Spinning the Past: The Analog Revival in a Digital World
By Surene Cho ’29
In 2022, 50% of record purchasers in the United States were reported to not own a record player to play their records. Many such buyers buy the records for aesthetic purposes, taking a liking more to the physical vinyl compared to a music app. Likewise, we are observing the resurgence of many other forms of analog media. Mirror selfies taken not with mobile phones but with digital cameras are regularly posted to social media. One previous TikTok-viral aesthetic depicts eerie liminal spaces hazed over with the grainy quality of a camcorder.
It is only logical to question, then, why one would choose to use the less efficient analog media over the digital. The iPhone’s camera quality is quite exceptional and certainly clearer than that of a digital camera. The answer to this curiosity is the mobile phone. Phones have become a necessity in daily life. Nowadays, almost all media is processed digitally to accommodate our growing need for convenience. The phone is the main medium through which “analog” becomes “digital.”
On the surface, the most visible reason for the resurgence of analog media is nostalgia for a simpler time—a time before such uniform processing was so widespread. Researchers have observed trends from twenty to thirty years ago being revived periodically. However, nostalgia does not stand as the sole element fuelling this trend.
Analog media, given its largely physical composition, encourages more sensory engagement. Digital media is unable to replace the musty yet, by popular opinion, comforting smell of a record, or the crispy feel of a physical book. In fact, smell is proven to be the sense most directly linked to the brain—more so than sight—as the olfactory glands are connected to the amygdala and hippocampus—parts of the brain responsible for the storage and processing of memory. Desperate for sensory experience, it is difficult for humans of this generation to avoid being attracted to the idea of such physical, mindful, and deliberate processes. The lack of tangibility of digital media is what prevents it from holding deeper personal connections.
For instance, physical photographs offer an engaging reflection. Being able to touch the same fingerprints that marked the photo years ago brings much more emotional effect than tapping on a digital photo that can be shared and displayed on any device, connecting to the next point on individuality.
Modern applications have the ability to duplicate, delete, and revive media. Repeated duplication and deletion lead to the elimination of the individuality of a certain piece of media, as it becomes detached from the process it took for it to come to fruition and its original ownership. TikTok’s dance trends are the most visible example. Many songs and accompanying dances have a month-or-so-long period of virality, and these copy-and-paste trends commonly dominate the app before dissipating rapidly.
In contrast, analog media are almost always singular and can preserve their humanity in one original copy. Individual pieces of analog media cannot be duplicated exactly from the original, and even attempts to recreate it will result in a different copy with different characteristics that distinguish it from other media.
These “characteristics” mainly refer to things that are often considered flaws, such as light leaks on photographs or hiccups in vinyl audio. But these said flaws make the media more human, and show evidence of a connection to the imperfect reality. Now more than ever, in this fast-paced world, do humans desire authentic engagement that is real, not processed or expedited and incessantly regenerated.
Ultimately, this resurgence suggests not only a strong connection between people and emotional memories through analog media but also humanity’s need for more meaningful, unprocessed connections to media.
References
Gaikwad, Aditya. 2025. “Why Young People Are Romanticizing the 90s and 2000s Again.” Medium. https://medium.com/@gaikwadaditya/why-young-people-are-romanticizing-the-90s-and-2000s-again-8ebc6ad2a79c.
“The Power of Scent: How Smell Influences Memory - Neuro Science.” 2025. Community Neuroscience Services. https://communityneuroservices.com/the-power-of-scent-how-smell-influences-memory/.
Uitti, Jacob. 2023. “New Report: 50% of Vinyl Record Purchasers in U.S. Don't Have a Record Player.” American Songwriter. https://americansongwriter.com/new-report-50-of-vinyl-record-purchasers-in-u-s-dont-have-a-record-player.