How do we overcome being nostalgic for brands?

While listening to Matt Walsh on Mike Rowe's podcast, the discussion got into the fact that this generation of adults (gen x forward) has an overwhelming amount of nostalgia for brands (star wars, marvel comics, transformers, etc) even moreso than the nostalgia for experiences from our youth. 

This is a dynamic shift in society as a whole, or has it always been this way and are we just more abundant in it today than ever before?

How can we overcome this, not just for us, but for our children?

1. Experience more

When you are a kid, it's hard to go anywhere. You have to ask your parents, they have to make plans, etc. Now we have the ability to travel anywhere at any time. So we can experience more places and things than ever before but we just choose not to.

2. Read

I was talking to a friend of mine who is in his 30s and he told me he hasn't read a book in ten years. I think this is true for many people my age (40). We consume so much media that we don't even know what books are out there anymore let alone get around to reading them.

3. Absorb more knowledge

The other day I was talking with someone about AI and how it will change our lives over the next 20 years. I asked how much he knew about AI and he said "not much". It's very sad that most people my age or younger know very little about anything going on in the world when it comes to technology. This is why everyone gets excited when Elon Musk tweets something because they know nothing about what he is tweeting about and want to learn more.

4. Be less cynical

This generation has become very cynical (and angry) because everything seems fake now compared to 20 years ago when everything seemed real. Maybe it was all just as fake then but there's no way of knowing now so we feel like everything is fake now, which makes us cynical and angry because we feel like nothing means anything anymore.

5. Don't be nostalgic for brands but instead...

Be nostalgic for experiences you had that were fun or interesting or exciting or meaningful or whatever else you would consider an enjoyable human experience.