They\u2019re tossing tech to the trash and seizing a retro reboot.<\/p>\n
Gen Zers are ditching sleek smartphones and algorithm-fed apps for vintage flip phones, once-coveted iPods, digital cameras, even typewriters \u2014 and jump-starting a simpler, less plugged-in life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And parents are scooping up retro tech for their children, too, as a way to preserve family life<\/a> and delay the deluge of doomscrolling<\/a> that is trapping kids into digital addiction<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sonya Saydakova is among the Gen Zers embracing low-tech over high-tech \u2014 including a point-and-shoot digital camera. Tamara Beckwith\/NY Post<\/p>\n About a year ago, Sonya Saydakova, a grad student at New York University, switched from an iPhone to a dumbed-down Nokia 2780 flip phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an indescribable feeling to feel so detached and not constantly available,\u201d the 23-year-old raved to The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n Saydakova got a movie theater membership, picked up a digital camera and a CD player \u2014 and she quit Spotify. She also asks for directions instead of solely relying on Google Maps, saying the interactions with people on the street have enriched her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reducing her screen time, Saydakova told The Post, has made her feel liberated, focused, happier \u2014 and less anxious.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re culturally at a breaking point,\u201d she maintained. \u201cPeople are just sick of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Alex Becker, a 34-year-old mother who lives outside of Philadelphia, shares Saydakova\u2019s desire to eschew tech, telling The Post she is one of \u201cmany\u201d parents who have \u201cno interest in getting their kids a smartphone or an iPad.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, she wants her children, 5 and 2, to experience the \u201cjoy of childhood\u201d without \u201cthe online drama,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe second kids get these devices, the innocence of childhood is lost. That\u2019s what I hear from so many parents, like, \u2018My daughter is spending every day on Instagram and Snapchat, wanting to buy skincare products, when six months ago she was reading Narnia books.\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The low-tech switch is part of a \u201cbroader cultural shift away from constant connectivity\u201d and \u201cdigital overload,\u201d according to Amanda Michel, US director of marketing at Backmarket<\/a>, an online marketplace for refurbished electronics.\u00a0<\/p>\n Michel told The Post \u2014 in an email, ironically enough \u2014 that the site is seeing a \u201crenewed interest in older, simpler devices,\u201d with consumers scooping up Wi-Fi-free iPods, MP3 players, vintage gaming consoles, handheld cameras and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n Apple\u2019s early-2000s iPods \u2014 like these with the classic click wheel \u2014 are finding new life. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n In 2025, eBay also saw \u201cstrong signals of growing interest in legacy music devices like iPods and other offline listening tools,\u201d a spokesperson told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the company, iPods were searched more than 1,300 times per hour on average globally across 2025, while prices rose between 40% and 60%, depending on the model.\u00a0<\/p>\n Computers are not his \u2018type\u2019<\/p>\n Brooklyn fiction writer Dean Jamieson is drafting his works \u2014 but not on a computer. Instead, he\u2019s tap-tapping away on a metal-green manual typewriter, an Olivetti Lettera 32, which was first launched in 1964.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n He had considered getting a typewriter for a while, Jamieson admitted to The Post, \u201cbut I\u2019m kind of a procrastinator and I\u2019m pretty cheap.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Dean Jamieson\u2019s girlfriend got him an old manual typewriter that he is using to put his words to literal paper. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n His girlfriend found one on eBay, nabbing it from \u201csome Russian guy in Queens; it was his mother\u2019s and hadn\u2019t been touched.\u201d She gave it to Jamieson for his 26th birthday last November.\u00a0<\/p>\n He likes the \u201ctactility\u201d of seeing the words on a physical page, being able to edit \u201cby hand on paper,\u201d instead of looking at a \u201cticking cursor on the screen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest thing is having no access to the internet,\u201d Jamieson added. \u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to write on your computer, I find it to be very distracting and destructive.\u201d<\/p>\n He described the retro tech trend<\/a> more as a \u201cgeneral attitude,\u201d adding that many of his friends are reading books, going to the movies, and getting off their phones.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese things are kind of liberating and can be really nice and pleasurable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pennsylvania mom Becker also feels a sense of pleasure, mixed with nostalgia. By listening to music on Spotify, she realized her taste in tunes has gotten \u201creally narrow,\u201d and she misses listening to a variety of music and delving into a full album.