Out With the New, Back To the Old
Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston have taken over the headlines with news of their back-and-forth flirting. Aniston was serving Rachel Green realness at this year’s Emmys alongside “Friends” co-stars Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow, aka best-pals Monica Geller and Pheobe Buffay. Shows like “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “Clone High” are more culturally relevant than ever. “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2” just hit the shelves and has people glued to their couches. Chunky footwear, neon and even low-cut jeans are making a comeback (for better or for worse).
It’s the early 2000s. It’s 2020.
The occasional Redbox purchase still takes Zoomers like us back to Blockbuster, reminding us of the comforting, plasticky smell of the latest and greatest home video options. We’ll occasionally pull out an iPhone and be humbled with innocent thoughts of BlackBerries and flip phones, of block breaker and flash games. Even our Spotify subscriptions haven’t stopped bins full of records and cassettes from taking up space. There’s a comfort and familiarity to the tangibility. They’re chunky, they’re oldies, but they’re goodies.
Like us, these new iterations aren’t too far removed from their ancestors. The cultural parallels are the result of what can be called nothing less than an obsession. Not just with classic tech, movies, shows or the stars themselves, but with reminiscing on a time free of responsibility and endless possibility. A time where kids looked forward to waking up bright and early every Saturday to munch on Lucky Charms and make sure they didn’t miss the morning cartoons — which wouldn’t air again for another week.
Now, growing up, Gen Z has had to cope with world affairs that are, well, unique. Luckily for Zoomers, they just so happened to be born into an unprecedented golden age of entertainment. Smart devices, instant streaming and an online world of infinite information have ensured that everyone’s satisfied and a bit overwhelmed.
With unlimited access to any song, movie or series in modern history, Gen Z has become accustomed to stimulus overload. The floodgates opened with streaming services like Netflix and Spotify in the 2010s, and kids were floored by the sheer number of options they now had. Social media gave exposure to all possible perspectives and avenues for determining identity. Anyone interested in anything, be it self-care, a particular franchise or conspiracy, could now find thousands of people just like them through the internet.
These were huge steps for convenience, but inevitable indecisiveness followed.
Faced with a constant digital mirror, Zoomers rushed to identify with bands, shows and hobbies in order to receive validation. It became harder to find a niche and feel unique when everyone had access to the same stuff.
We would do anything to relive the comforts of regularly-scheduled programming. We get it through nostalgia, and we crave it like the marshmallows floating in Saturday morning’s cereal. We won’t stop at one bowl.
The results of Gen Z’s nostalgia craze are everywhere. Successful clothing brands like Dumbgood and Cakeworthy exist to cash in on childhood memories of “Spongebob Squarepants,” “Blue’s Clues” and the like. Even shows like “Pretty Little Liars” that premiered later on are slated to receive reboots. In the age of sequelitis and a churned out stream of lifeless CGI remakes, executives can bank on the box office guarantee of ravenous nostalgia. We’ll eat it right up if it’s connected to our childhood — through rimless, rose-tinted glasses.
We’re even pining for the good ol’ days we didn’t live through.
`80s nostalgia is especially prevalent and is validated by the popularity of arcadey aesthetics in movies and shows like “Stranger Things.” It’s embodied in the rising sales of aged technology like vinyl records which, according to the Record Industry Association of America, outsold CDs this year for the first time since 1986. It’s not new tech, and that’s exactly why it’s selling.
Trends like these are bad for cinema and CDs. But for Gen Z?
We’ve had our fair share. We can’t help getting stuck in the past, and we don’t see it as a bad thing. We don’t really know if it was better “back in our day,” but it isn’t a crime to look back fondly on what may or may not be simpler times. Faced with a rapidly changing and uncertain future, we’re full of nostalgia.
If comfort means having to curl up and binge the classics to avoid a quarter-life crisis, we’re more than content hogging the remote.
Strike Out,
Writer: AJ Bafer
Editor: Hallie Wright
Gainesville