A Time We Never Knew - by Freya India - After Babel
Freya India is one of the most sensitive and perceptive Gen Z writers. She went through the social media maelstrom herself and now chronicles its effects on her generation. She writes widely, especially on her Substack, GIRLS.
Zach and I enjoy her writing so much that we invited her to join the core team at AnxiousGeneration.com. We’ve already published one of her essays: Algorithms Hijacked My Generation. I Fear For Gen Alpha. Now that she’s on our team, you can look forward to an essay from her each month as part of our series of “ Voices of Gen Z.” Welcome, Freya!
There is a beautiful and melancholic word I like called anemoia. It means nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known.
This is a sentiment I often sense from my generation, Gen Z—especially in recent years. I see it in the YouTube videos of old concerts that get millions of views. I see it in our fascination with polaroids, vinyls, vintage cameras, and VHS tapes. And I see it in our reaction to gut-wrenching videos about how life has changed, like this short movie about dating that recently went viral:
But perhaps the best example of anemoia is the popularity of ‘90s high school videos, like this one trending on TikTok. Or this one on YouTube, with millions of views, captioned “Phones? No. We had each other.”
