Teens wanting analog stuff all of a sudden?

[pasteldome]

My teens (who both have February Birthdays) are currently asking for things like a CD player, DVDs, CDs, wired head phones, DS wants a record player and DD wants a vintage compact digital or film camera and a planner / notebook that costs about £60 and a pricey fountain pen.

I get that analog is a trend and I'm enjoying sharing my 90's music with them and if we have old tech or CD's then they can use them for sure but some of what they want is quite expensive Vinyl for example.

I think that the impulse is genuine to want to get away from screens and I'm delighted that my daughter seems more interested in books although she isn't yet reading a lot she got Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Jane Eyre for Christmas which are still on her bedside so I think she will get into them eventually.

We don't have a cd player anymore or a record player and so before I invest in any more tech / stuff is this just a trend do you think?

It's all over Tik Tok, along with "analog hobby baskets".

It's just a trend that will fade rapidly.

I'm sure the OP knows CDs are not analogue but we all know what the OP means

@BloodandGlitter Yeah its that or the Travellers notebook with the leather cover she wants. There are dupes on etsy which she'd happy with, not cheap but cheaper!

I hadn't heard of an analog bag but it turns out I have one with my knitting and craft stuff in. I suppose digital media is a risk, even if you download and save the movie, book or music file onto a hard drive or burn it to disk its still quite a vague way to own something.

I was thinking though and some posters brought this us earlier that while I do enjoy physical stuff and I love the tilt to physical / tactile hobbies and interests for my kids and young people and less time on their phones. I'm also reminded of just how much stuff people used to and often still have. I know a lot of people my age who got rid of all their cd's, books, dvd's, camera stuff and so on or who had to clear the homes of older relative's after they'd died and people really can be drowning in stuff.

In my own case as someone who has kept diaries, notebooks and sketchbooks since childhood that stuff can build up really quite fast and where do you put it all? When we moved out of our old place I digitised a lot of that for reference and packed it away in the loft and I love having more space and less stuff cluttering up the place. I also used to have a serious book hoard which is now very much paired down. I know the expense of things means people will be more intentional but its so easy for all these bits of build up into something unmanageable, the downsides an analog life perhaps. I always remember watching this youtube video years ago for example:

https://amzn.eu/d/iUqtNCX

Thanks. But there's no extras on it apart from the documentary that's already on iPlayer. The series 1&2 dvd, which came out pre streaming had so many more features.