Wired Headphones Are Making A Comeback, And We Have Gen Z To Thank

If you spend much time at all scrolling TikTok or Instagram Reels, you're probably going to notice more than a few folks are donning wired headphones in their videos. Their reappearance may seem a little surprising, with some wireless headphones like AirPods producing huge sales figures year on year. But a combination of Y2K nostalgia, celebrity trend cycles, and steep economic decline has created the ideal conditions for wired headphones to make a comeback.

It isn't just regular social media users who've turned to older audio technology, either. Celebrities are also being spotted tangled up in headphone wires when snapped by paparazzi or on their social media grids, with popular actresses like Hunter Schafer and Jung Ho-Yeon repping wired tech. The trend even made an appearance at New York Fashion Week, where Dove Cameron sported two pairs of white earbuds as hair accessories. With so many people now evoking Apple's iconic 2000s iPod silhouette campaign with their headphone wires on display, it's safe to say that wired headphones are back in style.

The prevalence of wired headphones could be in part due to the amount of time that's passed since AirPods first hit the market. Apple launched their Bluetooth headphones back in 2016; an increasingly distant point in the past. Although Apple doesn't officially consider any AirPods to be vintage yet, the devices are becoming old enough to potentially be considered dated or lacking in novelty without having much nostalgic charm just yet. Y2K is in on the other hand, with throwback tech products from the 2000s becoming hot again as a part of it.

Although they can sometimes seem random, trends don't often start in a vacuum. Trends tend to come and go in 20-year cycles, and can reflect wider society. Gen Z's interest in all-things 2000s and 2010s is an extension of that. Newsweek investigated the wider Y2K trend and suggested that heightened concerns around health, finances, and societal issues could be at the core. Similarly, The Conversation noted that nostalgia can be used as an escape, both for better and for worse. The resurgence of relatively retro wired headphones among younger people could be a small part of tuning everything else out.

The worries that could lead to a desire for escape may also point to other reasons why older tech might be coming back in fashion. The Washington Post found that Gen Z are heavily impacted by the global financial crisis, with the group facing more debt than Millennials did at comparable ages on average. Those under 27 also had more maxed-out credit cards than any other generation studied. Financial concerns can drive nostalgia, and sometimes older tech can come by cheaper than its modern counterparts, making wired headphones a desirable option.

Financial problems don't account for why celebrities are finding new uses for their old headphones as accessories on the red carpet, of course. But, the broader longing for nostalgic tech and fashion among Gen Z could be reflected by celebrity culture, rather than the other way around. Youth style and interests can and do influence mainstream culture on the regular, meaning it's not that unexpected to see these trends popping up among famous folks as well.

The wired headphone renaissance isn't just all about fashion — it's practical. WiredItGirls, an Instagram dedicated to the comeback of wired headphones, call themselves the 'practical trendsetters'. And it makes sense: taking your headphones back in time can sound better than Bluetooth, allows you to connect to a wider range of devices, and you don't need to worry about charging them. You can just plug in and go.

Switching to wired headphones can also be an eco-friendly option, which is fitting if societal problems like climate change are partially fuelling Y2K nostalgia. Wireless headphones use rechargeable batteries as their power supply. Charging these batteries uses electricity, but it goes further than that. Making batteries requires metal to be mined, which can have huge environmental impacts. Eventually, these batteries discharge and stop being able to hold as much energy, and in time, the devices become practically useless and you'll need a replacement, sending the dead ones off to landfills as e-waste. While wired headphones are hardly indestructible, and you will need replacements for them, they don't have batteries to worry about.

There's also probably a reason why you see wired headphones so often in recorded videos like Reels and TikToks specifically. Using wireless headphones can sometimes create problems when recording videos by competing with the camera app, or cutting out the start of a recording, losing the first few seconds of audio. So, plugging in directly to record could help to smooth out any issues when filming, even if they're using wireless headphones for other day-to-day use.