First they troll their parents about their age. Then, almost inevitably, teenagers fall in love with everything that was cool when their parents were young. The cycle is familiar, but its latest turn is particularly striking. Today’s teenagers are picking up the good habits their parents quietly left behind at the end of the twentieth century — vinyl records, CDs, compact cameras, printed books and, increasingly, wired headphones.
The teenage fashion pack is entangling itself in nostalgia, and among all these revived artefacts, one gadget has emerged as especially symbolic: the wired headphone.
Yes, wireless headphones are easy to use, packed with features and marketed as the obvious modern choice. But do teenagers actually need them? In cafes, on campuses and on the underground, the wire is back.
As with most fashion shifts, it often takes a few celebrities to bring the trend into focus. But there is also a more intimate trigger. Somewhere at the back of a drawer, there may be a pair of wired white headphones from the iPod era. Pull them out. Add a simple 3.5mm-to-USB-C adaptor and suddenly you are free from the gravitational pull of unnecessary features. Do you really need active noise cancellation? Do you need health monitoring built into your headphones? Do you need a wireless pair that can slip out of a pocket and disappear forever?
Wired for sound
The return of wired headphones raises an obvious question: why are people gravitating back to technologies that are less feature-rich, less flashy and, on paper at least, less modern?
Data source: Market Reports World
Part of the answer lies in ease of use and sound quality. Wired headphones offer a frictionless experience. There is no Bluetooth pairing ritual, no dropped connections, no waiting for devices to recognise one another. You simply plug them into a headphone jack or a USB-C port and press play.
If your phone no longer supports a 3.5mm audio jack, an adaptor can cost as little as ₹60. Better-built options might set you back ₹300... still cheaper than a visit to a cafe. Even though Bluetooth technology is more reliable than ever, the reality remains that nothing quite matches the consistency of an analogue connection. Wear sensors on wireless earbuds can trigger unexpected dropouts, which is infuriating when all you want is something that works.
Wired headphones also allow access to lossless audio, which still outperforms wireless options by a wide margin. Crucially, there is no battery anxiety. Wired earbuds draw power directly from the device, meaning they never need charging.
Longevity matters too. Without batteries that degrade over time, wired headphones often outlast their wireless counterparts by years. It is not uncommon for a decent pair to last a decade or more, while many wireless models reach the end of their usable life after just two or three years… four, if you are lucky.
An era of austerity
It is not just old earphones that Gen Z is chasing. Young buyers are snapping up second-hand digital cameras and bidding for iPods and Walkmans on platforms such as eBay. The appeal goes beyond aesthetics.
First, there is the economy. Across much of the world, inflation and rising living costs disproportionately affect younger people, many of whom have less disposable income than previous generations. They are entering a punishing job market while facing inflated prices for everything from groceries to rent. In that context, non-essential spending is increasingly scrutinised.
Tech minimalism, once an aesthetic preference, is now the need of the hour. The planned obsolescence baked into many wireless headphones — sealed batteries, non-repairable designs and limited software support — does not sit well with a generation increasingly aware of how quickly devices are designed to fail. When a wireless pair dies, it rarely fades gracefully. It becomes e-waste.
This is where the wired resurgence takes on a moral edge. Without lithium-ion batteries to degrade and swell, wired headphones age slowly. They break less catastrophically. They can often be repaired. In a decade marked by climate anxiety and growing distrust of disposable consumerism, durability itself has become a form of resistance.
History offers parallels. Material shortages in the 1950s and 60s helped make brutalist architecture popular. Fuel shortages in the 1970s produced smaller, more efficient cars. In the 2020s, a lack of disposable income (paired with environmental awareness) has turned wired headphones into a countercultural fashion statement. This austerity-driven minimalism has its own aesthetic, one that stands in quiet opposition to endless upgrade cycles.
Wireless headphones are not going away
Gen Z’s online influence has accelerated the wired revival. Wired headphones have become a default accessory for many content creators: they are cheaper, more reliable and easier to integrate into recording setups. High-profile figures such as Bella Hadid and Zendaya have also been spotted ditching wireless earbuds in favour of wired ones.
Active noise cancellation, biometric tracking and spatial audio may be impressive, but for many listeners they are solutions in search of a problem. Others simply do not want to charge yet another device. For them, simplicity is not a compromise… it is the point.
Wireless headphones, to be clear, are not inherently unreliable. Where wireless truly shines is in features that meaningfully improve accessibility. In some countries, AirPods Pro can function as hearing aids, offering a more affordable alternative to traditional devices while reducing social stigma. Live translation is another genuinely useful feature, particularly for travellers. But these remain exceptions, not the rule.
Somewhere in a drawer, there is a pair of wired headphones waiting to be untangled. Add an adaptor. Plug them in. Watch the wire trail into a pocket as the train pulls into the station. The music plays. Nothing needs updating. Nothing needs charging. For a moment at least, technology does exactly what it is meant to do, and no more.