Reboots, remakes and nostalgia bait.
People are stuck in their childhood memories and are refusing to move forward. In the digital age, people have been forced into their futures too fast and all at once. Corporations are capitalizing on this unyielding sentiment with a constant stream of old TV shows and movies remakes and spin-offs.
People are growing up — and they hate it.
Hollywood remaking movies isn’t anything new, but it has ramped up in recent years. Classic Disney movies are being turned into live actions, HBO is remaking Harry Potter, Peacock’s “The Office” now has a spin-off called “The Paper” — this oversaturation of media with rehashed stories is blocking new ideas.
But this isn’t just a “studio trying to make money” problem – though that’s definitely part of it — it’s the audience’s unwillingness to accept new things. After “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019 killed off some of the MCU’s oldest characters, the studio has seen a sharp decline in profit from their movies. Even movies like “Thunderbolts*,” which were widely considered good movies, have not turned the same profit as older films. People are refusing to let go of the past which hurts future projects.
“Nostalgia bait” trends have consistently popped up on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. These trends romanticize the past, either with aesthetic slideshows about being an earlier 2000s kid or clips from childhood TV shows. This obsession Gen Z has with their own experiences is damaging to their perceptions of the younger generations, judging Gen Alpha for not having, or wanting, the same childhood as they did. There’s nothing wrong with remembering the past fondly, nostalgia in small doses can actually increase optimism, but this obsession can easily go too far, leaving people stranded, unprepared for the future and unable to stay in the past. In a 2025 survey, only 56% of Gen Z said they felt like they were prepared for the future. Obviously, the mindset is not the only reason younger generations may be struggling with preparing for their futures, but a downright refusal cannot help.
With the rise of the internet, our generation has been interacting less. Gen Z wants to return to our childhood because they were kids during a time digital screens weren’t such a prevalent part of their life. Especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, we have become more alone than ever. In the digital age, everything has moved to online spaces: shopping, therapy, school and work. The lack of human interaction is pushing Gen Z to wish for a time prior to technology overtaking their social lives. The desire for a return to childhood is a desire for a return to community, but being a child is not necessary for that. It is completely possible to build a community beyond the digital, the difference now being that we have to build it instead of it being handed to us.
Growing up doesn’t have to mean losing something. In order to make space for innovation and positive change, we need to leave behind pieces of who we were to make space for who we are becoming. We blame the ticking clock’s hands for the passage of time, hating the changes reminding us of our losses. Instead, we must look to the future with hope, especially if that hope is hard to find.
We’re growing up — learn to love it.