\u00a0<\/p>\n She strives to \u201cpreserve some of that \u201990s childhood\u201d for her children, even snagging a used boom box (remember those?) with a compact disc player, dusting off her old collection and thrifting CDs.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her kids \u201clove it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Another reason Becker and others are choosing refurbished tech is the invasion of discarded electronics, which, according to the World Health Organi<\/a>z<\/a>ation<\/a>, is the fastest-growing solid waste stream in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2022, the WHO reported that an estimated 62 million tons of e-waste were produced globally. Many discarded devices, like phones and laptops, contain toxic materials, such as lead and mercury.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI get a sinister feeling from how much waste we produce,\u201d 26-year-old Rachel Reich told The Post. \u201cI try not to buy things when I don\u2019t need them.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Saydakova displays some of her retro gear. Tamara Beckwith\/NY Post<\/p>\n Making the switch<\/p>\n Last May, when Reich\u2019s iPhone was on \u201cits last leg,\u201d Reich downgraded after years of devotion to tech.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t develop normal hobbies,\u201d the New Yorker confessed about her decade-plus addiction to Instagram, noting that she got her first smartphone when she was just 9. \u201cAfter school, I would just be scrolling.\u201d<\/p>\n A few years ago, she read about the harmful effects it has on the brain and hung up a sign in her room proclaiming: \u201cDoomscrolling is rotting your brain.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But she still couldn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n \u201cI was deleting and redownloading Instagram multiple times a day,\u201d she recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finally, her dying iPhone freed her. She bought a UniHertz Jelly Star 2E, a smartphone with a 3-inch screen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s bite-sized,\u201d Instagram-free Reich said in triumph. \u201cIt structurally inhibits you from going on it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n New Yorker Rachel Reich replaced her iPhone with a UniHertz Jelly Star like this one.<\/p>\n Reich\u2019s \u201cbite-sized\u201d cell is barely longer than a pinky finger.<\/p>\n Reich also considered her budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTwo hundred bucks for the UniHertz was pretty cheap compared to a new iPhone,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPre-owned and refurbished devices,\u201d an eBay spokesperson explained to The Post, are an \u201caffordable alternative as digital storage and subscription costs evolve.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Can you go back in time?<\/p>\n During COVID, devices became unavoidable for schoolkids. Now, many parents are \u201ctrying to walk that back,\u201d Washington, DC, mom Elizabeth Mitchell told The Post. <\/p>\n Jamieson\u2019s typewriter is one of the \u201cliberating\u201d low-tech items he appreciates. stefano Giovannini for NY Post<\/p>\n She got her 13-year-old son two disposable cameras for his spring break vacation and nabbed a used iPod on eBay to steer clear of web entanglements.<\/p>\n \u201cHe likes to listen to music when he\u2019s going to bed. I\u2019ve been struggling to find devices where he can do that without having access to the internet,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n NYC Gen Zers also told The Post they are using digital cameras instead of their smartphones to take pictures \u2014 and some are even shooting their movies on 16mm and on 35mm film.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has been this resurgence pushed by a lot of young people that are experiencing film for the first time, because we come from a world that was all digital,\u201d Joji Baratelli, a 26-year-old photographer and collector of vintage still and movie cameras, told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an indescribable feeling to feel so detached and not constantly available,\u201d Saydakova said of ditching modern gear. Tamara Beckwith\/NY Post<\/p>\n Baratelli\u2019s oldest still camera, which he frequently uses, dates to the 1930s.\u00a0<\/p>\n At a deli in Manhattan, a 27-year-old store clerk, who declined to give his name, proudly showed The Post a 1950s Royal Aristocrat typewriter he acquired after inheriting it from a neighbor who died.\u00a0<\/p>\n He cited a nostalgic loss of family connection for appreciating old tech.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe used to wake up, see our moms, and eat our breakfast,\u201d he lamented. \u201cNow we wake up and go straight to our phones.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re tossing tech to the trash and seizing a retro reboot. Gen Zers are ditching sleek smartphones and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[48787,186,257152,165,148,108,172,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-588265","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-ebay","9":"tag-exclusive","10":"tag-ipods","11":"tag-mobile","12":"tag-parenting","13":"tag-social-media","14":"tag-tech","15":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}