TODAY’S POLL

LAST POLL RESULTS

47.7% of you voted No, it’s still too soon for either decade. in Friday’s poll: Have we reached the point where 21st-century decades deserve the same nostalgic treatment as the 20th century?

“Since my memories go back to the 1950s, it’s way too soon for new-millennium nostalgia.”

“I think proper nostalgia should be the 1980s and earlier. Every year after the 1980s is still too green — not yet ripe for nostalgia.”

“40 years for an antique. Sounds like a good rule of thumb.”

“Oh, forgive my comment, but the 21st century hasn’t been that interesting, excluding COVID. Everything has been technology — man-made, but not natural or organically shared. The 20th century had much more of people coming together for… well, fill in the blank. It just feels more human and original.”

“My favorite century will always be the 20th!”

“What would be the basis for nostalgia? So much of this century’s music, images, design, and architecture are based on ideas, conventions, and inventions from the last century. Nothing to yearn for has happened over the past 25 years (do we yearn for 9/11, the 2008 recession, or a 2005 Toyota Tacoma?), and yearning is a key component of nostalgia.”

“Nostalgia should be at least 25 years. So, we’re close.”

“I think we need to be in the 2030s, at least, before we consider the 2000s nostalgic.”

“When we get to the ’30s and ’40s, we can start looking back on the 2000s and the 2010s.”

“GIVE IT TIME. EVERY OTHER DECADE WAITED ITS TURN.”

“Look forward!”

“I’m good with forgetting everything after 2016.”

“But then, nostalgia is relevant to the individual.”

“With the whole before-the-pandemic and after-the-pandemic divide, those decades do, in fact, feel like different times to me already.”

“I went with yes on the 2000s because my son is about to reach his first quarter-century birthday. I’m a tad nostalgic for when my son was born and how those times were right before social media really went haywire. I’m not so fond of what society is like now, but I’m hoping to head into a brighter future after November!”

“Because of social media and the influence of the online world, the momentum of cultural and social trends and moments has accelerated so much. Things come and go so rapidly. Nostalgia requires distance, so I think it’s easier to feel nostalgic about things in the recent past because they disappear so quickly from the cultural zeitgeist. ‘Remember when’… one could be talking about something from just five years ago.”

“Hear me out: Remember Britney Spears dancing with knives, wondering how often men think about the Roman Empire, Barbenheimer, Damar Hamlin collapsing during a Bills-Bengals game, and Taylor and Travis becoming an item? It seems like forever ago, but it was only 2023 — three years ago. Realistically, every passing year could get the nostalgia treatment.”

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