Lee Suckling: Why are we so obsessed with Throwback Thurdays?

Throwback Thursday is a way to skite to your friends and followers without being nearly as obvious as hashtagging something as prosaic or basic as #blessed. Photo / Getty

Throwback Thursday, or #tbt, is nothing new.

For a couple of years now, internet users have been hashtagging their nostalgia for all the world to see; whether it's a photo of them at the beach as a child or a recall of a perm from 1992.

If you use Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, you probably see Throwback Thursday posts every single week. Celebrities love them. Your high school friends love them. Anyone who's been on a tropical vacation this winter loves them too.

Currently, there are more than 382 million #tbt tags on Instagram, over 37 million #ThrowbackThursday tags, and, humorously, 269,700 tagged #ThrowbackThursdayy. It's the seventh most popular hashtag out there for images (interestingly, #love is number one, #followme is number 10).

The modern generation is obsessed with Throwback Thursday for four reasons.

SIMPLER TIMES

There's something ironic about using social media to remember a time before there was social media. That's the crux of Throwback Thursday for many people, though: a recollection of simpler days where we didn't all have powerful supercomputers in our pockets and actually had to enjoy moments as they came (any photographic evidence would come weeks later when you got your 35mm film developed). When we think back at the 1970s, 80s, and 90s (where most #tbt posts are set) the world did appear a lot easier, and that's something we think we miss. One thing that doesn't usually stick around in our memories is that those simpler times were, for many of us, a lot more boring than today.

RETRO ASTHETIC APPEAL

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Fashion goes in cycles, so does art, film, interior design... anything with an aesthetic quality will eventually be seen as cool again by a certain generation. Those of us who see Calvin Klein sports bras on R&B girl bands and can't believe that crop tops are back and we're now throwbacking to TLC for inspiration. The retro appeal of the aesthetics of the past is best served up on #tbt, least not because we want to give due credit to those who created trends in the first place.

REMINISCING WITH FRIENDS

Both digital and analogue worlds have provided us with records of our friendships with others, whether it's via crumpled-up handwritten notes you once passed in biology class or a screenshot of a drunken Messenger thread you saved from your BFF. Throwback Thursday is the one weekly occasion where it's acceptable to share once-private communications online, for the whole world to see, to reminisce in their hilarity or cringe-worthiness.

BRAGGING RIGHTS

Social networks are tools for bragging. Throwback Thursday is a way to skite to your friends and followers without being nearly as obvious as hashtagging something as prosaic or basic as #blessed. It doesn't matter what you want to boast about: a trip to Tahiti, your weight loss efforts over the last year, repainting your house; it's all worthy of a #tbt brag. Crucially, you don't actually appear to be self-praising with Throwback Thursday, your post goes down as just a "memory jogger".