Gen-Z’s Obsession With Nostalgia Tech Could Be Your Next Marketing Opportunity

The pocket-size smartphone supercomputers we all carry around are amazing. With a swipe on a screen any one of us, no matter our age, can chat with millions of users on social media, see live video from a far off location, idle away an hour playing a game, or search for a dinner date. But now a report from The New York Times suggests that the most digitally-savvy generation—Gen-Z—is leading a call for a return to simpler times. Youngsters, it seems, have an enthusiasm for nostalgia tech. The Times cites Victoria Zannino, a 25-year-old TikTok user who posted a viral video in which she begged BlackBerry to re-release their classic phone devices. The first BlackBerry, made by Canadian company Research in Motion, launched in 1999 in North America, and the keyboard-sporting smartphones remained on sale until 2016. Zannino explained in an interview with the Times that she just feels “like the time of the BlackBerry phone was very nostalgic.” And she’s not alone: her video clip has garnered over half a million likes and been viewed millions of times. (There’s a delightful irony here. While BlackBerry devices did sport cameras and limited “apps,” pulling off a trick like posting a TikTok video on a vintage device like that wouldn’t be possible. And if it was, your thumbs would be sore from all the complex key presses and screen taps needed to do so.) But Generation-Z, the Times contends, loves things like the physical plastic keys of a BlackBerry, or the dense marble-like surface of a trackball controller. These input systems have a strong physical sensation when you use them, compared to swiping on the glossy screen of an iPhone or an Android device. Look at nostalgia tech clips on TikTok, the Times says, and you’ll also find that many young people yearn for a calmer time when our whole lives didn’t happen inside one device. It’s a fun notion, given the fact that Gen-Z (born roughly between 1997 and 2012) pretty much grew up entirely in the iPhone era. Steve Jobs’ digital marvel launched in 2007. The trend of people longing for old-fashioned tech goes beyond the iconic BlackBerry phone, though. Earlier this year, CNBC predicted that retro-tech would be one of 2025’s biggest cultural trends. It cited examples like the sudden and delightful rebirth of Polaroid cameras. (For the uninitiated, these cameras spit out chemical-based instant photographs that can capture an emotional moment, just like your iPhone can, but which you can actually hold in your hand or pin onto a refrigerator with a magnet. And contrary to that one iconic Outkast song, you really shouldn’t shake them!) Young people’s fondness for tactile, simpler, non-smart technology, CNBC reports, led entrepreneur London Glorfield to found Kickback, a “retro tech brand aimed at Gen Z consumers” that sells old-fashioned CD players, cameras, record players and more. “We’ve found specific success with products that are really great for actually unplugging,” Glorfield said. “That’s the feeling that my generation never really got to experience.” It’s a similar tactic to what Back Market has been doing, which sells refurbished devices. The Hollywood Reporter recently commented on other nostalgia tech, with an argument that some companies are working not to just re-release old devices, but to reimagine them. The outlet focuses on the Remarkable Pro tablet. The tablet is very much a modern device like an iPad, but with a tactile, slow-to-update e-ink screen deliberately designed to feel like paper when written on with a stylus. It’s an effort to “intentionally limit functionality in order to recapture the tactile, analog feel of older technology,” the Reporter said. Why should you care about this? The nostalgia tech trend could be a great marketing opportunity for some companies to dust off their old-fashioned gizmos, and see if they can sell them again under a “retro” branding. And as AI pervades our already high-tech world, with newer, smarter tools being released every day, it can sometimes feel like things are moving ahead too fast. Perhaps that’s where the desire for BlackBerry-like tech is coming from. BY KIT EATON @KITEATON