Nostalgiacore: Gen Z’s Tech Skepticism Aesthetic

The A24 film Backrooms, released last month, features a medley of physical tech from a bygone era in its opening sequence: an analog stereo, cassette tapes, floppy disks. Shot on grainy camcorder film, the scene authentically sets the horror story in the 1990s.

The vision of the nostalgia-coded film belongs to 21-year-old director Kane Parsons, who gained notoriety as a teen with a series of short films and clips that he posted first to 4chan, later moving to YouTube. Mirroring the visuals and themes of Backrooms , Parson’s vignettes unsettled and evoked nostalgia with a growing viewership, eventually spawning his first major feature.

While normies may not quickly identify the stylistic designs laced throughout the film, others may recognize the “dreamcore” aesthetic, hallmarked by hazy or low-fi imagery of places reminiscent of the 80s, 90s, and early 00s. The success of Backrooms illustrates that content creators from the internet fringes have a larger reach than previously thought, as the film now claims the title of the highest grossing film in A24’s young but reputable history.

Beyond conjuring the age of Y2K, dreamcore is emerging out of online corners in many surprising ways and giving rise to yet another aesthetic movement known as “nostalgiacore”. We turned to Infegy Starscape to analyze this trend and its associations with a past Gen Z never experienced and the implications for a future in flux.

Origins of the Nostalgiacore Aesthetic

As a founding influencer of the nostalgiacore aesthetic, posts from the X account Liminal Spaces (@liminal_places) typically feature a single photo or image of places where you would expect to see people or crowds, but appear abandoned.

Empty theaters, schools, and other communal areas are often focal points of the images and possess a transportive quality of yesteryear.

Figure 1: Topics such as “Dreamcore”, “Weirdcore”, and “Backrooms” surface when querying terms associated with “Liminal Spaces”; Infegy Social Dataset.

The trajectory of this movement can be traced back to a period that transformed, quite frankly, most things in our culture: during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, mentions of this aesthetic began to take off.

Figure 2: Data from the past 10 years illuminates a rising shift in mentions of nostalgiacore and Liminal Spaces, beginning early 2020; Infegy Social Dataset.

With qualities that are contradictory (eerie or haunting, yet cozy and comforting), the aesthetic landed at the perfect time for certain audiences. Spending more time online while navigating adolescence, loneliness, and uncertainty about the future, this content resonated profoundly with Gen Z.

Figure 3: Over the last 10 years, Gen Z accounts for a majority of online conversations surrounding the nostalgiacore movement and related aesthetics; Infegy Social Dataset.

The Influence of Stranger Things within the Nostalgiacore Movement

Arguably the most popular show in modern history, Netflix’s Stranger Things aired its series finale in early 2026 after more than 10 years of massive success. Produced by Shawn Levy, who also produced Backrooms, the hit series captivated audiences across the generational spectrum with more than lovable characters and deep storytelling; it was the vibes.

Boomer, Gen X, and even Millennial parents watched Stranger Things for a decade with their kids. Those who remembered the 80s reminisced as they were transported in time with retro fashionwear (Reebok, Lacoste, Converse) and product placements (Eggo Waffles, Doritos, Burger King).

Figure 4: Topics results when conducting a brand search for Stranger Things; Infegy Social Dataset.

At the same time, the show exposed Gen Z to “third spaces”: malls, diners, libraries, arcades or anywhere where people could gather and spend time that was neither work nor home, being the first two “spaces.” These environments are common subjects of liminal space/dreamcore content and their representation provided a panoramic view of what life was like before the internet, cell phones, and social media. Once again, the show highlighted an aspect of society seemingly lost to the pandemic that made younger audiences wistful of an era they never fully experienced.

In retrospect, Stranger Things can be seen as a bookend to monoculture and, in part, the genesis of a movement, as the series shares similar motifs with the nostalgiacore aesthetic.

Indications of a Pushback

Viral videos from college and university commencement speeches across the U.S. were hard to miss this spring. As AI continues to be an ever-present force in society, tech CEOs highlighted the rising AI-revolution in their talks with recent graduates whose futures are still uncertain, albeit with somewhat different concerns than what they faced during the pandemic.

In many cases, speakers were met with a backlash of boos and jeers. Screen-free movements such as “digital minimalism” and “digital detoxing” have taken root and can be seen as indicators of an impending resistance against algorithmic lifestyles. Sharing common characteristics, digital minimalism movements and nostalgiacore aesthetics offer clues to what is tiring consumers and what they are seeking.

Figure 5: Digital minimalism mentions over the last 6 years have nearly doubled; Infegy Social Dataset.

Figure 6: Infegy’s Narratives reveal conversations of consumers seeking time away from their phones and screens; Infegy Social Dataset.

Deeper in the data we find a swell of recent conversations taking place on Reddit in subreddits like r/digitalminimalism and r/nosurf. Another subreddit, r/dumbphones, has nearly 200k weekly visitors. (We previously covered dumbphones in an analysis of the stakeholders involved in school smartphone bans; read more here.)

In these communities, authors flex their minimal usage via weekly screen time metrics and share strategies of how to opt out of their smartphone-driven lives of doomscrolling. Discussions center on dumbphones and products that integrate only with apps necessary for communication, navigation, and more.

Figure 7: A Drilldown of the topic “apps” within Reddit conversations offers a glimpse into the relationships consumers have with their phones and social media; Infegy Social Dataset.

Nostalgiacore’s Position in the Broader Landscape

During a recent interview, Parsons, who has risen to icon status with Gen Z creatives, pointedly made his opinions known on AI’s role in art: “If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would. Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me.”

There’s little doubt that AI’s presence is here to stay, but it doesn’t mean brands have to go all-in on the technology. Clearly, increasing demand for retro styles and desire for third spaces and other IRL community experiences can be seen across a growing share of the market, as more consumers become exhausted by digital optimizations and screen time.

As always, brands should be thoughtful about their incorporation of cultural trends, including nostalgiacore aesthetics in campaigns. Detecting authenticity versus clumsy nods to a trend is what consumers do best.

Key Takeaways:

1. Nostalgiacore and other Y2K-related aesthetics are gaining popularity across many age groups and are increasingly being reflected in media.
   
   
2. Gen Z has a particularly unique relationship with Nostalgia-based content and products.
   
   
3. Movements such as “Digital Minimalism” and “Third Spaces” are on the rise and have a clear emotional connection to the nostalgiacore aesthetic with many young adults.

This analysis of the nostalgiacore trend was conducted with our flagship social listening platform, Infegy Starscape. Powered by 19+ years of social listening data and experience, our product provides users with valuable insights into consumer trends and preferences through the capture of a wide spread of social media data across a variety of platforms, sites, and services.