Creepypasta and the Psychology of Negative Nostalgia - FiendZone
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Date: 2023-12-10
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Comments and reviews: 30
-MrDoctorColossus
Haha this brings a thing strongly to mind: I was born in late 1989, November of '89, so I'm 29 years old at time of writing--roughly as old as The Simpsons. And I -grew up- on that show--and people nowadays will see the show as it is, which is limp dicked garbage, and the idea that it was once a cultural phenomenon is incomprehensible from today's perspective--but it's true, and I remember that time! Anyone who's seen the early episodes, which deal unequivocally with everything from the cult of psychosocialization to politics to theology, should understand when I refer to -Simpsons Mania- as an American cultural epoch (albeit a short one)--and anyone else can't be blamed for -not- understanding! Because what -The Simpsons- is today is so far from what it used to be that the name in common alone is a fantastic standing example of the limitations of language haha.
One of my earliest memories of anything, in life, ever, is of being little and watching the episode of The Simpsons with my family where Homer forgets to pick up Bart after soccer practice and, when he suddenly remembers, guiltily imagines him as a starved-to-death, picked-and-bleached-clean skeleton with spiky hair on top somehow haha. I only have a handful of memories older than that, and that one is early enough anyway to be one of those really surreal, impactful memories we all have a few of, if we're ordinary people haha.
But I mention it to say: it's rare something so psychologically fundamental makes it onto the broad, lowest-common-denominator that is TV. and those sorts of meditations are deeply lost in modern culture--in a way only oldsters like almost-thirty-year-olds can bemoan haha. If I have any faith in the future, it has to do with rave culture haha.
This is to say, as well: it may seem silly to apply dark theories to movies or shows whose creators had none of that in common, at least for their -intended- audience. but I like the self-critical aspect which is willing to see our most treasured childhood memories as potentially horrible and worth rejecting. It gives me faith in our species' ability to adapt haha.
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Haha this brings a thing strongly to mind: I was born in late 1989, November of '89, so I'm 29 years old at time of writing--roughly as old as The Simpsons. And I -grew up- on that show--and people nowadays will see the show as it is, which is limp dicked garbage, and the idea that it was once a cultural phenomenon is incomprehensible from today's perspective--but it's true, and I remember that time! Anyone who's seen the early episodes, which deal unequivocally with everything from the cult of psychosocialization to politics to theology, should understand when I refer to -Simpsons Mania- as an American cultural epoch (albeit a short one)--and anyone else can't be blamed for -not- understanding! Because what -The Simpsons- is today is so far from what it used to be that the name in common alone is a fantastic standing example of the limitations of language haha.
One of my earliest memories of anything, in life, ever, is of being little and watching the episode of The Simpsons with my family where Homer forgets to pick up Bart after soccer practice and, when he suddenly remembers, guiltily imagines him as a starved-to-death, picked-and-bleached-clean skeleton with spiky hair on top somehow haha. I only have a handful of memories older than that, and that one is early enough anyway to be one of those really surreal, impactful memories we all have a few of, if we're ordinary people haha.
But I mention it to say: it's rare something so psychologically fundamental makes it onto the broad, lowest-common-denominator that is TV. and those sorts of meditations are deeply lost in modern culture--in a way only oldsters like almost-thirty-year-olds can bemoan haha. If I have any faith in the future, it has to do with rave culture haha.
This is to say, as well: it may seem silly to apply dark theories to movies or shows whose creators had none of that in common, at least for their -intended- audience. but I like the self-critical aspect which is willing to see our most treasured childhood memories as potentially horrible and worth rejecting. It gives me faith in our species' ability to adapt haha.
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-clarkeybaby2955
These videos are sooooo great and so interesting! I'm loving the topics you've covered so far and can't wait to see more!
I remember being really into the first creepypasta I ever read (it was that one about the bootleg pokemon game that was called Pokemon Black - before the real thing came out) and being completely spooked by it. I wonder if I was so struck by it because I loved pokemon so much as a child - so it had a big negative nostalgia affect on me - or if it was just because I'd never encountered at thing like it before.
It's crazy now that there seems to be an active creepypasta fandom with people writing fanfic for these scary version of childhood characters. I wonder if this will show through in mainstream horror in the future! We've already had a slenderman game and marble hornets, not to mention films like unfriended or games like simulcra that lean into a kind of glitch-based, broken technology side of horror. Maybe stuff like this will become a new horror staple!
