Paulina Paucic

Matt Klein

Traditionally, nostalgia was private. It was tied to homesickness or personal memories, often tinged with loss. But in the 21st century, it’s become increasingly collective. Shared nostalgia – or “now-stalgia” – is generational and cultural. Think millennials reminiscing about indie sleaze. It spreads via memes, media and even political messaging.

Then there’s “new-stalgia” – a blend of personal, collective and what media theorist Alison Landsberg calls prosthetic memory: memories acquired not from lived experience but mass media. It’s nostalgia for things never personally lived – a phenomenon known as anemoia. Among Gen Z, for example, 35% feel nostalgic for the 1990s, despite being born in the 2000s.

Protein XYZ