Nostalgic for the 2000s? Already ? | The Press

In the early 2000s, there was Britney Spears, the glossy lipstick, the bright colors, the cropped top. It was also the era of CDs, DVDs and Fury. Are we already nostalgic for this time when we lived without social networks?

Olivia Levy
The Press

Catherine Forget, 29, and Frédérique Paré, 28, founded Québec Nostalgie in 2019, an Instagram account with more than 80,000 subscribers. They are nostalgic for the 2000s, CDs, DVDs, the show In a galaxy near youand the greatest creative sloppiness that characterized this era.

“We created this page to remember the good old days and it feels good! Nostalgia is a comforting feeling that unites us. Makes you realize we’ve all been through things together, we’ve worn low rise jeans, we’ve watched Ramdam. This creates positive discussions in a caring atmosphere. I think we needed that,” explains Catherine Forget.

For Emmanuelle Fantin, professor and researcher at Sorbonne University, there is something comforting in nostalgia. “Studies show that watching a TV show related to childhood, it acts as a tranquilizer, it makes us feel good,” she says.

Frédérique Paré regrets the fragmented side of the 2000s. “We tried a lot of things, in all the universes. Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera marked the candy pop era, the looks were colorful, the accessories that overlap, the plastic bracelets… whereas today, we all dress the same, ”observes she.

Madeleine Goubau, lecturer at the ESG UQAM School of Fashion, recognizes that the 2000s were marked by rhinestones, sequins and glamour. “There was this festive and exuberant side. The young people did not know this time, but they appropriate the fashion of these years which seem so distant to them! There is a side vintage to wear crop topslow-rise pants with the string which exceeds ! We even see the reappearance of necklaces made of small plastic beads, ”she observes.

“You don’t need to have lived through an era to be nostalgic about it, since nostalgia is a process of idealizing the past,” emphasizes Emmanuelle Fantin.

Regret a not so distant past

And why be nostalgic for a time which, basically, is not so far from us?

“There was a big technological break between the 2000s and today. There have been many changes, CDs and DVDs have disappeared, there has been the birth of social networks. We are really somewhere else, we consume TV, cinema, music differently. It was the last decade before the digital age. So we have the feeling that the 2000s are more distant, even if it’s only been 20 years,” says Catherine Forget.

“What is new is that digital technology has greatly accelerated the phenomena of nostalgia, and it is therefore normal that we are nostalgic for earlier periods. There is a social acceleration of lived time, a technological acceleration and condensation of time, which means that we can be nostalgic for an increasingly recent period,” observes Emmanuelle Fantin.

According to Katharina Niemeyer, professor at UQAM’s School of Media and co-author of Contemporary nostalgia (with Emmanuelle Fantin), nostalgia is cyclical, but there is a before and after 2.0, which means the arrival of the new generation of technologies, a pivotal period that changed everything.

“There is now an overabundance of information,” says the professor. Many young people who were born with the internet are nostalgic for the time when it didn’t exist, what they didn’t experience. This nostalgia is genuine when you see, for example, the success of the series Stranger Things. »

Catherine Forget and Frédérique Paré continue to feed their Quebec Nostalgie Instagram account with passion. “This nostalgia gives rise to reflections on the past, one wonders if it was better before. Have we evolved? We measure socially where we are… In any case, we have understood the power of nostalgia. »

Idealize the past

Emmanuelle Fantin, however, warns young people who say that life was so much better before. “It is to choose a reading of the past that does not take into account the disadvantages of this same period. It’s like putting the past in a sieve to retain only the best, it’s the fantasy of the past,” she says.

She also observes that the social climate composed of political uncertainty encourages nostalgia. “The world is getting tougher. The more the society is in crisis, the more there is nostalgia. At the moment, between the war in Ukraine, the pandemic and the climatic problems, which are shaking society, we take refuge in nostalgia. The professor thinks that nostalgia is a new art of living, and that this trend will increase, because there will also be a before and after in relation to the pandemic.

“Nostalgia also allows us to overcome the crisis. It’s not just a refuge, it can also be very creative. There is this concern that we have about the future, there are people who are more nostalgic than others, more melancholy. It’s part of life, it’s normal to be, ”believes Professor Katharina Niemeyer.

What marked the 2000s