Stranger Things and the Power of Nostalgia
By Fiona McHugh
Since its release in 2016, Stranger Things has become a hallmark of Generation Z. It’s become a defining characteristic of a generation. It became a binge-worthy show that also quickly became a source of nostalgia. Now, the show has launched its fifth and final season, with its first four episodes premiering last Wednesday.
Stranger Things also greatly reshaped the way that algorithms for streaming services were developed and the way that people consumed media. In 2016, streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, and more had not yet discovered the key to success. When Stranger Things came along, encouraging viewers to engage in binge-watching and intense nostalgia, the algorithm was changed forever.
The show is about teenagers growing up in Hawkins, Indiana. Set in the 1980s, the show is evocative of some other 80s classics and lifestyles. The show is like the old mixed with the new, like layering ’80s classics with several twists. Although Generation Z was never alive in the 1980s, the show is viewed as almost nostalgic, something that keeps people coming back even after a three-year hiatus between shows.
Stranger Things depicts teenagers from a time period before there were phones, when adolescents communicated via walkie-talkie and rode bikes around their neighborhood. Much of Generation Z never experienced this type of childhood, and many say that they have complicated relationships with technology: those who wish they could go back to a time when it didn’t exist, in spite of experiencing a childhood where Internet trends very much define memories and nostalgia of certain periods.
One of the defining qualities of Gen Z is a connection to technology and an association between Internet trends and certain periods of time in people’s lives. For example, “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush achieved new popularity in May and June of 2022 after being featured in Stranger Things’ fourth season. The song blew up on TikTok, with teenagers posting to the trend throughout the summer. As a result, the song became the soundtrack of summer 2022. Three and a half years later, the sound is nostalgic and definitive of a childhood summer for an entire generation.
Stranger Things is more than a show for Gen Z. It’s a callback to what life used to be like, but it’s also defined critical points throughout adolescence. The lead actors, who were children themselves in the first season, are now in their early to mid-20s. Their pictures were on kids’ walls, and their lives were in the spotlight. Gen Z followed them on Instagram and then TikTok. The show’s memes, references, songs, and trends – they all became deeply integrated into the daily lives and, therefore, memories of Gen Z.
As the show’s final season begins its course, arranging the people of Hawkins, Indiana, in their proper places when the screen goes black, Gen Z will be saying goodbye to its childhood. Nearly 10 years ago, a vast majority of Gen Z was around 11-12 years old. Stranger Things is a show that is deeply entangled in the memories of an entire generation.
