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The youngsters are craving a simpler time.
Despite being dubbed a social-media-obsessed generation, Gen Z is going old-school, trading digital tech for analog, according to a new study.
Yearning to unplug, younger consumers are snapping up vintage tech — from flip phones and film cameras to record players — in an effort to escape addictive apps and stay offline.
After polling 1,500 people ages 13 to 39, YPulse, a market research firm focused on youth intelligence, found that two-thirds are turning to analog.
The report also found that young people aren’t just buying old-school tech — they’re also replacing endless scrolling with “granny hobbies” like crocheting and photography.
It’s called anemoia — longing or yearning for a time you weren’t even alive for.
Dr. Don Grant, a media psychologist and national advisor on healthy device management for Newport Healthcare, told The Post that “Z-ers” aren’t just romanticizing nostalgia and the simpler life that existed before they were born — they’re turning it into a lifestyle.
“They’re buying the flip phones, they’re using film cameras. Nostalgia may have sparked the trend, but it’s the benefits,” Grant said. “It started as nostalgia, this whole return to the analog deal, but it’s sticking because it feels good.”
Evidence suggests that the trend is sticking: sales — and downloads, ironically.
Brick — the $59 device that locks your phone to limit distractions and doomscrolling — and flip phone sales have both skyrocketed over the past few years.
Back in January, Brick’s downloads shot up nearly 600% year over year, according to estimates from research firm Sensor Tower.
For people like Autumn Parks, 27, the appeal is simple.
The Indiana stay-at-home mom told The Post that social media users her age want physical ways — like the Brick — to get off their screens. With apps designed to keep users scrolling, she said, self-control is no longer enough.
“I have my Brick on a schedule so it automatically locks me out at 10 p.m. so I can’t stay up doomscrolling. Then, it unlocks at 8 a.m. so doomscrolling can’t be the first thing I do in the morning,” Parks explained.
Parks also said the physical barrier forces her to stop and think about whether she even wants to unlock her phone and start scrolling once her time is up.
“I usually don’t. So then naturally my screen time has lowered,” she said.
Call it nostalgia, but flip phone sales have also skyrocketed, with purchases among users ages 18 to 24 increasing 148% between 2021 and 2024, according to a 2024 report from the peer-reviewed Partners Universal Innovative Research Publication.
The trend could tie to Gen Z’s newfound love for the early 2000s — or simply a desire for a phone that does little more than call and text, and has Snake if you’re lucky.
Gen Zers are also buying up film cameras faster than you can say “point-and-shoot” — even as smartphones now boast cameras that can rival the real thing.
According to Fortune, roughly 35% of film camera users are now under 30.
So why are younger people spending $100 or more on vintage tech?
Boundaries.
Apps are engineered to defeat self-control — through infinite scrolling, endless notifications and addictive algorithms. They’re designed that way.
Parks told The Post that the technology itself is the problem, arguing that Gen Zers have been handed these devices with little to no oversight.
“I think young people are realizing that phones might actually be the problem, but we’re also so addicted that it’s hard to do the right thing — putting our phones down more — so then we don’t and we just keep scrolling.”
Consumers are tired of the tech obsession, so they’re simply removing the temptation. By embracing both old and new technology, Gen Zers no longer need the smartphone to do it all.
Dr. Grant believes the analog summer revealed that young people don’t necessarily want less technology — they want more texture.
“This isn’t an anti-tech movement; it’s an anti-overload movement. Analog isn’t nostalgia necessarily; it’s regulation,” he told The Post.
English (US)