# What's with the Millennial/Zoomer fascination with old crap? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 12, 2021, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344 "2021-01-12T17:22:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/141 "2021-01-19T19:04:56Z")
I still have my Kodak model 40 110 camera. The biggest bear would be finding a battery for it, as I think it was proprietary. I used it from 72 - 84 ( with a bit of overlap with my first SLR, a Canon AE-1 bought in 1983). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/142 "2021-01-19T19:19:23Z")
> [@Keith1](#): > > Vinyl records do sound better - played on the right equipment. My old vinyl records certainly do sound better than most of my old CDs that disk-rotted. CDs turned our to be quite fragile and perishable after all. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/143 "2021-01-19T19:32:12Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > My old vinyl records certainly do sound better than most of my old CDs that disk-rotted. CDs turned our to be quite fragile and perishable after all. I have quite different experiences. I started buying CDs in 1988 (and mostly stopped ten years ago when I went streaming) and own about 2000 CDs, and maybe only two or three are not playable anymore, and those have visible scratches that would’ve ruined LPs as well. But I’ve always handled CDs with the same care that I handle LPs, contrary to some phony statements in the early times of CDs that they were almost indestructible. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/144 "2021-01-19T19:33:58Z")
Given that the original generations of older photographers who worked mostly or entirely in film are dying out, it’s not surprising that a significant number of people using film today are young. FWIW much of the terminology in Photoshop and similar apps harks back to old school darkroom processes, so it helps to understand those even if you never shoot with film. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/145 "2021-01-19T20:40:42Z")
Ever try to clean and roll on a CD case? Gimme a nice double LP album like Quadrophenia, Physical Graffiti, or the White Album any day. Adequate working surface is an important consideration to doing any job right. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/146 "2021-01-19T20:42:46Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Ever try to clean and roll on a CD case? Ever try to wipe the frost off your windshield when you’ve lost your scraper with an album cover? ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/147 "2021-01-19T20:48:59Z")
touche! ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/148 "2021-01-19T21:12:02Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Ever try to wipe the frost off your windshield when you’ve lost your scraper with an album cover? I’ve ruined several CD cases this way… ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/149 "2021-01-19T22:20:54Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I’m actually wishing I could buy a digital camera that worked like my favorite camera, the Canon F-1. A shutter speed dial from 8 seconds to 1/2000 seconds, mirror lock up, depth of field preview, and whatever focus and aperture controls were on the lens. I could feel where everything was without looking. There was also an exposure meter, which was very helpful, but you could use the camera without, if you understood lighting well enough. No modes, no menus, no states. And if the battery died, if you could get by without the meter, the camera worked fine. [Nikon Df.](https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/df.htm) It has a digital screen on the back, but detented dials for shutter speed and ISO. If you use it with an older Nikon lens with an aperture ring, you can essentially have exactly the experience that you desire. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/150 "2021-01-19T22:37:36Z")
I never had a good pre-digital camera but the only thing I dislike about my Digital Rebel is that the auto focus doesn’t work in low light conditions - the kind you need 1+ seconds of exposure to get anything decent on, and that’s the same conditions where it’s difficult to find the manual focus option in the dark when you hadn’t been using it up until that point! ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/151 "2021-01-20T11:13:25Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > My old vinyl records certainly do sound better than most of my old CDs that disk-rotted. CDs turned our to be quite fragile and perishable after all. Perishable, huh? I started buying CDs in around 1991. I have some 600 now, including every CD I ever bought. Even the 30-year old CDs play perfectly. I haven’t had a single failure yet. For a year or two before my personal CD era commenced, I listened to LPs almost exclusively. 10 - 20 year old LPs had so much cracking, popping and skipping that I felt that the technology was really not up to the task of storing and repeatedly playing music. Remember, at that stage I had no experience with CDs, only cassettes and LPs. Still, LPs sucked, in sound, in convenience, in durability, or all the important factors. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/152 "2021-01-20T15:27:23Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > most of my old CDs that disk-rotted. CDs turned our to be quite fragile and perishable after all. Yeah, I’m wondering why your experience is so much different from that of many of us, including me. Did you store your CDs under different conditions (e.g. extreme temperatures)? Are your CDs mostly burned CD-R’s rather than commercially-released CDs? ---
