Last year, I asked my tween sister what she wanted for Christmas, and I was shocked (and a little elated) when she told me that she wanted a Nintendo Wii. Breezing through adolescence in the early 2000s, the Wii was a huge part of my younger years, so when she unwrapped the coveted console on Christmas day, it felt almost like passing the baton – blessing her with a little piece of my Y2K childhood.
Increasingly I've seen artefacts from my youth rediscovered by Gen Z younglings, who seem to have developed a sort of ironic infantalisation of Y2K tech. From iPods being marketed as 'retro' to wired headphones becoming a rejection of modernity, the resurgence of Y2K trends has been a confusing and sobering phenomenon for me. But where has this nostalgia come from, and why are Gen Z nostalgic for a decade not long passed? (Check out our collection of the best retro game consoles for even more nostalgia).
