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Imagine walking into a home with cassettes and VHS tapes on the shelves, a Polaroid on the desk, and print magazines on the coffee table. You may assume the house belongs to someone who grew up in the 1980s or ‘90s and never moved on, but there’s a good chance they’re a Gen Z adult who wasn’t alive then. Far from being stuck in the past, they may be using nostalgia for an era that predates them to improve their lives and build a better future.

Modern life is increasingly mediated by computer technology. We shop, socialize, entertain ourselves, and engage in public discourse online in ways that have steadily replaced in-person equivalents. As digital natives, Zoomers are at the center of this shift and are also the ones most actively pushing back, searching for more tangible ways to spend their time.

You can see it in several recent trends driven largely by young people. Physical media — records, cassettes, books — is rebounding. Hands-on hobbies like knitting, pottery, and woodworking are increasingly popular. And gathering places like music festivals , boutique fitness studios , independent bookstores , and shopping malls are drawing more people.

It’s too soon to know how far these trends will go, especially given the decades-long decline in in-person socializing. But they suggest a meaningful turn is happening, particularly among Gen Z, who are more likely than any other generation to report ditching screens.

Nostalgia lets us step away from our current troubles and tap into the past for comfort, guidance, and inspiration.

Nostalgia for a previous era is an animating force behind these consumer and behavioral trends. In a nationally representative survey conducted by our team at the Archbridge Institute’s Human Flourishing Lab, 68% of Gen Z respondents reported feeling nostalgic for eras before their lifetime, and 73% said they are drawn to media, styles, hobbies, or traditions from earlier periods. Additionally, 78% said they believe new technologies and products should incorporate ideas and design elements from the past.

What would lead history’s most digitally immersed generation to feel nostalgic for pre-digital eras? To answer that question, it helps to understand how nostalgia works .

Nostalgia is a warm sentimentality toward the past. It typically centers on cherished personal memories, but it can also encompass a broader appreciation for ideas, traditions, and ways of life one has never directly experienced. Though often characterized as light-hearted entertainment, nostalgia is an important self-regulatory resource for navigating life’s difficulties. It lets us step away from our current troubles and tap into the past for comfort, guidance, and inspiration.

For example, our research on how nostalgia helps us fulfill our need for social connection found that when people are pessimistic about their social lives, they become nostalgic for a time of socially fulfilling experiences. Being reminded of social success can give them confidence to overcome current challenges, motivating them to pursue goals focused on building and strengthening relationships.

A large body of research documents a similar self-regulatory process across a wide range of challenges and cultures. Though nostalgia can be evoked by many stimuli, from hearing a song to seeing an old friend, we tend to feel most nostalgic when dissatisfied or distressed. Nostalgia provides comfort, but it also mobilizes us to improve our situation.

Gen Z is the generation most likely to struggle with depression and anxiety, and many see their always-online lives as part of the problem.

Nostalgia usually draws on personal memories — but what if your own past isn’t enough? As Gen Z looks for models of a more analog life, they seem to be directing nostalgia further back in time. This is historical nostalgia, and Gen Z appears to be using it to ease dissatisfactions with digital life.

One of their most pressing concerns is mental health. Gen Z is the generation most likely to struggle with depression and anxiety, and many see their always-online lives as part of the problem. In a survey our team conducted with the Harris Poll, 74% of Gen Z adults reported that they are worried about social media’s impact on mental health, 80% are worried their generation is too dependent on technology, and 58% think new technologies are more likely to drive people apart than bring them together.

Historical nostalgia may be beneficial here. The retro-inspired activities Gen Z has embraced pay measurable psychological and social dividends. In our survey , 65% of Gen Z adults said that nostalgically exploring eras that predate their lives helps them when they are stressed about modern life, while 66% said it helps quell anxieties about the future.

Research also shows that when young people read nostalgic stories written by older adults, they feel more nostalgic themselves, enjoying psychological benefits similar to those gained from reflecting on their own cherished memories. The benefits of nostalgia can be derived not only from personal memories but also from experiences exchanged across generations and preserved in art, media, and traditions.

Gen Z is not opting out of modernity. It is opting out of the assumption that the digital world must consume the analog one.

Historical nostalgia may strike some as mere escapism, and that is part of it: Gen Z is looking to escape what they find distressing about always-online life. But nostalgia is much more than that. It increases meaning in life , goal motivation , social engagement , creativity , and optimism . Moreover, research has distinguished nostalgia from less healthy forms of past-oriented thinking, like declinism. Nostalgia-fueled retro trends aren’t just helping people disengage from what they find distressing about the digital world; they are helping them build a more fulfilling life in the real world.

