Surround Sound

By Sacha Chafer-Budeiri

Despite being born after many of these shows aired, Gen Z is flocking to 90s and 2000s TV classics like Friends, Gilmore Girls, Sex and the City, and One Tree Hill. This trend isn’t just about quirky fashion or witty banter — it’s rooted in a deeper craving for comfort, simplicity, and stability in an era defined by digital chaos and uncertainty.

A 2023 study from GWI found that 50% of Gen Z feel nostalgic about media from previous times. It’s not the personal memory that draws us in, but the borrowed nostalgia of belonging in a physical world. The “No cellphones” rule of Luke’s Diner feels impossible to enforce in this day and age. In itself, the ability to disconnect is a lost trait. Social media has made it an expectation to be accessible at all times. Also, the desensitised scroll through short-form content about global crises and instability is a growing source of stagnant anxiety. So, the return to the noughts provides predictable, low-stakes comfort, with intentional boundaries. The mindfulness of “outdated” technology means that one can escape the trials and tribulations of media uncertainty and be more present in day-to-day experiences.

The aesthetic appeal is clear. An ode to authenticity and individuality, without the need for online curation or “-core” consumption. There is a desire for tangibility; having displays of vinyl records, CDs, movies, and photo albums is a blossoming point of pride. The age of streaming makes the thought of renting DVDs from video stores obsolete, but there is a genuineness to it that Gen Z craves. Not having the world at your fingertips makes the content and relationships we engage with seem deliberate and personalised, in a way an algorithm cannot quite reach.

Even then, nostalgia marketing has become a trend in its own right. Think, TikTok textbooks for a Gilmore Girls fall, or a Carrie Bradshaw wardrobe. Digital natives are commodifying anemoia in a paradoxical pull toward the pre-social media age. It’s a media arms race of bringing the old into contemporary relevance. Revivals like Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, SatC’s And Just Like That…, and That ’90s Show are attempts to commodify and capitalise on their forebearers’ popularity. But they miss the mark. Revivals are almost too aware of their revivalness. They belong to a different time, one associated with comfort, one which does not fit with today’s climate.

The draw to ‘simpler times’ is a perceived notion. Ultimately, it comes down to pre-Internet days. Answering machines are a thing of the past. Leaving the house no longer equals your unavailability. ‘Third places’ are hard to come by. Everything is reachable in a digital world. Gen Z are craving the days of dinner parties, coffee-shop gatherings, and the feelings of missing and anticipating. Communication has become easy and, therefore, lazy. We know far too much about
strangers on the internet, yet feel so disconnected from our localised real-worlds.

Social media isn’t entirely the enemy, however. Wider availability is bringing these shows to new audiences. Communities are built from fanbases and connecting people in a way that was not possible back then – except for penpals, perhaps, but stamps are too expensive now.

Recent films and TV that hark back are rising in popularity, with the likes of 70s free-birding Daisy Jones and the Six, 80s nostalgia in Stranger Things, and 90s needle drops in Yellowjackets. Nostalgia is bringing back music and fashion trends that may have been lost to time, and reminisces of “they just don’t make ‘em like they used to”.

So is Gen Z trading the ringlights for warm tones? Gen Z is reaching for a time of comfort, which, upsettingly, exists before their own lifespans. Now’s the time to start building that media collection before streaming platforms take away your rewatchables.

References:
https://www.gwi.com/blog/nostalgia-trend