The overnight success of Instagram, sold to Facebook in a billion dollar deal earlier this year, is a testament to the current longing for nostalgia in the digital age. It's true product, Ian Crouch recently blogged at the New Yorker, is instant nostalgia. The icon is an old camera, the "gram" echoes telegram, and the filters offer a range of effects that make digital photos look like those in old family photo albums. One of Instrgram's founders, Mike Krieger, majored in an interdisciplinary program that included coding and psychology. Krieger's old professor, the New York Times reported in April, described Instagram as "not a technology triumph" but rather a "design and psychology triumph." Instagram mimics the psychological distance of old photos, or memories themselves, and acts in essence as an instant nostalgia trigger.
Chuck Klosterman writes a fascinating article about nostalgia and the digital age:
In the year 2011, I don’t know why anyone would listen to any song every day for a year. Even if it was your favorite song, it would be difficult to justify. It would be like going to the New York Public Library every morning and only reading Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Music is now essentially free, so no one who loves music is limited by an inability to afford cassettes. Radio is less important than it used to be (which means songs can’t be regularly inflicted on audiences), MTV only shows videos when no one is watching, and Spotify is a game-changer.
The way humans react to having everything (music, movies, books) available at all times in the digital age is a topic I keep coming back to. It seems like a major shift in culture, and it fascinates me how it will affect our children and grandchildren.
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