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These videos are sooooo great and so interesting! I'm loving the topics you've covered so far and can't wait to see more!
I remember being really into the first creepypasta I ever read (it was that one about the bootleg pokemon game that was called Pokemon Black - before the real thing came out) and being completely spooked by it. I wonder if I was so struck by it because I loved pokemon so much as a child - so it had a big negative nostalgia affect on me - or if it was just because I'd never encountered at thing like it before.
It's crazy now that there seems to be an active creepypasta fandom with people writing fanfic for these scary version of childhood characters. I wonder if this will show through in mainstream horror in the future! We've already had a slenderman game and marble hornets, not to mention films like unfriended or games like simulcra that lean into a kind of glitch-based, broken technology side of horror. Maybe stuff like this will become a new horror staple!
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-miles2419
Don't like to be -that- person, but I hate found footage creepypasta. -Video game- cp too, but not to the same extent. I don't have any poll or statistic to prove it, but I know that many people find these types of creepypasta (along with some of the more popular ones, to be of the worst. They're not creepy, and they certainly don't give me that sinking feeling. I find myself rolling my eyes when I realize I'm reading one. Many aren't written well, although it may just be because the found footage topic itself is hard to write well. I've come to find, however, that a story doesn't have to be written well if the matter is pressing enough. There are stories I've read that I think about years later, not because they were particularly well written (although it does help, but because it suggested such a jarring idea, situation or twist. I realize this video isn't focusing on creepypasta, but on nostalgia. I wanted to voice my feelings on the creepypasta part, though.
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Don't like to be -that- person, but I hate found footage creepypasta. -Video game- cp too, but not to the same extent. I don't have any poll or statistic to prove it, but I know that many people find these types of creepypasta (along with some of the more popular ones, to be of the worst. They're not creepy, and they certainly don't give me that sinking feeling. I find myself rolling my eyes when I realize I'm reading one. Many aren't written well, although it may just be because the found footage topic itself is hard to write well. I've come to find, however, that a story doesn't have to be written well if the matter is pressing enough. There are stories I've read that I think about years later, not because they were particularly well written (although it does help, but because it suggested such a jarring idea, situation or twist. I realize this video isn't focusing on creepypasta, but on nostalgia. I wanted to voice my feelings on the creepypasta part, though.
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-atomichearts9332
this is interesting, because i personally enjoy horror-related and horror-themed media, although i consider myself a very happy and positive person. i myself don-t buy too much into negative nostalgia, but i find the concept intriguing, although it-s pretty pessimistic. i never really thought of creepypasta as a negative thing, even though it-d make me paranoid when i was younger. i was drawn to it a lot, particularly when i was younger. now, i-m less easily frightened and i can seldom find a creepypasta that is actually well written (penpal is my favorite though, extremely good read. but, being younger and more susceptible to fear, it didn-t matter as much to me how the story was written, because i focused more on how -scary- it was.
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this is interesting, because i personally enjoy horror-related and horror-themed media, although i consider myself a very happy and positive person. i myself don-t buy too much into negative nostalgia, but i find the concept intriguing, although it-s pretty pessimistic. i never really thought of creepypasta as a negative thing, even though it-d make me paranoid when i was younger. i was drawn to it a lot, particularly when i was younger. now, i-m less easily frightened and i can seldom find a creepypasta that is actually well written (penpal is my favorite though, extremely good read. but, being younger and more susceptible to fear, it didn-t matter as much to me how the story was written, because i focused more on how -scary- it was.
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-sommu2908
I think one thing that makes copypasta/creepy shit about old videogames so successful was the vagueness of old graphics. In most horror, things happen under the cover of darkness, in old creepy unlit corners, etc. You can't define the boundaries of whatever it is you're looking at, and that's creepy. Since older games couldn't make their graphics photorealistic, the mind has to take more leaps to get to what the object is. Some newer games emulate this very successfully. I'm thinking of Undertale specifically. I got that same -creepy old game where I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen in the space- feeling as I used to with Gameboy Pokemon, etc. Anyway, I'm not sure where this vagueness is nowadays. But it makes for good creepies.
