Gen Z Are crazy for 2000s Teen Culture And Millennials Feel Old. Lanvin's ode to the MTV-era, Chanel's throwback accessories. Romanticising the early 00s has become a big post-pandemic mood!
The fetishisation of bygone eras is actually deeply telling, a clue to our hopeful motions towards an unsure future.
While it feels like we’re only just getting over the hangover of – yet another! – nineties renaissance, the cultural psyche has shifted focus, to the early 00s.
Gen Z Tik-Tokers are longing after teen culture in the 2000s, making millennials feel like their youth was lightyears ago.
Whether it is the Killers punk-rock anthems, overblown hairdos, scene kids, Motorola flip phones or the multicoloured neon visor shades worn by Kanye West in the Stronger video, the 00s were a much different, simpler time.
Millennials, are struggling to grasp how their teenage years are now something to be romanticised.
Quote from a random Tik Tok chat:
One commented. ‘Wait… has time progressed so far that the mid to late 2000s are now the romanticised years??? WHY ARE WE SO OLD,’
Another wrote: ‘Nothing makes you feel old like kids idiolising your youth.’ A third commented: ‘I like how TikTok shows this as the cool part of the era but it certainly wasn’t. We were the OUTCASTS.’ A fourth wrote: ‘Literally it was not a great time, we were all really sad and 90% of us didn’t have smart phones.’
In a follow-up video, the Tik Toker said: ‘I didn’t mean to make you guys feel old. Just so you guys know I’m actually 20, and a lot of people are teens… but I’m an adult. So, I mean, I was there in its prime but I was young so maybe I just saw things that were the good side of things.’
She added: ‘I mean I knew about the darker things, but I think I saw more people out having fun, like going to the mall and stuff. Just like dumb stuff, like no-one does that anymore. I’m jealous of you guys, because whenever I would go to one of my friends’ houses when I was like 13 -15, they’d always be on their phone, and I’d always be on my phone.’
