AI anxiety is driving Gen Z to CDs, DVDs, and Nintendo DS games — I went to see what old tech costs now

• I went to a bunch of thrift stores and a retro game store to see how much old tech costs nowadays.
• I noticed teenagers interested in buying some older tech, such as CDs and Nintendo DS.
• Store owners and manufacturers say they're noticing Gen Alpha and younger Gen Z buying retro tech.

AI anxiety has made the internet nostalgic for older tech. So, I went on a mission to find out how much obsolete tech actually costs these days.

While I may have scored cheaper gems on eBay or Facebook Marketplace, I decided to scour physical stores instead. Beyond the goal of finding old tech, my day spent combing for retro finds proved to me that younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha are indeed returning to analog — and showed why this might be.

The "going analog" trend has gained traction this year among millennials and Gen Zers. From in-person hobbies to using physical alarm clocks or watches, a growing urgency to de-digitalize one's life is emerging. For the youngest generations, it conveys a nostalgia for a time they never knew — when it felt like human connection took precedence over technology.

In the UK, thrift stores don't tend to have big technology sections. Markets and car boot sales — which are similar to a kind of yard sale but with items sold from, you guessed it, the boot of a car — tend to be more popular for secondhand tech.

There are, however, a few stores that sell specifically secondhand technology. That includes the chain, CEX, and other retro-gaming stores.

I saw teens looking at old tech

I started my day trying my luck at thrift stores. Tucked away at the back, or up on the second floor of stores, I found old CDs, DVDs, and vinyl. Some CDs were as cheap as 50 pence or 70 cents, while more vintage options, such as vinyl, were much more expensive — usually more than £10 ($13).

While I was there, two girls, dressed in school uniform and who seemed no older than 15, came into the store and walked straight to the CD section. They were flicking through the stand and talking about what CDs they wanted to buy.

This surprised me — I grew up on Spotify as a teenager, and the last time that I bought a DVD, I was still a pre-teen. One of them described a CD as "whimsical" — I wrote this down immediately in my notes app.

The Gen Z/Gen Alpha "whimsy" trend, essentially adding a touch of playfulness to your life, has come hand in hand with the return to analog.

Something similar happened at a CEX store. By the Nintendo DS games stand, two girls who looked as if they had grown up way past the heyday of the DS were talking about buying games and seeing how much the console costs online. While I'd been reporting on the return to analog, it was kind of surreal to see it happening so organically around me.

Wondering whether this was coincidental, I reached out to Key Production, a UK-based company that manufactures CDs, presses Vinyl, and replicates CDs. They conducted a survey of over 2,000 UK respondents of all ages last year.

"In the last 12 months, Gen Z has actually bought more CDs than millennials, Gen X, and baby boomers," Neil Gibbons, the chief operating officer, said of the survey results.

"These purchases are done mainly online or in-store, such as record shops and high street stores, demonstrating that they are actively seeking these formats out."

Young people like the novelty of old tech

At a retro gaming store, Crazy Thumbs, in South London, one of the store assistants, Honour, told me that they are noticing older tech — the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 1 and 2, for example — becoming more popular with young Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

There are practical reasons for this: better graphics, less content locked behind a paywall, and they are easier to "mod," meaning to modify a game, such as adding new features.

Naturally, mass-produced items are less valuable. Nintendo DS games ranged from £1 to £2 ($2 to $3), but there were collectibles priced over £500 ($670), such as a Hello Kitty version of the Sega Dreamcast.

These stores also act as a kind of "third place" for teens, Honour said. In the same way that gyms, run clubs, and book clubs have become the equivalent option for Gen Zers and millennials.

There's also the nostalgia aspect — a throwback to a time before the rise of online gaming, where to play multiplayer, you had to gather in the same room and connect via a local area network.

"Young people want to be online, but offline," Honour said.