‘Remember When?’: Analyzing Nostalgic and General Facebook Posts

Why do people post on Facebook? Nascent evidence suggests that nostalgia (a longing for the past) occurs in social media; more specifically, users indulge in nostalgia (remembering the good old days) while interacting on Facebook. This nostalgic longing appears to occur among all age groups; even 20-year-olds are known to exchange nostalgic posts on social media. Although a rich body of knowledge exists around, little academic research currently explores nostalgia within Facebook conversations. This research aims to fill this gap in the literature by examining 10,000 nostalgic posts and a baseline sample of 10,000 general posts, both obtained from a database containing private and public posts.