The Dark Underbelly of '80s Nostalgia Accounts
Hello WNVM-ers,
This week, Cheryl has a story that she’s been wanting to write since we launched. She has been an avid consumer of ‘80s nostalgia accounts on Instagram, a guilty pleasure and also a good source for story ideas. But lately, things over in that corner of the internet have been getting a bit darker, so she chatted with a few of the account owners and some experts on internet culture to understand how nostalgia for the Reagan years fits into this particular cultural and political moment. (Spoiler: There is some grifting and ugliness going on.)
Then, Boyz II Men is about to be all over our screens, Gen X’s favorite former “Kid” turns 50, and Fawnia interviews Lucy Liu. (It’s a longer newsletter today, so you may need to read in your browser.)
I’ve Been Looking So Long At These Pictures of You
The ‘80s nostalgia accounts that are all over Instagram run the gamut from sweet to scammy.
By Cheryl
(NOTE: Instagram handles with a * at the first mention denote that I reached out to the page for an interview and did not get a response. Follower counts at the time of publication appear in parentheses.)
There’s a meme that has crossed my Instagram feed recently a couple times via different accounts. It has over 10K likes and 1800 shares. Take a second and process it with me:
It’s a mix of nostalgia (Aw, a banana seat!), some regressive stuff (The word “sissy,” ugh. Sample comment: “Still are.”), historical inaccuracy (Helmets were not even widely commercially available in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s.), and the usual annoying internet garbage (Spellcheck your memes, for god’s sake).
What you can’t see is that it’s posted by an account with a faceless creator based in the country of Georgia selling a bunch of junk from Amazon via a link in its bio. This image is a perfect microcosm of the larger environment of ‘80s nostalgia accounts proliferating everywhere.
There are dozens of pages on Instagram that memorialize aspects of the ‘80s. You can follow accounts that post about new wave, Club MTV, old beauty products, Barbies, video games, Black artists/celebrities, rock groupies, and flashback news screens. But ‘80s generalists make up the largest group, posting a variety of movie stills, old celebrity photos, toys, food, memes, and so many old Pizza Hut interiors. Follower counts range from several hundred to over 1.5 million.
“These accounts offer escapism, and they allow you to transport yourself to an alternate reality and get outside your world for a little bit. It's kind of like a way to daydream,” says Taylor Lorenz, a tech and online culture journalist who runs the Substack User Mag and is the author of the book Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet.
But beneath the veneer of grainy nostalgia, it’s often hard to tell who’s running the accounts. It runs the gamut from earnest Gen X-ers genuinely expressing their affection for the pop culture of their youths to opaque entities pushing low-quality content to insidiously lure you into buying useless products. Plus, as I spent time really marinating in this milieu over the last few months, I began to see some messages below the surface of the memes, and even some blatantly offensive content. Nostalgia has often been leveraged to influence politics; it felt important to explore how that’s manifesting, especially in light of Gen X’s right-leaning majority in the last election.
Remember This?!
“I started sort of as a journal,” says John Toma, 47, who runs That_80s_Dude (509K) and also posts on TikTok, YouTube, and Substack at Nostalgia Nation, where he shares some personal anecdotes about growing up in the ‘80s as a first generation immigrant. He’s a bit of an anomaly in the world of nostalgia accounts, sharing his full name on his page.
Toma came to the US as a young child in the early ‘80s after his family fled from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, and he says his memories from the time are still vivid. He started collecting memorabilia, wanting to chronicle his childhood memories for his kids. He launched the account in 2020 after his fourth son was born, posting pictures from his collection, obits when stars die, and movie clips — all common fodder for these accounts. Occasionally he appears on-camera, though not as much as he used to.
Collecting ‘80s detritus seems to be a gateway for the genesis of a lot of ‘80s accounts. Rerunthe80s (1.2 million), Recaptured80s* (786K), 80sthen80snow (622K), and Backtothe1980z* (637K) represent a sampling of avid collectors. Posting content beyond just their collections can grow a following. Toma says that when he started posting old commercials and other snippets as an early adopter to Reels, he started to “expand rapidly.” (While there is a small, dedicated creator community of Gen Z ‘80s superfans like Violet Sky, for this story I’m focusing on accounts that seem to be run by and aimed at Gen X-ers.)
Cindy Santiago, 46, of TrulyOutrageous80s (21K) started her account in 2018 after she turned 40. She started collecting things she used to own when she was young and acquiring toys she had always wanted but never had, like a My Pet Monster and the Ghostbusters Firehouse. It was a way to counteract a common feeling among those of us in middle age: that we can’t possibly be this old.
“I was getting older, but still didn't feel like I was older, and wanted to have more of a daily [reminder] of how I feel inside,” says Santiago, who works as a dental assistant.