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I think one thing that makes copypasta/creepy shit about old videogames so successful was the vagueness of old graphics. In most horror, things happen under the cover of darkness, in old creepy unlit corners, etc. You can't define the boundaries of whatever it is you're looking at, and that's creepy. Since older games couldn't make their graphics photorealistic, the mind has to take more leaps to get to what the object is. Some newer games emulate this very successfully. I'm thinking of Undertale specifically. I got that same -creepy old game where I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen in the space- feeling as I used to with Gameboy Pokemon, etc. Anyway, I'm not sure where this vagueness is nowadays. But it makes for good creepies.
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-FinetalPies
I heard a great theory that the reason our generation (millennials) is obsessed with discovering the dark truths underlying mundane or childish things is because that we were the first generation to learn, as children, that -Ring around the rosy- is actually a song aboot the black plague.
The reason I love this is because it's actually not. That song predates the epidemic, and scholars generally agree that it's just mostly nonsense, as songs for and by children usually are. So we've actually been making up -dark truths- since we were in elementary school.
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I heard a great theory that the reason our generation (millennials) is obsessed with discovering the dark truths underlying mundane or childish things is because that we were the first generation to learn, as children, that -Ring around the rosy- is actually a song aboot the black plague.
The reason I love this is because it's actually not. That song predates the epidemic, and scholars generally agree that it's just mostly nonsense, as songs for and by children usually are. So we've actually been making up -dark truths- since we were in elementary school.
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-Emil-lf3no
-No one is writing creepypasta about Fortnite- thats were you wrong lady, also back in the day when Minecraft was still in Beta people wrote Minecraft creepypasta, the MLP creepypasta fandom was kickstarted with a gorefiction called Cupcakes which was posted shortly after the show came out.
Creepypasta isn't exclusive to nostalgic content, its just that lost media is creepy as it is and making up scary stories about lost media makes it 1 easier to believe (especially when you are still young) 2 makes a already creepy thing scarier.
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-No one is writing creepypasta about Fortnite- thats were you wrong lady, also back in the day when Minecraft was still in Beta people wrote Minecraft creepypasta, the MLP creepypasta fandom was kickstarted with a gorefiction called Cupcakes which was posted shortly after the show came out.
Creepypasta isn't exclusive to nostalgic content, its just that lost media is creepy as it is and making up scary stories about lost media makes it 1 easier to believe (especially when you are still young) 2 makes a already creepy thing scarier.
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-pcg13
I've already noticed a trend to nostalgize (is that how you turn that into a verb) that summer PokeGo was released. I think our turnaround time for this has shortened drastically, or at least for me -- there's something inherently more therapeutic for me to return to an event that occurred when I was an adult (and things were bad, but this thing one thing was good and I'm gonna cling to it) than to one from when I was a kid (because I was a white lower middle class kid in 90s America, and everything seemed fine.
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I've already noticed a trend to nostalgize (is that how you turn that into a verb) that summer PokeGo was released. I think our turnaround time for this has shortened drastically, or at least for me -- there's something inherently more therapeutic for me to return to an event that occurred when I was an adult (and things were bad, but this thing one thing was good and I'm gonna cling to it) than to one from when I was a kid (because I was a white lower middle class kid in 90s America, and everything seemed fine.
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-graceclymer6673
I think streaming stuff will be a, a big generational indicator in future media, and b, a huuuuuuge target for negative nostalgia. I mean, hell, there-s already massive amounts of compilations of bizarre, gross, or morally tone-deaf moments from twitch streams. The weird, specific type of frenzy that is a live chat seems like a parallel to other types of cultural hysteria (I know, that word sucks, but I can-t think of a better way to phrase it) like vandal mobs after football games.
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I think streaming stuff will be a, a big generational indicator in future media, and b, a huuuuuuge target for negative nostalgia. I mean, hell, there-s already massive amounts of compilations of bizarre, gross, or morally tone-deaf moments from twitch streams. The weird, specific type of frenzy that is a live chat seems like a parallel to other types of cultural hysteria (I know, that word sucks, but I can-t think of a better way to phrase it) like vandal mobs after football games.
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-eoincampbell1584
I think that us 2000s kids will probably not idolize our youth as much as the 90s kids, not only because we have seen and make fun of that behavior, but also because we have grown up in a time directly after 9/11 where there isn't as much of an effort to shelter kids from the harsh realities of the world. If something does become nostalgically celebrated however I think it'll be Skylanders, it was really pervasive for a while.
