"“All you can do with an iPod, for example, is listen to music.”"
"“Sometimes, I just want to go out, take a walk, and I want to listen to music, but I don't necessarily want 20 notifications,” Esters tells Axios."
"“Gen Z and young adults are experiencing a lot of uncertainty in our lives, and it's very hard for us to have a lot of hope in the future,” says Natalie Constantine, who received a secondhand iPod Nano this past Christmas."
"“The act of playing my music, with the sole purpose of listening to music - no ads, no apps, no distractions - makes my brain feel brand-new again,” says Gen Zer Shaughnessy Barker, who started using an iPod Classic over the holidays after scouring eBay and Facebook Marketplace."
Search interest for the original iPod and iPod Nano rose sharply last year even though Apple discontinued the product line in 2022. eBay searches for iPod Classic increased 25% and iPod Nano 20% between January and October 2025 versus the same period in 2024. Older single-purpose devices enable easier control of technology use because they primarily play music, while smartphones bundle music, messages, social feeds, and news, making consistent control difficult. Some buyers purchase secondhand iPods to avoid phone notifications and reclaim focused, ad-free listening. Many users attach iPods to nostalgia and calmer past experiences.
Read at Axios
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