A recent poll has revealed that nearly half of Gen Z adults would prefer to live in a time without smartphones and social media. The NBC News Decision Desk Poll found that 47 percent of adults aged 18 to 29 would choose to live in the past if given the option, with the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s being particularly popular.
Generational Yearning for a Simpler Time
Approximately one-third of those respondents said they would opt for a period less than 50 years ago, while about 14 percent would go back more than half a century. Only 38 percent of Gen Z participants said they would stay in the present, and a mere 10 percent would choose to live less than 50 years in the future.
The results were largely consistent across gender and political affiliations, though some demographic differences emerged. Black adults were less likely to express a desire for the past, with only 33 percent choosing that option, compared to 52 percent of young white adults and 47 percent of young Hispanic adults.
Discomfort with Technology
The poll also indicated that 80 percent of Gen Z adults believe the United States is heading in the wrong direction. According to NBC News, respondents cited a growing unease with technology and constant online connectivity as primary reasons for their nostalgia. This reflects a broader cultural trend among young adults who are increasingly inspired by decades before smartphones and social media became omnipresent.
Ben Isaacs, a 20-year-old respondent, told NBC News he would specifically choose the 1990s, despite not having been alive during that decade. He was drawn to an era with “a lack of phones, more personal experience, but also still some of the ease of modern technology.” Isaacs noted that smartphones “draw away from people’s ability to just look at each other, have a conversation, and exist outside of the realm of the phone.”
Skyler Barnett, 28, who sits at the cusp of Gen Z and Millennials, argued that constant internet connection paradoxically hinders genuine connection. “There’s so, so much internet nowadays and so much just bullcrap that goes along with, you know, internet,” he told NBC News. “And these kids today, they got so much stuff going through their heads that’s just not relevant to the outside world.”
Nostalgia as a Coping Mechanism
Psychologist Clay Routledge, who specializes in nostalgia research, explained that periods of division and uncertainty often drive people to seek comfort in the past. “When there’s a lot of disruptions — political divisiveness, or worries about AI or other societal, technological, or cultural changes — people tend to become more nostalgic for the past to help them with the things that they’re worried about,” he said.
Routledge noted that the past offers a static refuge compared to an uncertain future. “If there’s this fear that [the world is] going in a direction that’s unhealthy or that they can’t control or don’t understand, then you could imagine it being like, ‘Well, instead of jumping in that hypothetical future … I’d rather take the time machine to the time before it got to that place.’ It’s almost a little bit like a reboot.”
