Algorithmically Mediated Nostalgia through Recordings of Post-Communist Parties on TikTok and Instagram

Abstract

Among numerous capabilities, social media platforms have also enabled users to remix and repurpose analog videos through their features. This remediated media is further propelled by the platforms’ algorithmic systems, thus enhancing their visibility among users who, as affective publics, can interact with it and further remediate it. This paper discusses how the nostalgic discourse takes shape on Instagram and TikTok around remediated analog videos of parties and celebrations during the 1990s in Romania and how the platform affordances and the algorithmic imaginary of the affective publics influence the nostalgic discourse. The exploratory study utilizes a mixed method – combining digital ethnography, discourse analysis, and digital humanities – the research identifies a double-folded nostalgia, which is impacted by the interplay between each platform’s specific affordances and the imagined rules and styles of the platforms, imagined by their users.