Nostalgia Tech: TikTok Is Bringing Back the BlackBerry

In a twist of tech nostalgia, Gen Z is bringing back the BlackBerry.

The BlackBerry has experienced a revival among young adults who seek a digital detox from their connected lives.

“I just feel like the time of the BlackBerry phone was very nostalgic,” said Victoria Zannino, 25, in an interview with The New York Times. She posted a viral TikTok plea to express her sentiment:

Young TikTok users showcase their BlackBerry  “dumbphones” by decorating them with rhinestones as part of the current Y2K aesthetic trend.

The writer Dan Kassim believes that this it’s more than retro fashion. “People are kind of burned out from the notifications and being always on,” he said to The Times. “BlackBerrys and early smartphones feel like a bit of a throwback to when phones were tools, but not, like, the center of your life,” he added.

“It’s interesting that it’s happening on TikTok, because I feel like TikTok is the most addictive form of social media,” Kassim noted

The Guardian reports that a four-year study tracking more than 4,000 adolescents found that nearly one in three showed signs of increasingly addictive use of social media or mobile phones, a pattern that may be linked to serious mental health issues, including a higher risk of suicidal behavior.

According to The New York Post, a 2024 Pew Research Center study found that nearly half of teenagers now report being online “almost constantly,” a sharp increase from 24% a decade ago.

While most Gen Zers were too young to use BlackBerrys during their heyday, they see the devices as a symbol of freedom.  The devices serve as a means for people to break free from notification stress, social media pressure, and digital information overload

“The smartphone is not a source of enjoyment anymore,” said tech columnist Pascal Forget to CBC News. “They want to go back to simpler times using a simpler device,” Forget added.

The Times noted that BlackBerry discontinued its device support in 2022, while its 5G reboot attempt failed, so a modern relaunch seems impossible, however this hasn’t stopped young tiktokers to hunt them down on ebay.