Nostalgia As a Device for Dealing with Traumatic Experiences During the COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

The paper is an investigation of nostalgia in its diverse manifestations in social media, mainly Facebook, during COVID-19 crisis in Bulgaria and is based on pre-observation which shows that communication through social media at that period was largely nostalgic. The study considers nostalgia as a strategy for dealing with the 2020 state of emergency during which the lack of physical contact and social experiences can create preconditions for anxiety, depression and fear leading to traumatic consequences. The research is based on empirical material actively collected using the method of the included observation in the period from the 15th of March 2020, when the state of emergency in connection with COVID-19 was declared in Bulgaria, until the 30th of June 2020. The purpose of the paper is to present the nostalgic modes in Facebook and to reveal the reasons for their success as communicative and social messages. Applying interdisciplinary and multimodal approach the study describes the nostalgic manifestations by classifying thematically the initiatives, communication strategies and topics, oriented towards the past, as well as revealing their meaning for the society. The results show that the main role of nostalgic Facebook modes is to unite people in times of isolation, to raise their spirit and thus save them from the traumas that the COVID-19 crisis can cause. The multimodal analysis of the Facebook images from the empirical data confirms that social media and modern technologies make it possible to create `new products` based on old stories or memories that acquire a new meaning in the specific COVID-19 situation, modelled by the culture and mentality of Bulgarians in isolation.

Throwback to pre-pandemic days: A photo-elicitation study on organizational nostalgia

“…As one of the pleasant emotions [8, 9, 30], nostalgia also broadens the mindset of people and builds a variety of resources for coping with the undesirable impact of the pandemic era. In this context, nostalgia has preservative functions for people in the pandemic era [31][32][33].…”

Covid-Affected Linguistic Landscape: A Case of City Signs in Public Places

“…Since then, the term expanded and integrated various theoretical and epistemological standpoints coupled with new methods and approaches. As a result, explorations of linguistic landscape deal with the language representation in public places and individuals' interactions with different signs (Mensel, et al, 2016). Research suggests that sign positioning is not random and relates to social context and practices, for instance, signs can be informational markers providing important information, they can convey emblematic significance or contribute to the public space symbolic construction (Marshall, 2021).…”

“…This trend can be perceived as a coping mechanism with fear and threat (Ibid.). Moving on now to consider other ways to overcome psychological consequences of the COVID-19 trauma, Todorova and Padareva-Ilieva examined nostalgia as a strategy for managing stress in social media (Todorova & Padareva-Ilieva, 2021). The lack of physical contact and social experiences challenged people and provoked anxiety, depression, inability to perform mundane tasks.…”

“…The researchers grouped the posts found on networking websites into four categories concerning historical memories, personal memories, literary reminiscences and nostalgic games. Instead of focusing on the negative side, people indulged in warm memories, sought salvation in examples of famous people and writers who survived the hardships and passed their wisdom which gives hope (Todorova & Padareva-Ilieva, 2021).When analyzing gender specifics of emotional expression in social networks during the COVID-19 crisis, Katermina and Ilmaz-Ledeneva found that gender stereotypes concerning men's and women's emotional reaction to the pandemic are erased. The most frequent ways of expressing an attitude to the coronavirus, both in men and women, turned out to be emoji emoticons, capitalization, the use of invective vocabulary and intensifiers (Katermina & Ilmaz-Ledeneva, 2021).…”