Article snippet: Around this time of year, every year for the last 10 or so, I have indulged in a strange but comforting ritual. I see the Facebook photos of tassels turning, I get the feels — lots of them — and then I plunge into the depths of my music library to rediscover Vitamin C’s “Graduation.” One listen — much like one potato chip — seldom satisfies. So I lean in, playing the song on repeat, often while flipping through pages of my high school yearbook until, eventually, normal levels of subconsciousness set in. Of course, the feelings elicited by the song have a name: nostalgia. And it’s spreading on college campuses nationwide right about now. But to many of us who know the feeling of nostalgia, it’s just that: an abstract, poorly understood if entirely overwhelming feeling. Thankfully, there are people who study this stuff, and because of them, our way of thinking about nostalgia has turned upside down in recent years. We even know the sorts of things that can trigger it. (Trigger warning: The rest of this post may make you long for the past.) Johannes Hofer, a Swiss doctor, combined the Greek terms Nostos (for homecoming) and Algos (for pain or longing) to coin the term “nostalgia” in the late 17th Century. At the time, he described it as a “neurological disease of essentially demonic cause.” Some speculated that Swiss mercenaries abroad were the primary victims because the constant clanging of cowbells in the Alps had damaged their ear drums and brains. The outlook g... Link to the full article to read more