The young people harking back to a life before smartphones

Telegraph

5 hours ago

The young have always been at the mercy of marketers selling the 'next big thing'. It can be plastic, pointless and entirely surplus to requirements. But if it's new, and all their peers have one, it will be pleaded for until parents relent, or the next must-have item – be it the equivalent of a Tamagotchi cyber pet cyber pet or AirUp water bottle – comes into view.
But despite this time-honoured tradition, when it comes to tech and young people today, something strange is afoot. First, they started buying vinyl, then there was a run on Sony CD Walkmans, and now, a digital camera will likely be swinging from their wrist on a night out.
'Digi cameras are so popular at the moment,' says Bronwen Rees, 24, a care worker from Cardiff, who first used one at university after wanting to learn more about photography. 'They are more fun than taking loads of photos on your phone – which you never look at – plus more thought goes into taking the photo.
'It also takes longer to upload them to social media as you first have to take them off the camera. And they also seem to get better engagement with your friends online; people seem to like them more.'
She is not alone in being won over, for the retro point-and-shoot items originally from the late 1990s are having a moment.
Between July and December 2024, John Lewis saw a 50 per cent rise in sales of new models, while according to Google Trends, searches for digital cameras have more than doubled since 2021 – with interest peaking at Christmas 2024. Meanwhile, Vinted says digital cameras were in the top five most searched keywords within its UK electronics category between January and May 2025, and in the top 10 items sold second-hand.
This retro trend is puzzling, given that many of these cameras are three decades old and host corresponding technology, which means fewer pixels and lower resolution, resulting in a grainier, more lo-fi images. Conversely, today's smartphones with their state-of-the art cameras, routinely come with editing suits and filters and are designed to make it intuitively easy to upload shots to social media.
But is it this professionalism and hyper-connectivity that has led some users to turn against them?
'Rhetoric online suggests there's something about holding a camera that feels more intentional than a smartphone, [it's] a chance to take a break from endless notifications and just capture what's right in front of you,' says Rosie Fitzgerald, head of brand at OnBuy.com, where sales of digital cameras between January and May this year have seen an enormous 606 per cent rise compared to the same period in 2024.
'The process is simplified. You take the photo or shoot the video, and that's it. No immediate editing. No posting. No doomscrolling.'
This idea of simplicity also resonates with Georgia Coulton, 24, a marketing manager in Manchester.
'For me, digital cameras are a backlash against having to look perfect and portray [the idea] that you are living the best life,' she says. 'A few years ago, in my late teens, I would spend 30 minutes taking selfies in my home before a night out.
'I would take about 50 photos and then spend an hour or so going through them the next day to choose the best ones to upload to Instagram. It was so stressful, and I'm not really sure why I did it. It's just what all my friends were doing.'
For Coulton, using a cheap Sony digital camera for the past two years has curtailed that process.
'I'm behind the camera and can't flip the lens, so there are no selfies for me to obsess over,' she says. 'Now it's about capturing moments and memories and my friends having fun and not posing. The pace is slower and I take far fewer photographs, so I have no choice but to love them for what they are.'
A backlash by some Gen-Z members against the overuse of tech has been brewing for some time, with a 2024 Ofcom study showing young adults aged between 18 and 24 spent an average of six hours per day online, chiefly on their phones.
In recent years, crocheting has experienced a surge in popularity among young people, as has general arts and crafts and 'scrapbooking' – all believed to be associated with the desire to go slow, reduce stress and create authentic self-expression.
Sales of Polaroid, disposable and film cameras have also all seen a resurgence in recent years, with Pentax recently releasing a 35mm film camera, the first of its kind since 2020.
But beyond the desire to reduce phone time, there is also a sense of nostalgia to using digital cameras, alongside the tactile nature of printing photos.
Anna Kiff, 25, is a communications consultant based in London, and has also switched to a digital camera in recent years while on nights out, holidays and at festivals.
'My generation grew up with parents who had huge photo albums of printed images from digital cameras,' she says. 'So eight years or so ago, I began printing out my own digital pictures and creating albums, which I love flicking through.
'Pictures on a mobile phone are just not the same as physical photos. And albums elicit a more emotive response. They also remind me of my own childhood because as a young teen, before we had phones, we all had digital cameras and people uploaded the photos to Facebook and tagged friends.'
There is, however, an unmistakable irony that this nostalgia for a simpler world, where photos need to be uploaded onto a computer from their SD card via an adapter, is inevitably being fuelled by social media.
On TikTok, for instance, there are 276,000 videos posted under #digitalcamera, while celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Bella Hadid have been spotted with film and digital cameras.
John Lewis says Canon and Fujifilm are the most popular brands, with the Canon PowerShot being one sought-after model. But many vloggers and influencers recommend the Canon G7 X Mark III, which currently retails at around £900. However, it is possible to find many of these models at a cheaper price (under £30) on second-hand sites, such as Vinted and eBay.
Some vintage pieces, at three decades old, retail at £100 upwards – even second-hand. It is these older models in particular that produce the grainy, pixelated and overexposed photos with a flash flare, which can make the photo look atmospheric without the use of a filter.
According to AI Photoroom, an online editing suit, the demand for digital cameras may be for two reasons.
'There is a lot of processing that goes on on a phone that you don't have control over,' says CEO Matthieu Rouif, 'and I think people want a camera that makes them look real in photos.
'Smartphone cameras have significantly improved in recent years, with features like ISO control, aperture adjustment, and white balance now available in Pro modes on high-end models. But they can still be limited in specific use cases. Digital cameras perform better in low-light conditions or when users want full manual control over settings.'
While there are myriad and overlapping reasons driving the trend, there is one in particular that is likely to be popular with parents.
'My daughter recently asked for a cheap digital camera for her 18th birthday,' says Vicky Gierat, a content designer from Bristol. 'She said she just wanted to have fun without reaching for her phone all the time. Personally, I'm really pleased as it is so easy to lose time on your phone, and I think she will enjoy this without any distractions.'
For Sonia Livingstone, a professor of social psychology at London School of Economics, the move towards digital cameras is also only good news.
'Teens have always loved magazines, sketchpads, novels, cameras,' she says. 'But having smartphones in their pockets gave them access to everything all at once. I think this demand for digital cameras is an indication that young people are looking for alternatives to the smartphone's dominance.'
She believes this may come down to a growing societal backlash against smartphones, led in part by Jonathan Haidt, an American social psychologist and author of the 2024 bestselling book, The Anxious Generation.
'Teens will have heard warnings and anxieties from parents over their smartphones,' she adds. 'And many parents tell me that smartphones are a huge point of contention in the family. Everyone is tense and arguments erupt as soon as they are seen. But cameras are uncontentious in a young person's hand. They can be associated with art, or fun or documentary making. They have an innocent meaning.
'For me, I feel young people may be genuinely looking for something different to a do-everything smartphone, and it's a little sign that teens are wanting to define themselves and find their own way. It is hopeful.'