Silicon Valley would have you believe that people hunger for relentless technological advancement — to communicate exclusively with ChatGPT while wearing mixed-reality headsets and listening to playlists curated by algorithms while traipsing through the metaverse .
In reality, plenty of people resist the encroachment of these inventions on every front of life, drawn instead to the tech others have left behind. Savvy minimalists are swapping out smart devices for “dumb” ones; audiophiles have replaced their AirPods with record players. Tech you thought you’d never see again has a way of popping back up. What’s old to some is new to the young, whose latest discovery-slash-resurrection is the humble disposable camera.