Although the majority of Gen-Z are considered “digital natives,” a rising trend in recent years is the younger demographic’s interest in physical media. It’s not uncommon for someone’s Instagram “dump” to feature only film-camera photos, or for their TikTok to flaunt their collection of vinyl records. Some people have even ditched their iPhones altogether, instead opting for bedazzled, social-media-free flip phones. While there may be slight irony in posting one’s collection of physical media on a digital media platform, Gen Z clearly wants to spread the word that physical media is back.
According to the LA Times, the sales of physical entertainment declined 9% in 2025 from 20% in 2023 and 2024. While still a shrinking market, these numbers indicate an unusual growth in popularity when it comes to DVDs and Blu-ray. A large factor in this trend could be nostalgia: some members of Gen Z still remember picking out a DVD of your favorite movie from the local library to watch at home; others remember driving to school before CarPlay, when you had to press actual buttons and turn dials to turn on FM radio. Reclaiming physical media for some could be a way of returning to simpler times, when nobody had your location, and there was no such thing as checking how many followers or likes you received on a post.
Another underlying reason for this resurgence of an “analog” lifestyle could be AI’s infiltration into the arts. The unfortunate truth is that AI has bled into many aspects of music, television, and graphic arts. There have been many instances in which a trending song is the product of AI, or a screenplay for a movie or TV show was assisted by AI language models. It’s terrifying to realize you need to do a double-take to determine if a video or photo was produced by something other than a human. Perhaps, to Gen Z, physical, tangible media is comforting because it is safe from the reach of AI and holds no mystery regarding its humanity.
I’m not one to bash what some may call the “performativity” of collecting physical media; I use my fair share of vinyl records as room decor, and I’ve been researching what film cameras to add to my Christmas list. Personally, physical media is a way to showcase my identity in a way that differs from the grid on my Instagram account. The vinyls I choose to display imply that I feel so strongly about a certain album that I want a physical memento to solidify my adoration for it. Film photos themselves are a test of patience.
In a world that values instant, immediate results, being forced to wait for a photo to develop forces us to slow down. The wait time also makes it less likely for our knee-jerk reaction to retake the photo if we didn’t like the way we looked in it. Thus, a raw, unfiltered, and unapologetic souvenir of the moment is born. While I try my best to be authentic, the way I present myself on social media is inevitably hand-selected. The same can be said for the majority of Gen Z’s online personas. Yet, my generation’s choice to keep unedited physical media alive brings me comfort, knowing we haven’t fully adopted a culture of filtered perfection.