Everything old is new again.
We live in an era of recent nostalgia — trends come and go in seconds, revived before they’ve barely died. Nothing exemplifies that more than Gen Z’s new preference for wired headphones. You know, the very thing we ditched about five years ago.
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So, what’s up with the wired headphones trend? Does it have a deeper meaning? Let’s find out.
It’s the early 2000s all over again.
Platform shoes, chokers, narrow sunglasses, and tiny purses were the name of the fashion game when I was growing up in the 2000s. They’re also the name of the fashion game now, here in 2021. Why? Gen Z LOVES nostalgia.
Gen Z is nothing if not contrarian.
When style zigs right, Gen Z zags left. Why? It’s the total rejection of traditional “trend” culture that was set by magazines and models in the early 2000s.
Ironically, Gen Z now embraces the outdated trends once set by the people they reject as influencers.
Take the history of wireless headphones, for example.
In the early 2010s, it became increasingly common to see people conducting business with a coffee in one hand, phone in the other, and a bluetooth earpiece in their ear.
Tech bros with AirPods became the next generation of those people. And Gen Z hates tech bros (as do most millennials, let’s be real).
The combination of tech bros and popularity killed AirPods.
The over-saturation of anything was rejected by millennials in the 2000s, and the same is happening with Gen Z today.
Case in point: Once too many people had them, AirPods were no longer cool.
Tale as old as time.
Now, wired headphones are back as a niche accessory.
Major celebrity influencers are at the head of the trend, caught walking out and about in headphones noticeably wired. There’s an air of “IDGAF” to a wired headphones that we’ve lost with the invention of wireless headphones.
It’s a visible rejection of modernity.
No one wears wired headphones, so Gen Z wears wired headphones. It’s their generation’s entire anti-anything attitude, and I for one see the value in it. Pushing against norms is each new generation’s thing.
So, wires it is.
I’m honestly obsessed with the return to a wired look. It’s not for me, but I appreciate the message that wires send. They’re aloof, almost untouchable. They say, “Don’t talk to me.”
It’s all about the vibes.
Remember when Jim and Pam shared headphones outside of Dunder Mifflin and how that was peak crush goals? Ugh, I swear it still feels like 2006 sometimes.
Like it or not, wired headphones are back.
Upside: You’ll never lose a single AirPod again, and people won’t talk to you in public.
Downside: The cord tangles, the inability to share them properly, everything else.
They’ll figure that part out on their own, though.
h/t Mashable