She found it really fun to follow other ‘80s accounts. Both Toma and Santiago say they have found a tight-knit community among the ‘80s flashback people.
They also acknowledged my suspicion, anecdotally based on content and the occasional glimpse of a creator, that men likely run a majority of these accounts. Santiago didn’t meet any women at all for the first few years she had her account. (Women run EightiesGirls* (845K), 80s.deennice (1.1 million), and 80sGirlsRule (127K), if you’re interested in that point of view.)
Because so much of the pop culture of the decade centered white celebrities, they tend to feature prominently in the nostalgia feeds. Santiago posts old Menudo photos occasionally.
“I am Latina and try to incorporate that side of my culture when I can,” she says. “It’s nice when I get followers that know who Luis Miguel is, or any other Hispanic celebrity!”
So what is the endgame for everyone here? Many are just there for fun. Santiago is doing collaborations with more Gen X influencers and is trying to grow her account. Toma notes that the players have increased since the pandemic but seem to be leveling off now.
“There are a lot of accounts that have come on that are faceless,” he says. “It's hard to believe that those individuals are genuinely trying to promote the actual nostalgia more than, like, trying to jump in and make money or capitalize on nostalgia, because they'll see accounts like mine or other folks’ that are promoting brands.”
Let’s Make Lots of Money
“I do really think that the incentive structure of social media is aimed towards anybody who's willing to grift on it,” says Jamie Cohen, an assistant professor of Media Studies at CUNY Queens College. “It’s the market. I think most nostalgic content is bait. Very little of it is media-archeological, meaning they're looking to talk about what it meant, how it affected people, what its culture was. It’s designed specifically for engagement.” (I hope we here at WNVM are providing that deeper context while we try to make money with nostalgia-tinged content. But also: follow us on Instagram!)
Nostalgia pages make money the same way other big creators do, but sometimes it’s not always obvious how that’s happening.
Toma, who has a full-time job outside of That_80s_Dude, has done sponsored content with brands like Hulu, Coca Cola, and Playmobil, making a few hundred dollars to $2000. He’s received Instagram bonuses, tried an Etsy shop selling apparel, and is working to self-publish books. Collectors sell pieces from their collections, and many creators sell nostalgic items via their own sites, licensed online merch shops, or curated Amazon shops that generate commissions. Some, like Totally80sRoom* (1 million), sell stuff — like a Santa ornament with a retractable penis — that has absolutely nothing to do with the ‘80s.
Then there are the accounts like grew_up_in_the_70s_and_80s, (1.1 million), which posted that bike picture in the intro. So many of the images on grew_up are posted repeatedly, and many are low quality text images meant to farm engagement. This is a classic Instagram “theme” page, which, after racking up engagement, tries to get people to buy stuff, without any of the charm or obvious human touch that some other ‘80s pages have.
Lorenz says theme pages were some of the first to monetize on Instagram. (Popular themes, according to YouTube gurus teaching you how to run them, include “old money” and … stoicism?) Often the goal is to sell the pages to a brand or other entity.
“They’ll be used to cross-pollinate content. So you'll see some of these theme pages start promoting links to crap SEO articles on their Instagram stories, just to try to pump traffic,” says Lorenz.
This is exactly what Egeekowl, the content creation company that owns grew_up_in_the_70s_and_80s, does. (A rep from Egeekowl had agreed to an interview, but then stopped responding.) It also owns my_good_old_days (816K) and accounts like homemaking.com, craftyfun.com, and others. It’s constantly exhorting you to click on its websites, which will crash your desktop because of all the terrible pop-up ads. The link in bio leads to a never ending scroll of random Amazon stuff, like tire chains and a pet gate. And it links to Florea*, the same site that sells the dirty Santas, which seems like a dropshipping business and that I’ve seen popping up all over ‘80s accounts.
I do believe that a lot of nostalgia accounts are run by good-faith owners. And I certainly don’t begrudge them selling MTV mugs or getting some Toys “R” Us money. It’s real work to create original content, and I’ve been a grateful consumer of some of it during dark times. But I think times are going to get darker.
The ‘Good Old Days’
There’s a lot of longing for the ‘80s on these pages, both in the content itself and the comment sections (“I want it back so so much.”). These accounts are meant to be viewed through neon-colored glasses.
“It reminds us of a time when we were comfortable, which is when we were children,” says Cohen. “But the aesthetics overlay the reality that Reagan was president.”
Obviously, the nostalgia accounts don’t often acknowledge some of the darker aspects of the ‘80s: the AIDS crisis, Black artists originally not welcome on MTV, the Iran-Contra scandal, turning racism and xenophobia into a punchline à la Sixteen Candles, the fear of nuclear annihilation. George Michael tore himself apart hiding his gay identity. Interest rates were 13% in 1984 when my parents were trying to buy a house. The girls at my Catholic school wore shorts under our uniform skirts starting in sixth grade because the boys would flip them up at every opportunity.
