Nostalgia in Shows – Ramon, Daniel, Nash
Shows are a massive portion of our childhood. Who doesn’t know who SpongeBob is? Often we reminisce over shows, whether that is because they taught us lessons, or just because we enjoyed watching them as a kid.
Logan has people of different ages and different backgrounds. Did they grow up watching the same shows or not? Let’s take a look at Logan student Insung Kim (senior), who immigrated from South Korea his freshman year.
“I remember I watched Adventure Time and Uncle Grandpa,” said Insung. Although being from another country, he watched cartoon shows that were made in the US.
Ciara Bie (senior), said she watched “mainly Wild Kratts and Team Umizoomi.”
Ms. Hannah, a teacher at Logan said, “I watched a lot of anime growing up. I also watched the Disney Channel and like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon.”
Shows watched as a kid can be nostalgic for many reasons, such as the people you watched it with or just simply finding something cool in the show, like Bie finding the transformations in Team Umizoomi awesome
“I sort of remember the transformations when they become the animal,” said Bie. Although Wild Kratts has no specific meaning to be nostalgic, it simply is because she enjoyed watching it as a child.
On the other hand, “I watched Adventure Time and [Uncle Grandpa],” said Kim. Kim watched shows with his brother, which again could explain why the shows are nostalgic.
Ms. Hannah said “A distinct memory for me, when I was a kid, was coming home from school and turning on the television and watching my favorite shows. Watching my favorite shows, like coming home from school, my grandmother would make me lunch or something, and I would watch Pokemon on Cartoon Network. […] I associate a lot with memories from my grandparents, my mom and my dad, just like, kind of taking care of me when I was younger. So that’s why I think I have such a nostalgic pull with them.”
Recently, children do not watch cartoons or shows as much as the previous generation due to YouTube and other free types of media. As children, we simply watched any show that played, like Insung watching Uncle Grandpa and Adventure Time, both of which played on Cartoon Network.
But how does the media children watch compare to the past? Here’s what Bie thinks about the show she watched growing up, “I would say Team Umizoomi, taught me how to think, it’s a very educational show, teaching you how to do math,” said Bie.
More than math, she expanded on how it also pushes the idea of collaboration. Compared to what children watch these days, Bie said “it’s definitely less beneficial compared to educational TV shows, and also the fact that [in] TV shows each episode is kind of long. It’s good for your attention span compared to TikToks, they’re 15 seconds long.”
Media in terms of TikTok is consumed by billions, many of whom are children. So compared to cartoon shows Bie watched, she believes TIkTok seems to not be helping children. Kim thinks otherwise.
“I’ll say it’s good for them,” said Kim. Kim states that if children are enjoying watching media in other formats, it’s fine because all that matters is if children enjoy watching something or not.
After looking at what people at Logan find nostalgic, we have found out that there is nothing in particular that makes a show nostalgic. Whether it is educational like Team Umizoomi or enjoying anime, nostalgia is the outcome of enjoyment.
