Seeking Comfort in Past Media: Modelling Media Nostalgia as a Way of Coping with Media Change

Abstract

Coping with media change is the modus operandi in societies shaped by an ongoing media saturation of everyday lifeworlds. However, demands to participate in media change are sometimes perceived as challenging. In this regard, media nostalgia, understood as the longing for past media culture and technology, is introduced as a resource to cope with media change. Presenting results from an online survey, a structural equation model (SEM) illustrates that those who are stressed by media change draw on media nostalgia as a way of coping whereas media nostalgic engagements become unlikely when individuals feel comfortable with media change. This article argues that certain current individual and societal appearances of media nostalgia are related to people’s coping attempts.