Ever had the sudden urge to buy something because it sparks a feeling you can’t quite place? You stare at it thinking, “Where the hell have I seen this before?”
For many, it’s probably just FOMO that their FYP algorithm have served them. But, for a certain cohort of people, it’s actually a little ol’ friend called nostalgia.
It’s actually quite interesting that as we, Gen Z, grow up into our big girl (or boy) pants, our desire to go back into our inner child only seems to increase more by each day—especially since we’re hitting the age where our frontal lobe is almost fully developed.
I remember a time when I used to ask my mum vehemently if I looked mature enough, or say that I was too old for “childish things,” but, looking back now, I honestly wish future me would miraculously tap my shoulder and duct tape my mouth.
Why, you ask? As I hit my 20s and the woes of corporate life and earning a living seem to take precedence, I — and I’m pretty sure you do too — can’t help but reminisce over the days where I’d incessantly search for something to waste my time with.
And now, there seems to be a little phenomenon where as we grow older, we slowly revert back to wanting to be a kid again. That feeling, according to the internet, is called being a ‘kidult’. While it’s certainly not about being at the ‘bee-keeping age’ (IYKYK), it’s more or less about the older age groups getting back in touch with their childhood.
For many, it can be in the form of toy collections (Bretman Rock’s Sonny Angels, or the Lubaba fiasco that has everyone in a craze) while for others it can be homeware and items that simply have a trademark of their staple favourite show (the Hello Kitty wave, for example).
Though it’s not entirely a form of trauma, which we weirdly have a fascination about, it’s actually the influence of the internet that brings back our young memories in the form of buying power.
If you were a kid who sadly couldn’t buy that cute Hello Kitty mug or the Polly Pocket-styled lamps and tables, we actually manifest that into adulthood as an act of “re-living our childhood dreams.” It’s simply tapping into our inner child and going back to the days when all we could think of was, well, being a kid. Pretty much a canon event, if you will.
Interestingly enough, in a journal study conducted by Peiying and Wenrui, they noted: “The motivations of the kidult’s behaviour is merely an interpretation of the phenomena generated in the operation of commercial capital to appeal to the audience, an external attribution from the mass media.”
To translate it in layman’s terms, breathes, we are, in some way, placing that sense of nostalgia on items that we never had. This then drives our compulsion and behaviour to purchase things that remind us of the past, fuelled by the media we consume (a universal experience, honestly). “These childhood memories have been re-engineered and upgraded back into the hands of adults, partly as a factor of fondness,” they stated.
Unsurprisingly, marketeers have coined this term the ‘infantelisation of adults’, a means of capitalising on our past and using nostalgia in their marketing strategies. But are we upset about it? Hmm… According to the wave on TikTok, where users like @actuallyvaleria have reached an astonishing 2.9 million views over a single seven-second video showing her ultra Hello Kitty-decorated room?
Well, it’s definitely happening, and no one’s mad about it. Even @andreabea.c, who literally infuses all kinds of core energy (dopamine, Barbie and Polly Pocket? Amazing) at every nook and cranny of her apartment, seems to gather the same amount of traction across her Instagram and TikTok.
While it’s no surprise that the rise of buying things that resemble our favourite show, or cartoon is a take on impulse, it’s also just a part of adulting — a normal fascination of growing up by healing our inner child.
In an interview with pop culture and toy enthusiast James Zahn, conducted by CNN, he said, “During the pandemic, when people were flush with cash and had time to spend at home, whether with their families or alone, they wanted to reconnect with the toys that made them happy as kids.” And it’s true, the pandemic gave all of us a second chance to re-live what we missed.
But, of course, it doesn’t end there. In this unending circle of life, nostalgia became our one-way ticket to kick-start our journey to self-care. Evoking a sense of comfort by literally “playing house”, it gives everyone the chance to feel content, secure, and safe. A trio of things that we slowly lose the reigns to as we grow older. That’s why embracing a little dopamine kick is a vital part of growing up. As Walt Disney once said, “Adults are just grown-up children,” and we second that motion.
