How the Corona Pandemic Made us Nostalgic for the Immediate Past: An Exploration of Nostalgia during the Corona Pandemic

Abstract

This article explores and illustrates the rationalising and disenchanting effects of the Corona pandemic and their manifestations in nostalgia. We find that previous research has not addressed the way in which consumers long for the past the way they do during the pandemic. Through a qualitative multi-method study of the nostalgic longings of consumers during the pandemic, we show how consumers are nostalgic for consumption experiences from an immediate past that can be recovered. Our analysis contributes to extant literature by explaining immediate nostalgia, further differentiated as four manifestations, each providing a platform for marketers to understand and act upon nostalgia during and after the pandemic. These manifestations separate ‘immediate’ nostalgia for ordinary experiences, extraordinary experiences, social nostalgia and fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) nostalgia.