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Nostalgia, lost connections and the ‘Sudden Unified Self’
- Source: Explorations in Media Ecology, Volume 19, Issue 2, Jun 2020, p. 151 - 160
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- 26 Nov 2019
- 01 Feb 2020
- 01 Jun 2020
Abstract
The study of nostalgia has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, spanning a wide variety of disciplines. As previous scholars have suggested, nostalgia permeates our communicative environment. Ironically, from a communicative perspective, clear definitions of ‘nostalgia’ can be elusive. For the purposes of Media Ecology, a helpful definition of nostalgia concerns lost connections: relationships with other beings, not artefacts, form the communicative environment of nostalgia. When the relationships are presumed to be with objects – as is often the case – nostalgia can induce playful responses to pain, but also can problematize expressions of collective memory and out-group identities. This article surveys implications of ‘lost connections’ for Media Ecology.