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 ...
in
popular culture used to reference a time considered by the speaker to be better than the current era. It is a form of
nostalgia
Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...
which can reflect
homesickness 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, m ...
es such as
rosy retrospection, 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
Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, trader, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its ...
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 released
Stressed Out, 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 on
YouTube has been viewed 2.3 billion times.
Stressed Out (Official Video)
Retrieved August 22, 2021
See also
* Golden age (metaphor)
A golden age is a period considered the apotheosis in the history of a country or people, a time period when the greatness, greatest achievements were made. The term originated from early ancient Greece, Greek and ancient Rome, Roman poets, who ...
*Nostalgia
Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word ''nostalgia'' is a learned formation of a Greek language, Greek compound, consisting of (''nóstos''), meaning "homecoming", ...
**Communist nostalgia
Communist nostalgia, also called communism nostalgia or socialist nostalgia, is the nostalgia in various post-communist states of Central and Eastern Europe and Russia for the prior communist states. Bartmanski, DominikSuccessful icons of failed ti ...
**Southern nostalgia
The Lost Cause of the Confederacy (or simply Lost Cause) is an American pseudohistorical negationist mythology that claims the cause of the Confederate States during the American Civil War was just, heroic, and not centered on slavery. First ...
**Sociological Francoism
Sociological Francoism ( es, franquismo sociológico) is an expression used in Spain which attests to the social characteristics typical of Francoism that survived in Spanish society after the death of Francisco Franco in 1975 and continue to the ...
References
Nostalgia
Phrases
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