Whatever your age, it has *never* been easier to revisit the many touchstones of your childhood, particularly with any form of mass media. The problem is that they don't actually miss, say, playing Doom at a LAN pizza party until 3 AM—they miss *doing that at the age of 17.*
Which means it's really just a severe form of arrested development. And unfortunately, there is no government program in the universe that can stop you from getting old.
Letting go of nostalgia and just fully embracing "going to the hardware store is an amazing use of a Saturday" was such a relief.
I go into Princess Auto looking for a paperclip and come out 3 hours later with like, water pumps, and a bag full of cheap solutions I didn't know existed to problems I didn't know I had
The cure for nostalgia is to go shopping for cool new shit that you will actually enjoy using. As kids we were always excited to get new stuff - it was the cost of the things that was (kinda) hidden from us. I have a feeling most of the bitter nostalgics can't afford much, and that's part of it
Okay I'm lying about letting go of nostalgia because I'm heavily into retro computer stuff, but that makes the butthurt all the weirder. When I was 13 I could never afford a Roland MT-32. Now I can! Or I can emulate it. And I can have CompactFlash cards instead of hard drives.
Yeah, like this Saturday I could go out until 5am at a dingy club, or pull an all nighter playing Lord of the Rings Online. I'm not going to, but if I wanted to cosplay my 18yr old self I definitely could.
Yup, you can live like your younger self any time you want, but it comes with the caveat that you will want to kill yourself the next day.
Only a select few people—mostly rockstars—are cut out for living like irresponsible teens/young adults, and even there that lifestyle is fading fast among the younger generations.
Though the fact that I can freely go to an arcade and play unlimited games from my childhood any time I want to is actually pretty cool.