Twentysomethings Go Retro

The New York Times has an amusing article about how young people are snapping up old technology on eBay and other venues. Early brick-sized cell phones, 45 RPM records, old radios and Atari videogames are very much in vogue in some circles. The reasons for this fascination vary, from a simple "everything old is new again" effect, to a sense of irony, an interest in history, and even shock value (the article profiles one young man convinced that the ladies will be "wowed" by his early-'80s Motorola DynaTac cell phone... even though he can't find a provider who will support it).

Just goes to show that today's antiques were yesterday's junk... and were state-of-the-art the day before. It's also curious that much of the technology mentioned in the article predated the young people who are buying it today. There seems to be a sense of "proto nostalgia" at work here, a longing for a past that one is too young to remember, and that probably never was.