**Author:** ![BertNobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3e96dc/32.png) [@BertNobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BertNobbins)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/153 "2021-01-20T16:53:28Z")
A few thoughts on the use of vinyl: Susceptible to mechanical noise from the turntable, room vibrations, noise from disc warps. Noise is created by the stylus dragging through the groove. Shockingly high distortion (several %) Susceptible to wow and flutter, the latter in particular sounding bad. The musical signal is degraded every time you play it by groove wear. Susceptible to mechanical damage. (scratches etc) There is no way that vinyl can objectively sound better than CD, though after spending out on a fancy turntable, no-one is going to admit that. I have been buying CDs ever since they first hit the market. I have never had one fail. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/154 "2021-01-20T22:14:56Z")
I mostly kept my CDs in a binder with translucent envelopes for each CD. I was told that the plastic envelopes would harm the CDs, so I took the paper folder from each jewel box and put the CD inside it, and then put both of them together into the envelope. That’s probably what ruined mine. CDs are supposed to be an optical medium, and I thought the content was safely buried inside the plastic. On the bright side, even though they won’t work in a player or car stereo, they mostly still do work in a CD-ROM drive, so I was able to rescue most of my collection. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/155 "2021-01-20T22:49:25Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > On the bright side, even though they won’t work in a player or car stereo, they mostly still do work in a CD-ROM drive, so I was able to rescue most of my collection. This is probably nothing, but throwing it out there just in case: how many different players have you tested them in? Is it possible that the problem is with the player(s) (e.g. a dusty laser lens) rather than with the CDs themselves? ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/156 "2021-01-20T23:13:47Z")
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned them new-fangled washing machines… the kind with pre-programmed settings, and a locking lid, whose main function seems to be to exclude from the wash that pair of undies you dropped on the stairs down to the basement. The last time we went washer-shopping, we were fortunate to find the only (antiquated) machine whose lid didn’t lock and didn’t offer a dizzying array of options. I mean, jeez, just wash the damned clothes, willya? Now, it just has to last forever. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/157 "2021-01-20T23:47:22Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > The last time we went washer-shopping, we were fortunate to find the only (antiquated) machine whose lid didn’t lock and didn’t offer a dizzying array of options. I mean, jeez, just wash the damned clothes, willya? **Now, it just has to last forever.** I got a real Maytag washer and dryer 25 years ago, and they’re still trucking on, probably indefinitely. A few replacement parts for the dryer, but the washer has never been touched. I wonder if the new ones would last that long. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/158 "2021-01-21T03:00:26Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But I think I disagree with the idea that VHS looks better on a CRT. I think at best, it’s like putting vaseline on your filter in photography; the limitations of the actual TV mask some of the limitations of the VHS, so it looks “better” in the sense that it’s more uniformly bad, rather than actually “better”. But that’s exactly why it looks better. It hides the artifacts of VHS, like putting vaseline on the lens was used to hide “flaws” in women on Star Trek. It is more uniformly “bad,” and so the flaws stand out less, making the experience more enjoyable. It’s easier to ignore that which is constant. Heck, it’s exactly what we did back in the day. We didn’t notice how blurry CRTs were until there were other options, because we were used to them. I remember the first day I got a LCD monitor rather than a CRT. Seeing the sharp pixels bothered me so much that I deliberately misaligned it to make them slightly blurrier. Even to this day, if I’m dealing with a video game that used digitized 3D graphics reduced to a low bit depth (e.g. Super Mario RPG, Donkey Kong Country), I will apply filters to the screen to try and make it look closer to the way it was originally intended to look. I deliberately drop videos of those games to lower resolution. The graphics were designed to be blurrier. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/159 "2021-01-21T03:01:49Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > like putting vaseline on the lens was used to hide “flaws” in women on Star Trek. It Umm, there _are_ no flaws on the women in Star Trek. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2021, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344/160 "2021-01-21T03:02:36Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > > [@BigT](#): > > > > like putting vaseline on the lens was used to hide “flaws” in women on Star Trek. It > > Umm, there _are_ no flaws on the women in Star Trek.  Hence the quotation marks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-millennial-zoomer-fascination-with-old-crap/930344.md?page=9)