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I think that us 2000s kids will probably not idolize our youth as much as the 90s kids, not only because we have seen and make fun of that behavior, but also because we have grown up in a time directly after 9/11 where there isn't as much of an effort to shelter kids from the harsh realities of the world. If something does become nostalgically celebrated however I think it'll be Skylanders, it was really pervasive for a while.
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-Suppystar
The only issue I have with this video is that these creepy pastas that she's bringing up are pretty old. Things are dark now, but they might not have been so much when they were originally posted. In fact, 'Ben Drowned' cropped up at the beginning of Obama's administration, or partway through, I believe. Therefore, the theory that we make our nostalgia dark to draw a line to the dark times today kind of falls through, a little bit.
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The only issue I have with this video is that these creepy pastas that she's bringing up are pretty old. Things are dark now, but they might not have been so much when they were originally posted. In fact, 'Ben Drowned' cropped up at the beginning of Obama's administration, or partway through, I believe. Therefore, the theory that we make our nostalgia dark to draw a line to the dark times today kind of falls through, a little bit.
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-NeonGreyscale
I don't think we collectively want to believe things were always bad and thats why we like nostalgic creepypastas. I for one like those types of creepypastas and find their horror effective because it takes something I'm familiar with, something that feels safe and happy and nostalgic, and makes it feel unsafe. Twisting familiarity into horror is effective in storytelling.
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I don't think we collectively want to believe things were always bad and thats why we like nostalgic creepypastas. I for one like those types of creepypastas and find their horror effective because it takes something I'm familiar with, something that feels safe and happy and nostalgic, and makes it feel unsafe. Twisting familiarity into horror is effective in storytelling.
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-linkpwns13
my god, that is so fascinating. you brought up what we'll be nostalgic about in the future, but if your theory about nostalgia comparing the past to the present is right, then it depends entirely on the direction the world takes. things could get a lot worse or a lot better in the next twenty years, and that could change the way we remember this decade entirely
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my god, that is so fascinating. you brought up what we'll be nostalgic about in the future, but if your theory about nostalgia comparing the past to the present is right, then it depends entirely on the direction the world takes. things could get a lot worse or a lot better in the next twenty years, and that could change the way we remember this decade entirely
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-VALESTARRT
3: 35 - 3: 41 I didn't have a childhood I could look back to in fondness. This is why I love negative nostalgia to the point of only listening/making sad vaporwave. Being reminded that the best time of your life was short and gone is worse than believing it's always been as shoddy as it is now, with some high points.
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3: 35 - 3: 41 I didn't have a childhood I could look back to in fondness. This is why I love negative nostalgia to the point of only listening/making sad vaporwave. Being reminded that the best time of your life was short and gone is worse than believing it's always been as shoddy as it is now, with some high points.
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-horrorhabit8421
I don't really agree with your conclusions here. People aren't trying to reconstruct the past as broken or miserable. Negative nostalgia is about collective fear memories that now seem strangely simple, unique, and even wholesome.
I'm glad you brought this up though. It's a fascinating subject.
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I don't really agree with your conclusions here. People aren't trying to reconstruct the past as broken or miserable. Negative nostalgia is about collective fear memories that now seem strangely simple, unique, and even wholesome.
I'm glad you brought this up though. It's a fascinating subject.
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-KevinCow
I really doubt anyone's gonna be nostalgic for the current era of 2016 through whenever the gods finally decide we've suffered enough. It's just gonna be remembered as -That period where we kept thinking things couldn't get any worse and were repeatedly proven wrong. -
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I really doubt anyone's gonna be nostalgic for the current era of 2016 through whenever the gods finally decide we've suffered enough. It's just gonna be remembered as -That period where we kept thinking things couldn't get any worse and were repeatedly proven wrong. -
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-BenPutnamDX
I imagine there will be a lot of Pokemon GO creepypasta. Things like people finding bodies or walking into traffic while playing already actually happened, so it's only a hop skip and a jump to cell phones haunted with specters of dead kids searching for Pokemon.
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I imagine there will be a lot of Pokemon GO creepypasta. Things like people finding bodies or walking into traffic while playing already actually happened, so it's only a hop skip and a jump to cell phones haunted with specters of dead kids searching for Pokemon.