Importantly, Gen Z’s historical nostalgia isn’t a rejection of progress. By many indicators, young people remain enthusiastic about and early adopters of emerging technologies. In our research , significant majorities of Gen Z adults said they are interested in learning about new technologies, motivated to use them, and value open-mindedness about advances. And studies find that nostalgia actually increases positive attitudes toward innovative technologies. Gen Z is not opting out of modernity. It is opting out of the assumption that the digital world must consume the analog one.

Gen Z is not alone in their nostalgic feelings for a past that predates them. Our research finds that millennials and Gen Xers also report high levels of historical nostalgia. But Gen Z, raised in the most digitally saturated world and bearing its heaviest costs, may be the most motivated to act on it.

A nostalgia-fueled real-world renaissance is underway, led by young adults striving to reclaim personal agency, improve psychological well-being, strengthen social bonds, and counter the cultural pessimism and division that pervades much of online life. The very generation we feared was born too late for the analog world may be the one bringing it back.

This article Why Gen Z is nostalgic for a world it never knew is featured on Big Think .

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Open AI formally welcomes the GTP-5.6 models to its lineup: Sol, Terra, and Luna.

In addition to the new modesls themselves, there’s also a new “ultra” option for running multiple models in parallel.

Access to all three GPT-5.6 models opens today in ChatGPT and Codex, but may take 24 hours to hit everyone.

Last month, OpenAI gave us a little preview of what to expect from its next big AI model launch, detailing plans for the three faces of GPT-5.6: Sol, Terra, and Luna . Rather than going one-size-fits-all, the three models are each tuned for specific usage demands, prioritizing maximum performance, or trying to get the most bang out of your AI buck. And today, all three are finally making their formal debu t, ready for you to begin using them across ChatGPT and Codex.

GPT‑5.6 Sol is the heavy hitter, and this is the one that you’re going to want to turn to for tasks like coding, or researching cybersecurity vulnerabilities. When you need more power still, OpenAI is introducing a new “ultra” setting that allows you to deploy multiple agents in parallel for even higher performance.

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Two of the Milky Way's gigantic spiral arms appear to be much farther away than we realized, scientists have discovered after listening to the echoes of distant cosmic explosions. The findings could potentially force us to reconsider our galaxy's mass and maybe even its shape, researchers say.

The Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy made up of a dense central region containing a supermassive black hole (dubbed Sagittarius A*), orbited by four major arms — the Sagitarrius arm , the Scutum-Centaurus arm, the Perseus arm and the Outer arm — that curve and stretch outward like a giant pinwheel. Most of our galaxy's stars and gas are tightly packed together in these cosmic limbs, although some stars, including the sun , exist in the gaps between them or within other smaller structures .

Until now, researchers have estimated the size of these arms based on the Milky Way's rotation rate , because it is impossible to see our galaxy's entirety from Earth's position inside the galaxy. This, in turn, has helped us estimate the galaxy's total size (around 100,000 light-years across) and its mass, which is equivalent to around 1.5 trillion suns, according to NASA .

However, this way of measuring the massive structures is not foolproof and has led to several uncertainties about our galaxy since we first discovered its spiral shape around 175 years ago, Live Science's sister site Space.com reported .

"We usually model the Milky Way's outer arms indirectly based on what we know of how our galaxy rotates, but doing it this way leaves room for error," study first author Beatrice Vaia , a researcher at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics who led the new study as part of her doctorate, said in a statement . The farther away from the galactic center, the more uncertain the measurements become, she added.

In the new study, published June 19 in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics , researchers came up with a new method of measuring the arms using the most powerful and luminous explosions in the universe, known as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). As X-ray light from these cosmic outbursts passes through dense clouds of gas, like those within our galaxy's arms, it creates luminous rings, or echoes, whose size corresponds to their distance from Earth.

Researchers studied echoes of X-ray light leftover from GRBs as the radiation from these powerful cosmic explosions passed through gas clouds in our galaxy's arms. (Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/INAF/B. Vaia et al.; Optical: Pan-STARRS; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N.Wolk & P.Edmonds) The team used data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory (both of which orbit Earth) to analyze echoes from three different GRBs that shone through gas clouds in the Perseus, Outer and Scutum-Centaurus arms, respectively. This revealed that both the Outer and Scutum-Centaurus arms are likely around 10% farther from Earth than we thought. This may not sound like much, but it equates to several thousand light-years.

The biggest potential implication of this discovery is that our galaxy is wider and, therefore, probably more massive than we realized, which could have major knock-on effects for our understanding of our cosmic neighborhood.

