Hey Millennials! We're Cool Again, But Why?

As an early stage millennial who's been around for both the pre and post-internet era, I recall reading many articles that lamented our obsession with phones and computers, and prophesied the end of civilization as we knew it.?

But when Gen-Z emerged on the scene, I was overjoyed to see them take up the generational disaster torch in one hand, and the latest TikTok dance trend in the other.

I thought we were united in our identities as misunderstood generations, yet to my surprise, they seemed to harbor disdain for our skinny jeans, cultural norms, and the fact that we were raised by boomers!

However, according to Meta's Culture Rising Report, they have come around, with one in five Gen-Zers globally admitting they find inspiration in the trends of the '90s and early '00s. This includes music, video game collecting, point-and-shoot cameras, and fashion.

But what explains this fondness for the past??

There have been psychology studies conducted on individuals from their late teens to their early 50s that shed light on why people tend to think positively of the past, and narrowed it down to two causes:

#1 - Pleasant Events Outnumber Unpleasant Events

Positive events tend to outnumber the negative ones since folks try to seek out positive experiences and shun the bad ones. A dozen studies undertaken by five research teams have verified this finding that individuals experience more cheerful occurrences than gloomy ones in their lifetimes.

That's not to say that life is all sunshine and rainbows, as approximately 7% of the study's participants found the opposite to be true.?

#2 - Minimization

Research suggests that our brain tends to hold onto pleasant memories longer than unpleasant ones. This could be because of a psychological process called "minimization," where we try to reduce the impact of negative events in order to maintain our overall happiness. This process happens naturally, both in our brain and in our behavior, and tends to be more effective for negative events than positive ones. Hence more bandwidth and memory is given to positive emotions and experiences.

With these two explanations in mind, retrocore is likely to remain a reliable marketing and messaging technique. Referencing earlier periods associates that message with a "simpler, more pleasant time." Hence why lots of materials take on the aesthetic of previous decades. You might even recall certain campaign slogans, such as "Make America Great Again." that rely on this same principle.

With that in mind, thank you Gen-Z for mending the fences. Now it leaves me to wonder which decade Generational Alpha will be reminiscing about through their VR headsets ????.