The 30-year-old in Duc Linh Commune in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong was trying Google Maps’ Street View, which has become a trend as it allows users to view images of their neighborhoods from the past.
As he scrolled through the map, exploring the village’s winding paths, he unexpectedly came across his father’s familiar figure.
“My father passed away earlier this year,” he says. “Seeing that image left me frozen, and then I broke down in tears at the sight of him sitting there, just as I remembered.”
|
Google Maps app on a phone. Photo from Pexels |
Delving deeper into Street View’s archives, he found more glimpses of his father in 2018 and 2019, sitting under a tree on the village outskirts and resting on a stone bench in front of their house. The images stirred a deep sense of regret for spending years away from home and never finding the time to take his father on trips. “My father used to say he just wanted to stay at home and wait for his children and grandchildren to visit,” he recalls.
Hung spent hours scrolling through the app, capturing screenshots of his father and observing how the village landscape had evolved. He even spotted elderly neighbors chatting outside their homes, people who had all passed away. The emotional discovery has made him consider quitting his job and moving back to his hometown to care for his mother, who now lives alone. “I do not want my mother to feel lonely, waiting endlessly for her children to return like my father once did,” he says.
This week, a trend dubbed “returning to childhood through Google Maps” has taken Vietnamese social media by storm. The hashtag #trendgooglemaps has garnered more than 40,000 posts, and videos of users rediscovering old memories, deceased loved ones and familiar village scenes have drawn tens of millions of views.
Street View provides 360-degree images of streets across the world. Users can type in an address to see if Street View is available, and navigate panoramas or select “See more dates” to browse older photos captured by Google’s camera-equipped vehicles. Depending on the area, images date back several years, though coverage is limited in remote regions where Street View has yet to be deployed.
Tran Huy Hieu, 19, of the north-central province of Ha Tinh, was surprised to find an image of his parents and grandparents drying rice on the village road three years ago. His parents have stopped farming because of old age, the university sophomore says.
Seeing the photos brought back childhood memories of helping his family collect rice drying in the yard when it rained and herding buffaloes in the fields, he says. “Since moving to Hanoi for university, I have only returned home once or twice a year. These images make me miss my parents deeply and appreciate my current life more.” He also stumbled upon a moment from 2018 showing himself and his first love cycling around the village at age 12. “It feels magical to rediscover such innocent memories.”
Psychologist Tran Thanh Nam says Street View, introduced in the U.S. in 2007 and rolled out in Vietnam around 2014, has inadvertently become a “time machine” in today’s digital age. The feature allows people to revisit familiar places visually, as if they were walking those old streets or standing in front of their grandparents’ house, he says. This can create a sense of belonging and provide comfort during turbulent times by tapping into nostalgia, a natural psychological longing to return to meaningful memories of home, loved ones and youth.
“This trend reflects our deep psychological need to reconnect with the past and loved ones as a form of emotional healing.”
Mau Hung, 30, from Lam Dong, comes across a 2024 image of his late father sitting alone in their hometown. Video courtesy of Mau Hung
