Pessimists Archive Newsletter

Pessimists Archive Newsletter

Walkman Headphones: from Vice to Virtue

Nostalgia’s rose-tint filters out pessimism, after all: why would anyone have thought the ‘good old days’ were bad?

Louis Anslow's avatar
Louis Anslow
Nov 10, 2026

Sony has released a homage to its 1979 Walkman headphones, an appeal to popular ‘technostalgia’ for the ‘good old days’ of technology.

Almost 50 years later, the worries that once greeted the Walkman are forgotten: road safety, hearing loss, loneliness, anti-social behaviour and rising individualism.

What once symbolised a brave new world now offers som…

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