The authenticity and permanency of using a digital camera attracts all types of students.
Over this past year, the number of digital cameras being purchased has increased significantly. According to Yahoo Finance, from July 2023 to July 2024, the number of digital cameras sold have increased by 8%.
Students find digital cameras provide them a unique and raw way of capturing a memory.
“I prefer the digital camera… the flash feature that gives it a vintage vibe that everyone likes, ” Waterford High School sophomore, Chloe Landry, said. “I like to bring it to the football games. Everyone is there… it brings the grades together.”
On the TikTok Shop, a digital camera is around $17 and has over 14,000 sales. With increasing convenience, people who want to partake in the trend have good reason to do so.
Even if the TikTok Shop camera isn’t the same quality as, say a Canon, it doesn’t stop users from capturing lasting memories.
Senior Olivia Marelli shares her love for documenting her high school experience on her camera and prefers it over her iPhone, “I have a Canon PowerShot G7 X and it fits everywhere I go. I brought it on the senior trip to Brownstone”. Marelli is fond of documenting her senior year. “Everybody is like, ‘Do you have your camera?’ and I’m like ‘Yup!’…looking back at photos is sentimental and makes me cherish them.”
This is not the first time Generation Z has revived an older trend and made something new out of it. Low rise jeans, Uggs, “Y2K” style, and yoga pants are all examples of teens reinventing and giving new life to these old fads.
“Some of my best memories were made going to concerts or school games and dances with my camera.” Morganne Heaukulani, 2011 Waterford High School graduate, says. “Your photos lived on your camera until we started uploading them to MySpace and eventually Facebook,”
Although Generation Z and Millennials who attended Waterford High School grew up in dramatically different worlds, it is interesting to see the similar behaviors such as uploading photos on social media to share with friends from users’ cameras.
“I just think a digital camera is so much better than an iPhone,” Marelli remarks. “If I could, I would get everyone one.”
