It's been happening, but just like all fads, especially nostalgia driven ones, it'll die soon. Every few years a new batch of people enter their higher earning years where they have more disposable income (mid to late 20s for some, early 30s for some, late 30s for others, etc) and nostalgia hits and they go crazy for a piece of their childhood or adolescence or their crazy 20s. If enough of said batch line up, you get a phenomena or a fad.

The sudden growth rate in sales derive some people to capitalize on it. Mostly either Chinese manufacturers or drop shippers though sometimes big names get swept up in the frenzy too. Then the market is flooded and it's not cool or unique anymore, or the target audience is saturated and then it's forgotten. I suspect something similar is happening now with screenless fitness trackers right now (even though I bought one because I hate smartwatches but want a fitness tracker)

It's especially funny seeing people who are into "MP3 players for digital detox" speak on podcasts or online. "I love that it's not a phone. I just wish it had <insert random ass app(s)> so I can take it on walks and leave my phone behind" then those random apps are different per person. It's really funny.

Similar thing with the screenless fitness trackers I mentioned. On every single review or discussion board for them, you will find people complaining that a screenless fitness tracker is, in fact, screenless and that they wish it just had a small screen for their important notifications or if it can answer calls or get phone notifications or connect to LTE.

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doublepg23 3 hours ago | parent [-]

My lukewarm take is that it's conspicuous consumption.

Music is cheaper than it's ever been for the consumer and segregation between genres or bands is non-existent on music streaming.

It's hard to socially signal when everyone can afford to stream and the search bar can show you Sabrina Carpenter just as easily as RYM or /mu/core.

However , you can socially signal if you spend money on an iPod, DAP, better headphones, physical media etc.

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TFNA 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Music listening has become so atomized and private, with the vast majority of people listening through earbuds and unaware of even what close friends are listening to. Under these modern circumstances, I don't think that any choice of product around music listening serves as a strong social signal any more, except perhaps among a few middle-aged men in a few countries.

	▲	eddythompson80 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not entirely related to the topic, but there is also this weird thing where if you're not on your social network's choice of music streaming service you'd feel left out. I find it a bit amusing. My friend group are all on Spotify (which I assume most people are) and when someone shares a playlist they share a Spotify link. I selfhost my music, so I have my own scripts to extract the playlist and fetch the songs and add them to my server. But I suspect it would also be a problem for others who might be using a different service like Apple Music or something. I know someone in my group who moved from Apple Music to Spotify because everyone else was using Spotify and she didn't wanna feel left out. I also can't really share playlists with them, which is fine since I only listen to the same 1,700 tracks from the 90s or early 2000s anyway.

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igmn 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sometimes, you just enjoy the damn iPod and that's all there is to it. Not everything has to suck all the time.

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footy 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> However , you can socially signal if you spend money on an iPod, DAP, better headphones, physical media etc.

who am I socially signaling to if I have physical media in my basement? my wife?

I do think this take is lukewarm.