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-darkxarth
Just coming to reiterate that Jenna is the powerhouse at Polygon now. As much as I love Simone's style and her opinions, Jenna is the name to know.
(At least, until Susana Polo starts producing video content again regularly, then you can't make me choose)
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Just coming to reiterate that Jenna is the powerhouse at Polygon now. As much as I love Simone's style and her opinions, Jenna is the name to know.
(At least, until Susana Polo starts producing video content again regularly, then you can't make me choose)
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-AlexSinclair
I want Polygon to make more videos like this. Don't get me wrong, I'll watch the staff play Jackbox games all day, but critical insight like this is valuable and can't be provided by others. I really hope we see a stronger push in this direction.
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I want Polygon to make more videos like this. Don't get me wrong, I'll watch the staff play Jackbox games all day, but critical insight like this is valuable and can't be provided by others. I really hope we see a stronger push in this direction.
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-AllisonIsLivid
Maybe that's why I can't stand creepy pasta? I mean, even aside from the fact that it's basically all hacky trash with no merit, I like. already know that everything was always awful, and suspect that it always will be?
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Maybe that's why I can't stand creepy pasta? I mean, even aside from the fact that it's basically all hacky trash with no merit, I like. already know that everything was always awful, and suspect that it always will be?
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-designate_om
i feel like there won't be that much nostalgia for this period, or if it happens it'll be sooner than expected. Things seem to come and go so quickly, we tend to forget what was going on even just a couple of months ago
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i feel like there won't be that much nostalgia for this period, or if it happens it'll be sooner than expected. Things seem to come and go so quickly, we tend to forget what was going on even just a couple of months ago
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-StanleyFlinn
The obvious answer to what will get the negative nostalgia treatment in the future is Polygon video content, most of which already turns into some sort of creepypasta by the end of the series. y'all are troubled: )
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The obvious answer to what will get the negative nostalgia treatment in the future is Polygon video content, most of which already turns into some sort of creepypasta by the end of the series. y'all are troubled: )
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-SiennaBlossom420
pokemon is always a target of this stuff, so I expect Pokemon Go will be too. Maybe we'll see some VR and 3D movie stuff, since those are fairly big rn. Potentially stuff like Cards Against Humanity too.
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pokemon is always a target of this stuff, so I expect Pokemon Go will be too. Maybe we'll see some VR and 3D movie stuff, since those are fairly big rn. Potentially stuff like Cards Against Humanity too.
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-felixc543
Oh damn, I was expecting something fun, not to be punched in the gut by the fact that negative nostalgia creates continuity with our current experiences lol
Great vid
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Oh damn, I was expecting something fun, not to be punched in the gut by the fact that negative nostalgia creates continuity with our current experiences lol
Great vid
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-Hannah-xh2cc
i want a mini jenna to sit on my shoulder and help me critically examine media at all times so that I may one day have a galaxy brain like hers
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i want a mini jenna to sit on my shoulder and help me critically examine media at all times so that I may one day have a galaxy brain like hers
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-friend_xtra
funny to me that Meatballs was used at the beginning, but wasn't pointed to as being not so acceptable now. but maybe that's a given?
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funny to me that Meatballs was used at the beginning, but wasn't pointed to as being not so acceptable now. but maybe that's a given?
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-charlieworst
Too Many Cooks, Squidward's Suicide, and Unedited Footage of A Bear still instill massive fear in me.
I loved this though.
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Too Many Cooks, Squidward's Suicide, and Unedited Footage of A Bear still instill massive fear in me.
I loved this though.
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-graceclymer6673
My new favorite cultural analysis/ horror show (tied with switchblade sisters) is back, and subsequently, my week is saved
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My new favorite cultural analysis/ horror show (tied with switchblade sisters) is back, and subsequently, my week is saved
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-marie-ff2cy
fanfics in 2030:
I opened up the lootbox. But instead of the happy gold icons, hyper realistic blood poured out instead.
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fanfics in 2030:
I opened up the lootbox. But instead of the happy gold icons, hyper realistic blood poured out instead.
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-GodSpelling
This was a really cool video and I really love this idea of Negative Nostalgia. I actually really enjoyed this. Good job.
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This was a really cool video and I really love this idea of Negative Nostalgia. I actually really enjoyed this. Good job.
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