The “going analog” movement is gaining momentum by 2026 as the global media narrative has young people swapping smartphones for iPods, flip phones, CD players, film cameras, and more. “Analog” has become the shorthand upon which the entire media narrative has settled for anything that isn’t a smartphone or a streaming platform.
There are 100 million songs available on Spotify. So why are increasing numbers of Gen Zers purposely switching back to devices that own a few hundred?
In the US/UK, the iPod is at the head of this revival. eBay data shows the device was searched for on average about 1,300 times per hour last year, with prices for some models rising between 40 and 60 percent. Refurbished-tech marketplace Back Market has started stocking iPods, Game Boys and other retro devices after a limited number of Nokia phones sold out faster than expected.
There is a parallel moment going on in the CD. The UK-based CD manufacturer’s survey of more than 2,000 respondents found that Gen Z bought more CDs last year than Millennials, Gen X or Baby Boomers. Luminate’s 2026 midyear report, released in mid-July, shows that US CD sales increased 16 percent to 16.3 million units in the first half of the year. Total US physical album sales – vinyl, CD and cassette combined – are projected to increase 7.8 percent to 38.2 million units in the first half of 2026.
According to IMARC Group’s India vinyl record market report, the market size was estimated at US$66.3 million in 2025 and is projected to reach US$119.2 million by 2034. For digital cameras, both IMARC and Deep Market Insights have modeled the India market at around US$0.42–0.49 billion in 2025, which is projected to grow at around 5.1–5.2% CAGR from 2026. 2034. ET Manufacturing and Whalesbook say the refurbished electronics market is growing about 12% in 2026.
Flip phones and stripped-down “dumbphones” – some whose screens are taller than a finger – are also seeing renewed demand, primarily from people who want a device that, by design, is difficult to spend hours on.
Why is this happening?
Underneath the anemia of the 2000s, a simpler mechanism is also at work: relief from choice overload. A case study of a 29-year-old woman who had switched to an iPod reported that she felt “paralyzed” whenever she tried to select a song on Spotify, simply because of how much was available; On a device that only keeps what it has manually chosen to put in place, that problem disappears.
That compromise comes up again and again. A CD has to be purchased, opened, and physically played; It cannot be changed in the middle of a song like a playlist. People who have experimented with this change describe that discomfort as the point: It forces a kind of commitment to what you’re actually hearing, seeing, or shooting, rather than defaulting to whatever the algorithm serves up next.
Some commentators have linked this trend to a broader backlash against AI-generated content and algorithmic feeds – a desire for things that are deliberately chosen rather than optimized for engagement, at a time when AI-written content is, by some measures, beginning to outnumber human-written content online.
Beneath all this there is also a simpler, more practical draw: ownership. The vinyl record or DVD of your favorite movie doesn’t disappear because a licensing deal expired or a platform decided to deprioritize it. Streaming access is actually a lease, not a purchase; A show or album you love today may quietly disappear from your subscription tomorrow, be rerouted to another platform, or pulled altogether. A physical copy bypasses this completely. For a generation that has grown up renting access to everything and being constantly monitored by algorithms, full ownership of something, even something small like a DVD case on a shelf, has become its own cool form of security.
What is Gen Z really doing in India
For some people, this is motivated by accessibility rather than aesthetics. Siddharth Veer Sahni, a 19-year-old undergraduate student, started buying DVDs after watching movies that were not available on any streaming platform and could not even be purchased on YouTube. By owning the disc, he had full ownership of the content he wanted to watch, and the tangibility of it made it more meaningful.
For others, the appeal is closer to social currency. Maanvi Devaraj, a 19-year-old economics and computer science student, has a small digital camera that shoots pictures and videos and serves as a conversation starter with people she meets. His sister has picked up a similar Kodak Mini camera after seeing it. She says it’s less laborious to carry and plans to start bringing it to college every day. His reasoning for choosing it was largely influenced by “the desire to do something different and unique”.
20-year-old pre-law student Kaisha Narula has incorporated three physical media habits into her daily routine — a digital camera, a growing vinyl collection, and a notebook that she carries around to write or doodle in when she’s stressed. She describes all three as making her more present: photography through a camera feels more intentional, vinyl makes listening to music “a kind of more enjoyable thing” than pressing play on Spotify, and writing by hand helps her decompress.
What do tech experts think
Rohit Raj Gupta, tech content creator and founder of Bro It’s Tech, believes the underlying sentiment for this trend is genuine, as people are genuinely tired of how much of their day is spent on screens. But it’s also important to realize that the visibility of that sentiment is a different story: once a video of someone switching to a dumbphone performs well, platforms recommend it more widely, and viewers begin to assume that “everyone is going analog” when, in fact, it’s a small group boosted by algorithms that reward novelty. This leads to a secondary wave of people buying the same device, not because of the disconnect, but because it looks good in a 20-second reel.
In his view, the Western version of this trend – dumbphones, iPods, cassette players – has not become as mainstream as it has overseas. He argues that India instead has its own parallel version: increased interest in physical books despite the availability of Kindles, instant pocket cameras and printed photos, the return of wired earphones, and a more widespread attraction towards retro-looking gadgets.
He also pointed out how screens now touch almost every part of daily life, from work to entertainment, from ordering food to exercising, and the constant stream of information and recommendations is tiring in itself. Analog objects provide a sense of control that the digital default doesn’t have – a physical book has no pop-ups, an offline music player needs a real option rather than an endless scroll of recommendations. He adds a layer specific to this moment: As AI-generated images, videos and music become harder to distinguish from the real thing, physical and man-made objects gain value simply because they seem authentic.
what psychologists say
We consulted Dr. Jaya Sukul, clinical psychologist and founder of Headspace Healing in Noida, Dr. Rashi Gupta, consulting psychologist at RxMen, and Dr. Priyanka Patnaik, senior psychologist at RxMen, to get more insight on this trend.
Sukul described the shift as generational: Gen Z grew up permanently attached to technology, and pushing back against it is a familiar pattern in itself as each generation rejects the norms it inherited. Gupta, who identifies as Gen Patnaik gave it a slightly different take again: less about the past at all, and more about control and breathing space in a digital environment built to demand constant attention. Older devices are particularly appealing to her customers because they have natural limitations — a battery that drains, a feature set that simply turns off — and because physical media feels tangible: You can grab it and use it without thinking about how it’s being algorithmically filtered or pushed behind the scenes.
However, all three psychologists agree that screen time is not actually decreasing. Gupta described the analog gadget as an additional device rather than a replacement for the smartphone. She also noted the irony of purchasing a digital camera to disconnect, but then uploading the photos to Instagram, pulling the phone straight into the loop.
Additionally, Gupta said that social pressure is associated with the devices themselves – buying an iPod or camera often means learning to use it, researching it, and ultimately showing it off online, which reproduces the exact compare-and-display loop that the purchase was intended to avoid. Patnaik attributes this trend to smartphone-related stress, which results in “cognitive load” – the cumulative weight of small decisions like whether to check or ignore a notification, which adds to the distraction even when everyone is feeling down. Removing that noise provides real, immediate relief; She says people feel calmer and more present.
Is this a permanent change, or a phase? Sukul frames this less as a phase and more as evidence of digital fatigue, which requires a sustainable recovery path through habit replacement (replacing the desire to scroll for a specific alternative activity) rather than pure abstinence. Patnaik’s research-based framing explained that sustainability depends on a friction-versus-reward calculation – if an analog habit meaningfully improves one’s well-being, it sticks; If it’s too inconvenient, people turn back.
