With good enough quality pictures becoming easier and easier to take, what is it that causes this new generation to yearn for the film-like aesthetic that comes with digital cameras? Grainy, 2000s point and shoot digital cameras have taken over the market for a cheap price as they become so high in demand. Other than the fact that the target audience for these cameras are broke high school kids, why is there such a special interest in these cameras?
Childhood
One of the biggest theories I personally have over this newfound love for digital cameras is that this love comes from a place of reminiscence more than anything. Kids of this generation look back at their parents old photos and see how crappy the quality is, yet those photos hold so much importance. The idea of memories have become associated with grainy film. It’s the same reason why flashback scenes in shows and movies are often faded in color and splattered with little white dots. Speaking of movies, growing up watching early 2000s classic films like Clueless, Legally Blond, Mean Girls, etc inspired kids of this generation in the sense of both fashion and technology, which is where the love for digital cameras could’ve come from. This brings us to my next theory for the digital camera craze: love for the vintage aesthetic.
Love For Vintage
When vintage became cool, so did digital cameras as well as thrifting, LPs, grunge music, and coffee soaked decor. The question of, how does one feel nostalgia for a time they didn’t experience, suddenly doesn’t have any ground when you can practically live a time through a screen whether that be in old movies (or new movies recreating an old time), celebrities, music, fashion, all of which have been well documented for several decades. In a click of a button you can see what women used to wear to the beach in the 1970s and fall in love with it and voilà, that time becomes your new personality. Basically what I’m trying to prove is that it is easy for one to love something old, even if they never experienced it in real time. Sometimes just the idea of something being vintage is interesting enough to woo a crowd.
Physical Media
Another reason for this digital camera craze is the rise in appreciation for physical media as everything around us has become digital. Not only is physical media loved for being vintage, but it has now become special to hold something in ones hand that doesn’t have a million purposes like a phone. It’s one of the biggest reasons why LP collections have become popularized amongst younger people: because of love for its physicality. Holding an LP, holding music is special, just like holding a camera that requires you to press a real button. Sure it’s just a point and shoot and doesn’t require any adjusting whatsoever, but it is still a camera that you have to press and twist things to use. As crazy as that sounds, it means something to people, especially this younger generation that has grown up using phones their whole lives.
Conclusion
The three theories I have listed and explained above are only theories. They are thoughts that I have put no research behind, just reasoning and observations. Do you agree with any of these?