Good old days is a

cliché A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in ...

used to reference a time considered by the speaker to be better than the current era. It is a form of nostalgia which can reflect

homesickness Homesickness is the distress caused by being away from home.Kerns, Brumariu, Abraham. Kathryn A., Laura E., Michelle M.(2009/04/13). Homesickness at summer camp. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54. Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home ...

or yearning for long-gone moments. There is a predisposition, caused by

cognitive bias A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their perception of the input. An individual's construction of reality, not the objective input, ...

es such as

rosy retrospection Rosy retrospection refers to the psychological phenomenon of people sometimes judging the past disproportionately more positively than they judge the present. The Romans occasionally referred to this phenomenon with the Latin phrase "", which tran ...

, a form of

survivorship bias Survivorship bias or survival bias is the logical error of concentrating on entities that passed a selection process while overlooking those that did not. This can lead to incorrect conclusions because of incomplete data. Survivorship bias is ...

, for people to view the past more favourably and future more negatively.

Notable uses

In literature

In 1726, John Henley used this phrase in his book ''The Primitive Liturgy'' "to all honest Admirers of the good old Days of their best and wisest Fore-fathers, this first Part of the Primitive Liturgy Is most humbly dedicated". In 1727, Daniel Defoe wrote in ''The Complete English Tradesman'' "In the good old days of Trade, which our Fore-fathers plodded on in." In this part of his book, Defoe talks about how in 'the good old days' tradesman were better off than in Defoe's time.

In music

In 2015, musical duo

Twenty One Pilots Twenty One Pilots (stylized in all lowercase or as twenty øne piløts) are an American musical duo from Columbus, Ohio. Initially a band, the group was formed in 2009 by lead vocalist Tyler Joseph along with Nick Thomas and Chris Salih, who b ...

released

Stressed Out "Stressed Out" is a song written and recorded by American musical duo Twenty One Pilots. It was released as a promotional single from their fourth studio album, '' Blurryface'' (2015). Produced by Mike Elizondo and recorded at studios in Los An ...

, a song that pinpointed the return to the 'good old days'. It won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance in February 2017. As of August 2021, the official

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

has been viewed 2.3 billion times.Stressed Out (Official Video)
Retrieved August 22, 2021

References

Nostalgia Phrases {{popular-culture-stub

Notable uses

In literature

In music

See also

References