This Social Media Megatrend Will Dominate 2021

The last year has been filled with nostalgia – and for good reason. When we’re stuck at home during lockdown, we think of better, happier times and remember fond memories. Nostalgia has been spilling over into many different areas of our lives, from our clothes to our Instagram feeds.

Research by GlobalWebIndex found that we’re more optimistic when we’re nostalgic. Eight in 10 people answered that they feel nostalgic occasionally, and four in 10 said they do so regularly.

The nostalgia megatrend hasn’t gone unnoticed – even social media sites are getting involved in reminding us of happy times. Although it can be frustrating to remember all the nights out with friends and holidays we’re missing out on, we just can’t help but reminisce about the past.

Here, we take a look at how social media channels have embraced nostalgia.

Music is the answer

Looking back to the GlobalWebIndex research mentioned earlier, results found that music is one of the biggest triggers of nostalgia. When different age groups were asked what they missed the most, music was the most common answer. It seems that a song we love has the ability to transport us back to a memory. Because of this, people have been turning to Spotify to get that nostalgia fix.

Spotify Wrapped is a feature that gives users insight into their 50 top songs of the last year – the ones they listened to the most, top artists, genres, and many more. For those wanting to delve back deeper, Spotify Time Capsule lets you listen to your top songs of a particular year, allowing you to enjoy all the songs of a certain time.

These nostalgic features were a massive hit and were posted across users’ social media feeds to show their friends their findings. In 2020, Spotify’s mobile app downloads surged by 21 per cent in the first week of December due to the feature.

Never-ending memories

Just like audio, sight can be incredibly nostalgic. Memories on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Timehop are all brilliant examples of social media features that give us an insight into what we were posting on that exact day each year in the past. Over lockdown, it has been interesting to see how much our lives changed, and it gets us excited to return back to normal. We can see videos, pictures, and posts from years ago – things we would probably have little recognition of. And now that more and more of us are sharing things online, there are only going to be more memories to look back on.

You might be reminiscing about the weather or remembering that fantastic outfit that reminded you to dig out those mule sandals ready for the returning summer months.

Nostalgia marketing megatrend

As well as being fun and slightly heart-wrenching, social media has been getting involved with ‘nostalgia marketing’ which we’re expecting to see continuing into 2021. In simple terms, nostalgia marketing is when brands introduce logos, colours, and themes from their previous branding to help remind us of “the good old days”.

For example, back in October 2020, Instagram allowed users to revert to old app logos for one month only, including the classic 2010 logo that users were devastated to see decommissioned.

This megatrend has seen a few resurgences over the years. We even saw it during the Great Depression and 2000 banking crises, and now it’s back during another difficult time. It seems we’re all looking to escape to fond memories when life throws unexpected things in our way.

We can use nostalgia to improve our mood and feel more optimistic about the present – thankfully, thanks to social media, this became much easier.

This article was researched on behalf of Dune London.