Can nostalgia help us through lockdown?

Many people are finding different ways to deal with the challenges lockdown brings.

Quizzes held through our phones’ video capabilities, story time on Twitter, living room gigs on Instagram, and opportunities for fans to join together and immerse themselves in old sporting events, films and popular TV shows.

These shared experiences have included re-runs of England’s 1990 World Cup semi-final against Germany and episodes of Doctor Who where actors and production crew tweet along. There are more feel-good moments scheduled for the summer, such as the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Andy Murray’s first Wimbledon win. Even Eurovision, another cancelled event, is re-running previous competitions while fans chat about it ‘live’ on Twitter.

So while we’re living under restrictions to prevent coronavirus spreading, is this nostalgia boosting our mental wellbeing? Are regular reminders of our passions and interests, when we can't realistically involve ourselves in them, going to do us more harm than good? To find out, BBC Bitesize spoke to Professor Tim Wildschut, one of a team of experts in the subject based at the University of Southampton.

Prior to the pandemic, their research found that loneliness and social exclusion can be a trigger for nostalgia, as Prof Wildschut explained.

“Nostalgia is a very social emotion,” he said. “So when we look at what people are nostalgic about, it’s often relationships. It’s a way of acquiring proximity to people who are special, even if they’re not physically present. For a moment, it’s like they’re there with you, and you feel less lonely.”

Now people have to observe the rules of lockdown, the more time passes, the more noticeable the differences between our past life and the present one become. It can also be a reason why we seek out nostalgia.

Prof Wildschut said: “These present circumstances are [unpleasant] for a number of reasons. We experience a lack of social connection. The other is that it’s a disruption to our life. There’s a break in the usual continuity between past, present and future.”

Not only is joining in with former Doctor Who actor Matt Smith, as he live tweets his memories of an episode, a great way to distract yourself from lockdown for 45 minutes, Prof Wildschut suggests that this kind of activity is also bringing some much-needed hope into people’s lives as well.

He said: “You realise there’s a common thread through your life. I know what I was like in the past, I can see that I’m still the same person now, and I’ll probably be the same person in the future, so it reinforces a sense of self-continuity.”

Basically, while everything around us may seem so different at the moment, and perhaps unnerving, nostalgia can serve to remind us that we are still the same person. That fan who enjoyed those sporting or pop culture moments the first time around, when current restrictions weren’t in place, is still there.

“Nostalgia increases optimism,” Prof Wildschut continued. “The past serves as a template for what the future will look like. It reminds you of what was good in the past, what you enjoyed doing, the things you enjoyed engaging with and the people you love. That provides you with a model of what the future will be like.”

There may be sayings which warn about living in the past, but Prof Wildschut says his research has never shown majorly adverse effects of nostalgia. However, it may be painful for people to be reminded of those they have lost, and he advises against forcing potentially nostalgic experiences on people.

But for now, it can act as a kind of beacon in uncertain times.

“At the moment, everything is different,” he said. “But I know what was valuable in the past. And I know those things will come back.”