Footage of a crowded high school hallway in the 1990s was posted to X on Dec. 9, and has received over 180,000 views. This video marks a nostalgic trend that’s inspired entire TikTok accounts to post videos of high school classrooms, cafeterias and hallways from different eras.
One comment reacted by saying, “Wow....people talking and interacting with each other! What a good time to live.”
Another said, “Is it krazy I rather be around in the 90s?”
Dumb phones may be making a come-back
If these videos of high schoolers walking around without a phone make you nostalgic for your own pre-phone days, or jealous that pre-phone days even existed, don’t lose hope. A trend of going phone-less seems to be growing among Gen Z.
“Dumb phone” influencer Jose Briones said, “I think you can see it with certain Gen Z populations — they’re tired of the screens.” He added, “They don’t know what is going on with mental health and they’re trying to make cutbacks.”
2022 was a hopeful year for the flip phone, since around 80% of sales came from developing countries, per CNBC, However, among the countries with increased flip phone sales is the U.S., “as a contingency of young people ... revert back to dumb or minimalist phones,”
HMD Global (the company that makes and sells Nokia phones) sold “tens of thousands” of basic texter phones a month in the United States in 2022 — a number that had risen since previous years, per Euro News.