The past was not better. It is just that your ‘on demand life’ has killed your holiday feeling

Halloween is over and now it’s November—darker already, with the clocks set back. For some of us, that also means a little seasonal depression creeping in. So let’s get through this together. We’ll rely on friends, we’ll rely on our own strength, and we’ll find the light.. literally.

There are only a few fleeting moments of sun each day, so let’s soak it up until that rebirth of light comes around later. The sun begins setting promptly at 5pm this time of year.. in some spots the darkness creeps in by 4:30.. We have to deal with it.

In the meantime, this is a time of darkness and solace. Let’s not call it suffering.. let’s call it introspection. We often find ourselves wondering this time of year, especially as holiday lights start going up, about some pretty deep things.. Lately, you’ll hear a lot of people saying it just doesn’t feel like it used to—whether it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving. The holidays just aren’t what they once were.. We tell ourselves.

Ugh… nostalgia. TikTok, Facebook, YouTube—they’re all full of people saying, “It just doesn’t feel the same” or “The ’90s were better” or “The ’80s were better.” Our parents and grandparents probably said the same thing about the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s. Why does the past always feel better?

Because nostalgia can trick us. It makes us romanticize the past and feel like we’ve lost something.

But here’s the kicker: there’s something else going on. Back in the day, when sitcoms, dramas, and commercials all aired at the same time for everyone, those ads and shows created a communal feeling. Everyone watched the same holiday specials at the same time.

That’s why, when A Charlie Brown Christmas aired, you knew you were watching it along with millions of others. It was a shared experience that signaled the season.

Now, with cable fading and everyone watching on their own schedule, that sense of community is gone. You can watch Charlie Brown in July if you want, but it won’t feel the same because you’re the only one doing it. That communal moment that once signaled the holiday season is gone, and that’s why it doesn’t feel like it used to. You can recreate bits and pieces of nostalgia, but that big piece of all of us gathering around the TV at the same time is probably not coming back.

There was something about the shared experience we cannot get back — you now choose your own media and don’t share it with others. We watch things on demand.. when WE demand it.. So we lose out on when time itself demands that WE stop and be a part of something bigger.

Years from now the 40 year olds in 2040 may romanticize how, in their youth, they had videos on demand and they doom scrolled through 30 seconds videos all day. By then, if things keep going like they have been, we will be hooked up to some giant contraption that will make us all have shared virtual experiences in a pretend world that only exists through some weird AI computer algorithm..

That is how things work.. time marches on and we miss what we once thought was better.

But you know what?

Watching Charlie Brown with holiday commercials in real time with the rest of the planet? Yea.. that was cool. And never will happen again.