Gen Z have been showing off their retro phone finds – but as doomscrolling and social media makes more of an negative impact on our lives, the reason may lie in something more serious
Gen Z have been recycling fashion looks from the early 2000s and now they’re reclaiming old phones too: from clunky Nokias to iconic flip-phones. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the now-discontinued BlackBerry is becoming the ultimate symbol of retro cool.
You may remember BlackBerry’s as the original statement phone. First dropped in 1999, the BlackBerry 850 was a squat digital device, somewhat reminiscent of a school calculator. It went through several revolutions, with the Blackberry Curve, which debuted in 2007, BlackBerry Flip 8220, released in 2008, and the BlackBerry Key One, a smartphone featuring a keyboard, which dropped in 2017.
Unfortunately, the times moved on without them. Physical keyboards fell out of favour and were replaced by touchscreen smartphones and scrolling. Eventually, the BlackBerry discontinued servicing their classic phones in 2022, taking their misplaced-but-retroactively-beloved keyboards to their digital grave.
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But this isn’t where the story ends. The BlackBerry is being made relevant once again by none other than Gen Z, who have been sharing their retro-phone finds on TikTok – ironically, given many of these old phones can’t actually support the app.
Currently, the hashtag flipphone has almost 35K posts on the video-sharing app, while the hashtag for Blackberry also boasts close to 125K. These feature videos, often accumulating hundreds and thousands of views, documenting their return to more basic phones.
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A video by gaming and tech influencer @notchonnie garnered over four million views after she posted a video of her white, aesthetically-decorated BlackBerry Classic Q20. “Is it practical? No. Is it fun to me? Yes,” she captioned the clip.
It’s hard to deny that flip phones, which require a very definitive and fierce wrist flick to open, and their related text culture (i.e. “c u l8r”, “wbu”) have a fun, 2000s nostalgia appeal. But it’s not just aesthetics drawing younger users back to these phones.
There appears to be a deep desire to get away from social media apps and, ultimately, doomscrolling. In fact, according to poll by More In Common, almost two thirds of Gen Z Brits believe social media does more harm than good, while half admit they wish they’d spent less time on their phones growing up.
This can be seen most clearly in the ‘flip phone challenge’, which has become a hugely popular trend on the app. While the parameters vary, it generally involves people trying to use a flip phone for a period of time extending over weeks to a few months – or even attempting an indefinite switch.
A TikTok by @shozi_055 quickly gained over 2.7 million views after she posted her BlackBerry phone unboxing. Her caption read: “My phone addiction is getting way too out of hand, I’m trying to take my life back.” In the video she added: “POV: you bought a blackberry in 2025 [because] your iPhone is ruining your life.”
Commenters were eager to share their own experiences with logging in far too much screen time. “I had a BlackBerry Torch and if I could find one right now, I’d put down my iPhone in a heart beat,” one user wrote. “When life was soooo simple,” another added.
Of course, it’s undeniable that nostalgia appears to be also playing a role in the BlackBerry’s allure. After all, it’s the very first phone that many Gen Z have memories of being told they couldn’t have. As one commenter said: “I’m gonna buy it just because it was a childhood dream to own it.”