(Photo credit: Unsplash/Joanna Kosinska)
Summary
- 90s nostalgia videos are trending online.
- They’re part of a broader cultural shift glamorizing the past.
- Many believe the reason for this is the bleakness of the present, including wars, threats of global recession and economic uncertainty, and the impact of artificial intelligence on society.
Even the casual consumer of social media has likely seen them: 90s nostalgia videos set to the song Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. The short videos splice together a current image of a person, place, or situation then quickly transition to what these looked like in the 1990s as if by contrast to remind the viewer of a time when the world was simpler and happier than it is today. The videos are everywhere. They evoke a longing for an idyllic past that seems consistent with other forms of nostalgia in society right now.
Why are people nostalgic for the 90s?
The prevailing, and easiest, theory as to why people are so nostalgic for the 90s is that the current world is so bleak that we’re longing for a past much different than the present, a time when wars, threats of global recession, and the calamitous potential of artificial intelligence to upend labor markets didn’t seem as existentially threatening as they do now. There are also likely algorithmic explanations for the surge in nostalgia; however, these factors are often fueled by user signals—likes, shares, comments. And the public is reacting strongly to memories of a time much different than today.
WATCH: Everyone’s talking about the good old days right?
Cultural traditions and their literature have warned against dwelling on the past. In the Divine Comedy, Virgil’s injunction to Dante against “looking back” once they reach the gates of Purgatory is a warning that to do so would be to return there (Hell) again: “Enter; but I must warn you… he who looks back returns outside again.” Though today, many would argue that the Hell is now; and a pre-pandemic world where “third spaces“—places outside the home and workplace—were plentiful and people connected in real life rather than online is a much better one.
Other commentators have also weighed in on why nostalgia is seeing a resurgence:
- BBC: Rose-tinted filter: Why 2016 is taking over social media in 2026
- New York Times: Why Gen Z Is Resurrecting the 1990s
- Forbes: How GAP, Polaroid Or Fila Turn Nostalgia Into Revived Brand Growth
People seem aligned on the sense of pessimism about the future quietly shaping how communities—especially of youth—are engaging with the world. The ubiquity and current forms of social media may be accelerating this: the 2026 World Happiness Report reveals that social media usage seems to be negatively affecting the mental health of young people in English-speaking countries and Western Europe. There is uncertainty, however, around whether this pessimism of the future is a cyclical trend of history or something more dire.
Whatever the reality, there is little debate that the current times are dark and that they are spreading a sense of dread and overwhelm shaping society in ways that will give historians plenty to write about in the future—whatever that future may look like.