Young adults turn to iPods and vintage tech over iPhones

Young adults are eschewing all-in-one devices like the iPhone and moving more towards purpose-built technology, renewing interest in “vintage tech” like the classic iPod. Here’s why.

At one point, I think everyone collectively thought that smartphones were pretty great. However, in the last few years, younger generations have started to reject their glowing pocket rectangles in favor of older tech.

This isn’t anything new. I know that when I was in my mid-20s, I felt a weird, inexorable urge to start collecting vinyl, despite not having anything to play them on.

My younger cousin has a wall of classic video games in his home. It’s mostly collection of chunky plastic cartridges that he’s almost too young to remember playing the first time around.

Mike Wuerthele here has a pair of nerd walls. One is Ikea shelving loaded with starships and fighters from assorted ’70s through ’90s sci-fi series, and the other is mostly lightsabers and 3d prints of weapons from some of the shows that his ships come from. Nostalgia can be expensive.

Anyway, the drive to collect ephemera from a time that you’ve designated as “better than your current lot” seems to be a side-effect of growing up in a consumerist culture. Plus, vintage stuff just looks cool.

I don’t think that Gen Z and Gen Alpha are immune to this compulsion. I will say that it is reminding me that I am officially “an old” to see Reels and TikToks of things that were popular in my 20s described as “vintage” and “retro.”

Time comes for us all, I suppose.

Back to iPods. I have to give my juniors credit where credit is due: this all-in-one tech stuff is for the birds.

Overstimulated

I remember not all that long ago — though probably longer than I’d care to admit — guffawing at the idea that someone might want a separate MP3 player or camera. Your phone already does those things.

Are you telling me you want to carry more things in your pockets? Yeah, why don’t you just log into MapQuest so you can print out your directions, which will invariably wind up getting lost on the floor or blown out the window while you’re on the interstate.

I couldn’t believe it. It seemed silly.

My iPhone is not my friend. In fact, I’ve noticed that more often than not, when it buzzes or the screen lights up, my first response is to get annoyed — if not outright pissed.

What on Earth could this stupid piece of metal and glass need from me now? It’s always something.

I’m far from the only person who feels this way. One of my favorite YouTubers, Eddy Burback, made a whole video where he locked his iPhone in a safe for a month.

Spoilers: he learns that he prefers his life without the influence of a smartphone.

And some people have snidely asked me why I don’t just get rid of it. It’s always a bad-faith argument given that life mandates it these days, between banking, groceries, and et cetera, so I don’t engage.

This is the last I will say on that matter. If you are a working adult in the year 2026, you do not have the option to opt out. Plus, have you seen where I work?

I’ve taken steps to reduce the effects of the iPhone on my life. I have tailored my notifications down to the bare essentials.

If I’m at home and I’m not actively talking on the phone, I stash my phone on a Qi charger out of sight. If anyone needs me bad enough, they’ll call, and I’ll hear it ring.

I have deleted all of my social media from my phone. Browsing Instagram on desktop is extraordinarily cumbersome, so I don’t get stuck in doomscrolling.

But that doesn’t change the fact that nearly my entire life is filtered through my iPhone in one way or another.

All my doctor appointments are done through app-specific video calls. All of my groceries come from an app. I don’t drive, so I need to use Lyft if I need to travel around my city in the winter.

Hell, my mortgage company currently only lets you see your mortgage through the app. There is literally no other option.

It’s apps all the way down, and I’m sick of it. So, I get it, Gen Z. I do.

Sometimes you just want one thing that does one thing

Do you ever walk into a room and forget why you went in there? That’s what it feels like to use a smartphone for a lot of people.

Sure, you wanted to start listening to music while you did dishes, but then you saw that you had a notification on TikTok and decided to check that. Twenty minutes later, and you have completely forgotten what you wanted to do.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was some sort of object that just played music? Oh, wait, there was.

The latest iPod craze doesn’t just represent a time that young adults have convinced themselves is “better” than now. For as corny as it sounds, it honors the idea that an object doesn’t need to do everything, it just needs to do one thing well.

I mean, I’d have my own refurbished iPod if the one I wanted wasn’t a cool $350.

Mike’s U2 iPod

And it’s not just iPods, either. Point-and-shoot digital cameras, both vintage and new, are seeing a renaissance moment, too.

And, if you’ve got an old iPod, there’s not much stopping you from hopping on this trend.

In 2020, we ran an article that showed you how to revive an old iPod with a hard drive. If you’re tech-savvy, you could pick this up as a rainy day project and then have your own bit of vintage tech to enjoy — but be advised that some of the links and prices are a little out of date six years later.

That, or you could sell it at a premium to someone who was born in 2004. Really, either way, you come out on top

Different strokes

There’s no shortage of people pushing back against the idea of others eschewing the new for the old. If you go on any Instagram video of a person showing off vintage tech, you’ll inevitably see the same words over and over again.

Performative. Cringe. Stupid.

“You recorded this all on your iPhone and shared it to social media,” nearly every post reads. It’s a supreme example of all-or-nothing thinking, and could be hoisted aloft as a shining example of the state of the internet at large.

Yes, your iPhone has a better camera than an old Sony Powershot. And yes, Apple Music may have a catalogue of 100 million songs that you can access for relatively cheap.

And if those things work for you, that’s fine. No one is going to stop you from taking pictures with or listening to music on your iPhone.

And everyone who has vintage tech still has a modern equivalent. And they probably use it just as much, if not more.

But everyone who owns a vintage car also has a daily-use car — that’s how being a collector of things works.

Is that an iPod in your pocket or… | Image Credit: Mike Forester on Pixabay

If I owned a Shelby AC 427 Cobra, I would want to show it off. You wouldn’t catch me getting rid of whatever “I’m going to the grocery store in a snowstorm” workhorse vehicle I owned.

So, ultimately, I’m not saying that buying an iPod is going to solve all your problems. I’m not saying that every piece of technology should be purpose-built for one specific task.

I am saying that I appreciate why someone would want the option to have an iPod or a point-and-shoot digital camera. Besides, I think it’s kinda hard to deny that even if you don’t want one to listen to music, the iPod classic still just looks cool.