When I hear students in the lower school talking about how the old Disney Channel was the best, I admit I cringe. Phil of the Future, That’s So Raven, Lizzie McGuire – those were the classics from MY generation. Lower schoolers have no claim over these shows; the only things they probably remember from my Disney Channel are the lightsaber Mickey ears. In the generation of instant messaging, instant information, and insta-grams, everything evolves instantaneously, while our ideals and passions remain the same.

Nostalgia is defined as a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past. Previous generations manifested their nostalgia for better times in movies and advertisements, and consequently spread this “longing” around. For us, anything that isn’t happening right now rests in the realm of nostalgia. From throwback Thursday to Lisa Frank stickers, vintage shorts to 90’s shows on Netflix, a distinguishing factor of our generation that will be remembered is our preoccupation and obsession with the past.

As our window for what constitutes the past gets smaller, a TV show from when we were eight becomes a precious memory from years ago and something that must be held onto. For my tenth birthday party, I took my friends to a Hannah Montana concert. Now, Miley Cyrus is a far cry from the bubbly tween I used to watch on my non-flat screen TV. Sometimes I will listen to Hannah Montana and get nostalgic for a time when homework meant coloring and dresses could be worn over tank tops. The American public is strange in what they believe is appropriate in certain situations. Really, Miley isn’t doing anything we haven’t seen before – her style is directly emulated in the inventory of the store Nasty Gal, her dancing adopted from a whole

internet sub-culture, and a haircut that finds its doppelganger in Tinker Bell. So why are we still talking about her?

The only reason we are offended by the “new” Miley is because we felt the need to differentiate between the new and the old in the first place. Because we fetishize the past, we end up holding her to a double standard that no other emerging artist is held to. If anything, Miley is directly responding to what is currently happening in our culture. Based on what’s already in the media, we should not be feel frustrated at revealing clothing, duckfaces, or cultural appropriation. Our tendency to be resistant to change because of in-congruence with our preconceived notions could cause us to miss something really great. We are overly protective of our frozen-in-time memories of simpler times, and we are frightened by the fact that we, like Miley, are growing up.