a while and so have global issues. So what makes this generation different?
At least one key difference lies in the patterns of consumption and marketing employed in recent years. A lot of marketing strategies and companies rely on instant gratification to lull in consumers, an example best illustrated by Netflix and its marketing technique of mass production and release of content. Binge-watching culture, the trend of watching entire shows or spending prolonged amounts of time-consuming media in one setting, has become prominent thanks to Netflix’s “binge-watching model” which has become popular with other streaming platforms as well. The binge-watching model refers to the strategy of releasing an entire season all at once instead of following traditional release models that put out one episode at a time. This seemed like a solid idea in the start – exploiting instant gratification. The activation of instant gratification causes the body to release dopamine, which according to a widely accepted theory in neuroscience, motivates the behavior that activated it and reinforces it by strengthening synaptic connections between neurons, making it more likely for this behavior to be repeated in the future (Zhang, 2022). People have immediate access to the entire show, and can instantly gratify themselves instead of having to wait a week for the next episode, and the cycle repeats itself until it becomes a pattern. Many have even likened it to addiction, which helps to explain the rapid growth in binge culture.
But as it grows, companies like Netflix must keep up with the demand. When you’re pushing out hundreds of new titles and episodes on a near-monthly basis because you’re more focused on quantity over quality, you eventually start running out of ideas and losing substance – and it seems the consumers have noticed that too. The number of people on social media and viral tweets complaining about how low the quality of media has gotten has slowly been rising over the past two years, and even Forbes picked up on the trend and stepped into the discussion with an article analyzing how low Netflix movie ratings have been lately (Tassi, 2022). This restlessness could also be chalked up to what has been dubbed “the paradox of choice” – a theory proposed by Barry Schwartz that assumes when someone is presented with many options, they will be dissatisfied no matter what they pick due to the stress of trying to figure out which option is the correct one, and the nagging feeling that perhaps if they had made a different choice when they had the chance they would’ve been happier. This is, essentially, a more sophisticated version of “the grass is greener on the other side”.
Not only does mass release and production lead to dissatisfaction and borderline addiction, it also leads to isolation. Gone are the days when you only had a couple of channels and everyone was keeping up with the same three shows that aired once a week. Gone are the days of suspense and spending the week theorizing with the community and classmates around you over what might happen next, or discussing that night’s events. Now with thousands of titles and personalized recommendations, everyone watches the titles curated for them at their own pace. Besides, thanks to (once again) the sheer amount of content on these platforms and the constant access people have to it whenever they want, the content is being consumed at too fast a pace to allow enough time in between for any meaningful discussion or reflection. It’s onto the next trend, onto the next series. And this pattern of isolation, addiction, and dissatisfaction has spread to more than just media consumption – we can see it happening with things as simple as buying groceries. People no longer have to get up and hit their local stores. Instead, an entire array of options is at their fingertips just by opening an app like Amazon. Many everyday activities that allowed for interaction with the community have been replaced with instant gratification through apps and delivery services. This isolation and lack of day-to-day interaction for many people perhaps point to why there’s a yearning for days where there was more sense of community, where consumption had substance to it and one wasn’t constantly bombarded by having the entire world at their fingertips. It’s no wonder recent generations have developed such a heavy longing for the past, compared to the ones before them. Previous generations may not have had the same opportunities to connect and interact as we have. But, then, have we proven to be any less isolated?
Works Cited
Bauer, L. Ten facts about COVID-29 and the U.S. economy. Brookings.
Blanchflower, D. G., & Bryson, A. (2022). Covid and mental health in America. PloS one, 17(7), e0269855. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269855
Johnson, N. (2022). The surprising way nostalgia can help us cope with the pandemic. National Geographic.
Tassi, P. (2022). Netflix’s Quality Control Problem is Getting Worse, Not Better. Forbes.
Webber, M. (2022). U.S. Imports and Exports: Components and Statistics. The Balance.
Woodbury, S., & Fronstin, P. (2020). How Many Americans Have Lost Jobs with Employer Health Coverage During the Pandemic? The CommonWealth Fund.
Zhang, Y. (2022). New insights into the role of dopamine in reinforcement learning. Oxford Neuroscience.
