The unexpected turn by Generation Z

For instance, The Washington Post reports that sales of vinyl records surpassed that of CDs last year. Total revenue for LPs totaled $1.4 billion in 2023.

It should be no surprise that Taylor Swift has something to do with it. She is releasing her vinyl albums in different colors. And Gen Zers are buying all the different colors of the same album.

What seemed like a passing phase by hipsters years ago has exploded into a multi-million dollar business that keeps on growing.

The Post visited United Record Pressing, a 75-year old record-making factory in Nashville that has tripled the number of its presses since 2016.

Mark Michaels bought the company in 2007 on a whim.

“I didn’t think it would die, but I didn’t think it would go crazy with growth,” he said. “It’s gone from kind of a forgotten industry to something that drew more attention, more investment and has become increasingly sophisticated.”

And then there are smartphones. A lot of young people are trading them in for old-style flip phones. According to The New York Post, they are doing it “to reclaim their time and their mental health.”

The paper talked to 19-year-old Sammy, a student at the University of Illinois. She explained why she and her friends made the switch to dumb phones.

“We were talking about how these are supposed to be the best days of our lives, but we’re just on the phone all the time — even when we go out to parties, everybody’s just scrolling on their phones,” she said. “It feels like we’re almost missing out on something that our parents and past generations hyped up.”

My goodness. She and her friends are actually talking to each other face-to-face and not staring at their phones.

Another student, Alena, 20, said her iPhone cut her childhood short.

“But using a flip phone reminds me of the very early 2000s when I was little and it’s really nostalgic.”

Can you get nostalgic at 20?

So here is a generation that taught their parents how to use their iPhones and now they are switching to flip phones. And they’re flipping through the vinyl albums at the record store.

Perhaps they’ve found that modern technology is not the be-all and end-all. Maybe they are grudgingly admitting that we Boomers got some things right.

There was nothing wrong with vinyl records or cassette tapes or film cameras after all.

Perhaps the switch to analog devices can lead to a corresponding drop in prescriptions for antidepressants.

Ask your doctor if a flip phone is right for you.