To bolster our analysis, my research team also conducted a representative survey this year of more than 2,000 adults in the United States. We found that most Gen Z adults — 68 percent — reported feeling nostalgic for eras before their lifetime.

In other words, nostalgia is, counterintuitively, a future-oriented endeavor. We draw on it to resolve our dissatisfactions in the present and to move forward with hope and determination. Yes, nostalgia can be indulged. But for most people, most of the time, it is a stabilizing and energizing force.

Sixty percent of Gen Z adults said that they wished they could return to a time before everyone was “plugged in.”

Most of my research on nostalgia has focused on the sentimental engagement with cherished memories from one’s own life. But people can also feel nostalgic for a past that predates them, which is known as historical nostalgia.