Autistic Nostalgia

[autisticdragonkin]

Many lolcows have a characteristic of being nostalgic about their early life (up to highschool)
Why exactly is this, they definitely didn't have it good back then either, is it the structure of a school environment which keeps them from going full autistic?

 

[Watcher]

When you don't mature past that age and when your life gets worse as you get older logically you become nostalgic over that time period.

This isn't exclusive to lolcows either. It's just lolcows such as Chris tend to fall into this mold. Some don't.

 

[AnOminous]

It's pretty sad when the best part of someone's life was when they were in high school, and this is often said to be the case of the pro football star who is now a fat, middle aged shoe salesman or the cheerleader who is a blowsy bleach blonde drunk at noon every day.

It's pretty shitty when the best time of your life was in high school and you were the sped who got beaten up.

Almost gives me feels, then I look at Peter Guerin and it isn't that bad.

 

[Cynical]

High school is the apex of many lolcows lives because it's the final training wheels before real life, except now you have the greatest potential to make a splash early in life if you were beloved by your classmates. It's also the time most people get laid, use money on a large scale and develop social networking skills on a broad scale.

The problem is that many lolcows suck at all the above, but the training wheels effect is enough of an insulator that when they are forced to deal with the adult world, they scream and want to crawl back into the womb.

 

[PocketHercules]

When you don't mature past that age and when your life gets worse as you get older logically you become nostalgic over that time period.

This isn't exclusive to lolcows either. It's just lolcows such as Chris tend to fall into this mold. Some don't.

well sadly i just got out of highschool myself not too long ago and i already have in mind what im gonna do around my prime (age 20-30) and youre totally right, i wasnt prepared for the adult world at all. And i guess you could say most of us gets nostalgic over highschool is because thats around the time we didnt realize how easy and laid back we were. but then you get out of highschool and you get job, pay for school, pay for books, pay for gas, bills, bills, bills. A little sense of nostalgia just re-opens our previous lifestyle and you look at it now it just seems a whole lot difficult but you get through it. its almost like we were brainwashed in highschool too, they taught us how cool being an adult is. THIS SUCKS

 

[ToroidalBoat]

I think that to lolcows with no real social skills, their childhood and school days (up to high school and college) are the last time they have a real social life that's essentially provided to them. Not only that, but in those days, one isn't normally really expected to be on their own and responsible. Also, in the case of pretty much every obsessively nostalgic person of interest I'm aware of, those days were before the internets (especially Web 2.0 with social networking, video streaming, and wikis) really took off - providing more obscurity from potential drama.

Furthermore, they probably perceive their "good old days" in a way that lacks awareness of how others really perceived them, thus probably being unaware if they were widely disliked or mocked by their peers back then.

Contrast that to when they're living more or less alone with no real purpose in life, their youth is gone, they're widely mocked, and they're getting into drama a lot. Any unrealistic romanticizing and obsessive desire to return to their school days or childhood is unsurprising.

 

[Teen Speed Fool]

I think it's a form of escapism. Autistic and socially awkward people are generally unhappy, stressed out people that hate the world around them. Reminiscing on a good memory can take them out of that depression for a short while and provide a relieve. It gets worse as the person gets older and they become more socially isolated leaving them with only their memory's.

 

[Overcast]

I guess I can kind of understand. As Watcher has already described, if you haven't really matured past your teenage years, you tend to desire for things to go back to the way they once were.

Personally, I tend to look back on my days as a grade schooler nostalgically. But then I remember a lot of the bad that came with it and how much I've changed since then. Then I just get on with my life.

Why hang up so much on your past when you can be doing so much for your future?

 

[Henry Bemis]

I think that to lolcows with no real social skills, their childhood and school days (up to high school and college) are the last time they have a real social life that's essentially provided to them.

Provided to them, and with safety guards against people who would rather do a socially awkward person more harm than good.

 

[Arctic]

MylarBalloonFan is the worst example of this IMO. And it's not always high school, Iconoclast is obsessed with college.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

The only thing I'm nostalgic for are the shows I used to watch every now and again. And even most of those don't hold up as well as I used to think. My own childhood outside of it was a mess, and I'd rather not look back at it in any lengthy capacity.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

The only thing I'm nostalgic for are the shows I used to watch every now and again. And even most of those don't hold up as well as I used to think. My own childhood outside of it was a mess, and I'd rather not look back at it in any lengthy capacity.

