He now photographs a new cohort of influencers and stars, but the photos would be nearly indistinguishable from his older ones if his subjects were clutching flip phones instead of iPhones. They are rewinding the clock to 2007 and “basically reliving every episode of ‘The Simple Life,’” he said, referring to a reality television show from that era that features Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.

But many new point-and-shoot digital cameras come with today’s bells and whistles, and older models have been discontinued, so people are turning to thrift stores and secondhand e-commerce sites to find cameras with sufficiently vintage looks. On eBay, searches for “digital camera” increased by 10% from 2021 to 2022, with searches for specific models seeing even steeper jumps, said Davina Ramnarine, a company spokesperson. For example, searches for “Nikon COOLPIX” increased by 90%, she said.

Zounia Rabotson’s earliest memories are of traveling and posing in front of monuments and tourist attractions as her mother pressed a button and a digital camera whirred to life. Now a model in New York City, she has returned to her mother’s digital camera, a Canon PowerShot SX230 HS made in 2011.

On Instagram, Rabotson, 22, posts grainy, overexposed photos of herself wearing denim miniskirts and carrying tiny luxury handbags. She says that she looks up to models from her childhood and that taking photos in a similar style makes her “feel like I’m them.”

“I feel like we’re becoming a bit too techy,” she said. “To go back in time is just a great idea.”

Rabotson doesn’t disconnect entirely. She has featured her camera on social media, captioning her fourth most popular video on TikTok: “Pov” — point of view — “you fell in love with digital cameras again.”

On TikTok, teenagers and young adults now show off cameras nearly as old as they are and explain how to achieve a “new aesthetic.” The cameras are not always well received. After influencer Amalie Bladt posted a video on TikTok telling viewers to “buy the cheapest digital camera you find” for “the over exposure look,” some of the more than 900 commenters responded in horror.

“NO NO NOOOOO PLS NO, I CANT RELIVE THIS ERA,” one person commented. “I swear I’m not that old.”

But the comments by despairing millennials and people with more modern tastes were overwhelmed by those where users had tagged their friends and asked how to upload photos from their digital camera to their smartphone.

Among some Gen Zers, the digital camera has become popular because it appears more authentic online, and not necessarily because it is a break from the internet, said Brielle Saggese, a lifestyle strategist at the trend forecasting company WGSN Insight. Photos taken with digital cameras can impart “a layer of personality that most iPhone content doesn’t,” she said.

“We want our devices to quietly blend into our surroundings and not be visible,” Saggese said. “The Y2K aesthetic has turned that on its head,” she added, describing mirror selfies and photos where digital cameras are visible accessories as “stylistic choices.”

Rudra Sondhi, a freshman at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, started using his grandmother’s digital camera because it seemed like a happy medium between film cameras and smartphones. He estimates that he takes one photo with his digital camera for every five with his smartphone.

“When I look back at my digital photos” — from his actual camera — “I have very specific memories attached to them,” Sondhi said. “When I go through the camera roll on my phone, I sort of remember the moment and it’s not special.”

Sondhi, 18, shares photos taken with his digital camera on a separate Instagram account, @rudrascamera. These photos document the range of young adulthood, from goofing around in a college dorm room to moshing at a performance by the Weeknd. When he takes out his camera, he said, his friends immediately deem the moment special.