Trump co-opted “Make America Great Again” from Reagan’s 1980 campaign, and he has successfully banked on nostalgia in his campaigns to evoke some nebulous so-called “good old days.”
Lorenz says that nostalgia accounts pushing general “Americana” content interact with pro-Trump media and have played a part in recent elections. “It's all interconnected with scammy online marketing. Some of those accounts end up getting turned into propaganda accounts,” she says. “They'll just turn into blatantly conservative meme pages.”
We have absorbed the events of the past even if we were kids and didn’t understand them at the time. This history colors what’s happening in American politics now and finds its way to the nostalgia pages. How could it not?
Posts and comments I’ve seen range from sexism and icky gender stuff to full-on political vitriol. The Huey Lewis post above highlights for me the frightening state of mistrust in the media. The comments about gender, feminism, and transgender people on that dirt image (I think it’s AI?), which the account has posted multiple times, are foul. But this post is the most egregious thing I’ve seen on one of these accounts:
On October 18, backtothe1980z (637K) posted the image above which reads, “Trump 2024!!! All the rest suck!! Go home illegals!!!” along with a similar shot on his Stories. He deleted it after a few hours and shut off commenting on his page. He came back the day after the election and has posted his usual non-political content with no apparent pushback, though he has lost about 6750 followers in the last 30 days, according to Social Blade stats. He does occasionally agree with political statements supporting Trump in his comments. (He engaged with me on DMs when I asked for an interview, but stopped responding when I asked for comment about this post.)
While there is no indication that this is what that account was trying to do, Cohen says that sometimes creators will engage in audience testing. “They post something like that to see how their audience will react, then they move completely into that space,” he says. “On Meta [the parent company of Facebook and Instagram] products, the far right does far better with engagement than anyone else.”
To be clear, the material that I find offensive or questionable is still a small minority of the content I see on these sites. A casual user who follows just a few of these accounts at a time may never come across any.
Toma and Santiago both strive to keep their posts and pages as free from politics as they can, though it’s harder lately. Toma has seen accounts post “divisive” material, but he wants to keep his feed full of “joy.”
“Posts about shifting cultural norms might trigger remarks like, ‘That would never be allowed today’ or ‘That person would be canceled,’” says Toma. “If a political comment is non-offensive and simply an observation, I tend to leave it for the community to engage with. However, I have zero tolerance for hateful or discriminatory remarks.”
Meanwhile, I’m now spending time on my favorite, calming new corner of Instagram: Pedro Pascal with pups.
We are two Gen X journalists who analyze all the '80s and '90s nostalgia in current pop culture, fashion, and beauty. Read more stories like this one here!
You Oughta Know
“It’s long overdue but now …” a biopic and a documentary about the virtuosos behind your prom and graduation bangers, Boyz II Men, are in the works. Group members Nathan Morris, Wanya Morris (no relation), and Shawn Stockman executive produce the feature in partnership with producers behind Bohemian Rhapsody and the Whitney Houston biopic, I Wanna Dance With Somebody. The documentary will chronicle the R&B group’s chart-topping years from the ‘90s to 2000s, and continued success today. The four-time Grammy-winning group’s involvement in the feature film also means full access to their catalog and “It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” was just made for this! –FSH [Variety]
Pardon the self-promo, but I fangirled big time interviewing the legend Lucy Liu about getting the call from Steven Soderbergh to play the lead in January’s thriller Presence, producing (and starring in) her upcoming movie Rosemead, which is her baby, and ordering The Rock and a very anti-Captain America Chris Evans around in Red One.–FSH [Elle]
Happy 50th birthday, Chloë Sevigny! Instagram tributes to the actor and forever style icon also provided a wealth of timeless outfit inspo, so happy birthday to us, too. –FSH [90sanxiety; Wmag; dazedfashion]
For health and wellness-related nostalgia, Peloton kicked off “Time Machine Week” with ‘80s and ‘90s-music themed workouts through Sunday. Sweat to endorphin-energizing anthems, from Jon Bon Jovi’s “Blaze of Glory” to “The A-Team Theme” to full Nirvana and Lionel Richie soundtracked classes. “What is this feeling, I’m dancing on the ceiling… ” (Sorry, make me stop. It’s been a really long week.) –FSH (Peloton, sponsor us!-CW) [pelotonstudios/Instagram]
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Wow great journalism here; liked and subscribed
I’m humming Pet Shop Boys, thanks a bunch: “I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, let’s make lots of money.”
Excellent article, thank you!💕