The only thing I'm nostalgic for is the time when I was younger and didn't realize that sharing my powerlevel with everyone was a bad thing and that nobody cared about it and it made me look dumb because I wasn't posting on the thread made for it
https://kiwifarms.net/threads/nostalgic-memories.11692/

 

[Steamboat_Bill]

Why are a lot of lolcows/autistics nostalgic for their childhood or high school?

To some, it's probably because of the era they grew up in: they're nostalgic not for the way childhood is but for the culture they grew up in.

But, of course, it's mostly the fact that when you're a child, you have no responsibility, everybody does things for you, you can do nothing all day (excepting school-related things)... And I think there's a lot of people who have that desire to go back to a simpler time in their lives. With most people, though, they realize that they're too far gone, that they can't really go back to the way it was because they've changed so much. As the song goes, "Once you pass its borders you can never return again." A lot of lolcows don't seem to know that.

 

[TowinKarz]

As others have said, cows long for high school because it's the last time in their life they had a good time, and it's not just high school, it's the life they led back then, when all they had to do to succeed or be judged "successful" by peers and parents was to wake up in the morning, go to school, watch cartoons and not set the drapes on fire. That was it. Do that and you were patted on the head, told what a good kid you were and life was pretty cush.

To them, this was the BEST part of their life because once those days were over, they were left stranded.

They failed to adapt to "adult" expectations where simply going through the day not getting in trouble wasn't enough to be considered a success, that's where a lot of these folks have stopped maturing, they're emotionally 15 or 16 years old, or worse, and can't handle the stress of life, so they withdraw into their little fantasy worlds where they're still free to be their old selves, just like in high school, free of obligation, free of expectation, free of all that stress and worry.

That's why they do it, they don't really LIKE everything that came with the high school years, they certainly don't fondly remember the bullying, or the time they got an "F" in gym, or any of a million other things we all remember (and wish we could forget) about HS, but to them, the overriding thing they remember was the sheer joy of not having a plan for life and furthermore not NEEDING one, all they had to do was go though a few simple motions every day and life would be a weekday afternoon for ever and ever and ever

That's what they're trying to get back, even when I think deep inside they realize it's gone forever.

So they do the next best thing, reminisce about it with a mixture of rosy hindsight and get frustrated every time reality intrudes.....

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Iconoclast is obsessed with college.

I don't know that much about Mylar, but I think Sweet's delusional nostalgia is the most extreme I know of - he's explicitly said that change is bad, he wants to establish himself firmly in "half-past 1997," and Sweet still thinks - to this day - that he was a big man on campus (the "bad boy of college journalism," if you will) who was beloved by all.

 

[Bungleboy]

I don't know that much about Mylar, but I think Sweet's delusional nostalgia is the most extreme I know of - he's explicitly said that change is bad, he wants to establish himself firmly in "half-past 1997," and Sweet still thinks - to this day - that he was a big man on campus (the "bad boy of college journalism," if you will) who was beloved by all.

I wish Iconoclast would do something new.Dude's one of the most fascinating and colorful failed artists on the internet

 

[The Great Chandler]

I think fun and no direction is their nostalgia drive. Don't get me wrong, a good bunch of high functioning autists tend to do well as adults. But then you come across the Chan/Phil types. In that case, it's depressing.

 

[Tragi-Chan]

I think it's a lot of things. Most lolcows seem to have a childish mindset. When they were kids, that was normal. Then they grew up, the world changed around them and suddenly they were the only ones obsessing over Sonic.

I agree with the suggestion that having a structured life is a part of it. Autism brings concrete thinking, and adulthood is a world of abstracts where no one holds your hand.

And I think it's the retroactive sense of potential. When they were at school, the future was a wonderful thing where they'd have money and a house and an attractive partner. Now they're in the future and none of that stuff has happened, and it never will. I think they'd like to return to the sense of optimism.

 

[ILoveMylarBalloons]

let's talk 2000's nostalgia!

 

[The Great Chandler]

let's talk 2000's nostalgia!

2000s was virtually gay. It also brought us the worst people in a reality show ever, New Jersey natives. At least it brought us some nice shows.
On topic, some autists with a nostalgia of the 2000s is still at school at this point.