The other day I was sitting with my friend and we were watching a marathon of old Disney movies while fondly remembering our childhoods. Movies like Camp Rock, Hannah Montana and High School Musical made up the fabric of our childhoods; watching them again brought back all those warm, fuzzy feelings and the comfort of feeling like a child who does not yet need to worry about the world.
This sparked an interesting conversation about what children and teens in this generation will look back on with similar fondness. With today’s fast-paced and abundant content consumption, it sometimes feels like maybe nothing will be able to make a lasting impact. And so we asked ourselves: what will the nostalgia of the future look like?
With over 34 million videos uploaded to TikTok everyday, 500 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute and the average household subscribing to over 3 streaming services, a lack of choice is never a problem for Gen Alpha and young Gen Zers.
However, this means that it is more difficult than ever for content to cut through and generate a strong emotional connection, especially when children and teens are watching an endless stream of videos about the most varied topics, from viral dance challenges to bizarre food combinations like chocolate-covered pickles.
According to Pew Research Center, nearly 1 in 5 teens (13-17) in the US said they were on YouTube and TikTok ‘almost constantly’, and Ofcom’s Children’s Media Lives study found that rapidity, drama and extremity are the main ingredients of popular videos - generating content which elicits quick and intense emotional reactions but lacks depth and does not require much effort or focus.
The low cognitive load and quick dopamine hit makes it easy to accidentally spend hours on these platforms after muttering ‘just one more video’, while scrolling through a seemingly endless stream of random content. Since repetition is important for memory consolidation, fixing something in memory is undoubtedly much harder when you are coming across hundreds of videos in one sitting - meaning every individual video gets lost in the crowd, failing to cause a lasting impact.
Still, nostalgia - like everything else in life - evolves with each generation. Amidst the endless flood of random videos and social media trends, kids are forming their own shared experiences which may be looked back on with the same fondness I feel when I reminisce about watching Disney Channel movies with my friends after a long day at school.
Platforms like TikTok and viral internet trends have become defining cultural moments, creating shared memories unique to this generation. Take the Renegade dance trend for example, which brought over 30 million people together to attempt the tricky dance moves, or Among Us, a game that united kids and teens all over the world during quarantine to team up, bond and spur the creation of iconic memes and phrases like ‘sus’ and ‘imposter’.
In a generation marked by pandemic and growing social isolation, the internet and online communities have undoubtedly become vital spaces for forming social connections and creating lasting memories - especially through gaming. For example, Minecraft’s annual live event - which ran from 2017 to 2023 - saw fans worldwide come together to vote for new mobs, feeling like they were truly participating and collectively shaping the future of the game. Kids today increasingly crave and exercise social connection through gaming, be it with parents, friends or through team-based experiences and events. With 90% of Gen Alpha and Gen Z engaging in gaming, gaming platforms such as Roblox and Minecraft have become integral parts of their daily lives, providing emotionally resonant experiences that foster creativity, self-expression, and lasting friendships, creating shared memories that can be looked back at fondly - just as we do with our own childhood favourites.
The way things are moving, it seems like the nostalgia of the future won’t be rooted in movies or content - which are consumed in a fleeting and abundant manner - but in digital spaces, propelled by viral internet challenges, shared community experiences and the immersive worlds kids create through gaming and social media.
Did you know? Our fandom studies have helped us create what we call the KI Fandom Model, specifically designed to analyse the factors that influence and drive fandom. You can find out more here.
