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After the 1980s and 1990s hypnotized Generation Y, a new cycle begins, this time with the Z, who are snapping up tech devices of the early 2000s. And companies understood this.
In mid-October, the clothing store Urban Outfitters – one of favorites of people born at the turn of the millennium – was selling a collection of refurbished original iPods.
Right out of the 2000s, these updated Apple music players, including a new battery and more storage, sold for between $200 and $350 US (between $275 and $480 CAD) online, depending on device generation.
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After selling record players and portable cassette players, Urban Outfitters put refurbished iPods from the 2000s on sale on its site .
This price, higher than the original, did not cool Internet users, who quickly exhausted stocks – Urban Outfitters did not provide details to Radio-Canada on the quantity of devices it had or how many time has passed.
Another example: the specialized site The Verge brings together the return of transparent shells for electronic devices under a theme. Very fashionable in the 2000s, this protective plastic envelope allowed technophiles to reveal the wires, circuits and other components of gadgets.
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The Analogue Pocket handheld game console is also available with a transparent case.
A young woman who uses iPod Shuffles as hair clips, a gamer who assembled his gaming computer in an old tower yellowed by the years… Examples come flooding in line.
For Arnaud Granata, president of Formations Infopresse, it is the return of a mega cultural trend that respects fashion cycles: The Gen Zers were born in the early 2000s and are now in their 20s. Typically, it takes 20 to 30 years for something to become “vintage.”
For [people from] Generation Z, it's having access to a kind of fantasy of the technology present at their birth, which they never really knew.
A quote from Arnaud Granata
But how is Gen Z’s fascination with these 2000s gadgets spreading? Through social networks, of course, but this is also part of a broader movement, according to the marketing specialist.
On TikTok and Instagram, platforms loved by young people, you can watch entire films in extracts of a few minutes, a very popular formula. Paramount Pictures joined this trend by releasing in 23 parts Mean Girls, this cult film about teenage girls, which was released in 2004.
Result: A new wave of memes of Cady Heron's (Lindsay Lohan) character and other Mean Girls stars have emerged online.
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@elsajulgrahn Mean girls💕😘#meangirls #cady #regina #karen #gretchen #spex #fredag #burnbook ♬ Mean girls outfits – Rocky 🧸
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The biography of Britney Spears, published on October 24, is part of the same trend: The cover of the book is the Britney from the 2000s, when her career took off. It speaks to people who are 40 years old today, but also to all the young people who have little known her.
Internet users even combined the release of the book with a scene from Mean Girls in memes.
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@hermionejeangra78 gimme more, please! #tiktok #fyp #foryou #britneyspears #funny #viral #meangirls ♬ Gimme more – paul desbois
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Beyond social networks, Arnaud Granata notes that several evenings were organized under the theme of the 2000s in bars.
This renewed love for 2000s gadgets can be explained by certain personality traits that we know about Generation Z, according to the president of Formations Infopresse.
Generation Z grew up with ecoanxiety, wars and a lot of insecurity. If we go back to the past, it is perhaps because the future scares us.
A quote from Arnaud Granata
This desire to access simplified, even anti-technological technology, which we can see in particular through the return to touch-tone telephones, would be for this segment of the population a way of reassuring themselves and finding comfort, notes Arnaud Granata.
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