Here are some articles I found supporting how nostalgia is in-fact, good. These will be used a further evidence to back up my presentation. In the following article in particular, found on the BBC website, particular quotes referencing nostalgia as a 'good psychological medicine' will prove very beneficial to support my theory.
BBC News - What is Nostalgia good for?
A Standard Life study suggests 28 to 40-year-olds don't plan for the future because they prefer to reminisce about past times. Yet experts say nostalgia can give meaning to our seemingly dull lives.
What was the most recent film you saw? Chocolate you bought? Fashion trend you noticed? Or friend you contacted on Facebook? "If it was Star Trek, a Wispa, shoulder pads or school friend, then don't fear, you are entirely typical of someone who lived through the Noughties," says a report from financial services provider Standard Life, which concludes that more than any other decade, the 2000s were very retro.
Businesses and advertisers have known for years that nostalgia sells, that the products popular during a person's youth will influence their buying habits throughout their lifetime. "But they didn't know why, and they perhaps didn't care - that was their endgame, to figure out how to sell things," says psychologist Clay Routledge, of North Dakota State University.
In recent years, psychologists have been trying to analyse the powerful and enduring appeal of our own past - what Mr Routledge calls the "psychological underpinnings of nostalgia". "Why does it matter? Why would a 40-year-old man care about a car he drove when he was 18?" he asks. It matters, quite simply, because nostalgia makes us feel good.
Once nostalgia was considered a sickness - the word derives from the Greek "nostos" (return) and "algos" (pain), suggesting suffering due to a desire to return to a place of origin. A 17th Century medical student coined the term "nostalgia" for anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home, although some military doctors believed their problems were specific to the Swiss and caused by the Alpine racket of cowbells.
Understanding has moved on somewhat since, with dedicated research in recent years suggesting that nostalgia is "good psychological medicine". Studies by Mr Routledge, along with colleagues at the University of Southampton, have found that remembering past times improves mood, increases self-esteem, strengthens social bonds and imbues life with meaning. Not bad for just a few minutes' daydreaming about scoring the winning goal for the school team, aged 12, or reminiscing about a family caravanning trip in a balmy summer gone by.
"Most of our days are often filled with with routine activities that aren't particularly significant - shopping for groceries, commuting to work and so forth," says Mr Routledge. "Nostalgia is a way for us to tap into the past experiences that we have that are quite meaningful - to remind us that our lives are worthwhile, that we are people of value, that we have good relationships, that we are happy and that life has some sense of purpose or meaning." Because the psychology of nostalgia is a relatively new field of research, there is no evidence to show whether particular generations are becoming more nostalgic. Dr Tim Wildschut, of the University of Southampton, stresses that nostalgia is a "fundamental human emotion" and "not something that changes overnight".
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