"The differences are small, but any revision of these distances is important because they are so fundamental for understanding our galaxy," study co-author Ilaria Fornasiero , an astronomer at the University of Bologna in Italy, said in a separate statement . "For example, this could mean that astronomers have to revise estimates of the mass of the galaxy, because that affects how wide the arms stretch."

The new positions of the Outer and Scutum-Centaurus arms (shown in red) suggest that the Milky Way is not as perfectly symmetrical as we thought. (Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/M.Weiss) Animations released alongside the new paper show how the Milky Way might look based on the new data, revealing the Outer and Scutum-Centaurus arms extending farther into intergalactic space, making our galaxy look more like a lopsided snail's shell than a perfect spiral.

These visualizations do not necessarily show the true shape of the galaxy, as the Sagitarrius arm and other minor galactic limbs have not been measured using the same methodology. However, the fact that the Perseus arm was not as distant as the other two GRB-illuminated limbs hints at a surprising asymmetry throughout our galaxy that cannot be easily explained.

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The researchers are now on the hunt for more GRBs that can be used to map out the rest of our galaxy's shape and help us better understand what our cosmic neighborhood actually looks like. However, finding these cosmic explosions is easier said than done.

"We're relying on the universe to provide us with these events, and so far, over 25 years, we've only found a handful that we can use," study co-author Andrea Tiengo , an astronomer at Scuola Universitaria Superiore Pavia in Italy, said in the statement. "That said, we will continue to be on the lookout for more."

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Could Microsoft sell off Xbox amid the company's biggest restructuring strategy yet?

Analysts say Xbox, as it stands, would be too expensive for even some of the biggest buyers

It's suggested that big players would be more interested in purchasing "specific pieces" of the business

As Xbox goes through its biggest restructuring yet, and the seemingly never-ending stream of bad news for those involved continues, the future of the gaming company is uncertain.

While some question whether it would be in Microsoft's best interest to sell off the gaming company, industry analysts have suggested that the move would be a hugely expensive endeavour for interested parties, but it's possible that the Xbox we know could be dismantled piece by piece.

Microsoft's major Xbox restructuring announcement, which Xbox CEO Asha Sharma called a "reset," confirmed that thousands of employees were affected by layoffs, including 1,600 immediate job cuts with another 1,600 to come before the end of the current financial year.

The company has also let go of four studios, including Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions, which are returning to independence, and Senua and State of Decay 3 creators, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs, which are currently looking for new ownership.

This new strategy follows a year of struggles for Xbox, which has increased the prices of its consoles once again, cancelled and shuttered several games and studios , with Sharma now admitting that the company is "not healthy" in its current state, with Game Pass being a key fault.

"Our business today is not healthy," Sharma said in an email sent to Xbox employees. "We are operating at margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses. We entered Gen 9 with a smaller install base and a higher cost structure. To grow, we bet on Game Pass, multi-platform, and a broader portfolio of content. While those businesses have created meaningful value, they did not grow at the pace we expected."

Before the recent upheaval, The Information (via Reuters ) reported that Sharma was looking to speed up development on games in The Elder Scrolls , Fallout , and Halo franchises and that Microsoft is considering options for its Xbox gaming unit, including a potential spinoff or restructuring ​as a wholly owned subsidiary.

While some believe that the recent restructuring is a plan to make Xbox easier to sell, analysts have suggested to The Verge that there wouldn't be many interested stakeholders who would purchase the entire business, mainly because it would be too expensive considering Xbox's current portfolio.

"I think all options are on the table, considering the drastic measures already put in place to try and restructure the business at both a cyclical and structural level," said Yoshio Osaki, president and CEO of market research firm IDG Intelligence.

Similarly, New York University professor Joost van Dreunen told The Verge, "A wholesale divestiture of Xbox remains on the table, and it looks likelier given Xbox's struggles with rising hardware costs and Microsoft's focus on AI and infrastructure."

He added, "It's never been clear what role Xbox plays in Microsoft's flywheel," but a full sale is the "less likely path" since there are few buyers, including giants like Netflix, Amazon, and Tencent, who would want or afford "an entire interactive-entertainment conglomerate running north of $23 billion in annual revenue."

Instead, Van Dreunen said the likelier scenario is that big players might go after "specific pieces" of the business, with Osaki noting "it's possible that "individual studios, IPs, and teams are sold or spun off piecemeal.”

Sharma revealed her vision for Xbox after taking up the position of CEO in January and said she plans to return to the spirit of what the company was founded on, as well as reduce "the artificial divide between different types of devices."

With the latest part of her plan underway, which has notably delivered another crushing blow to the studios under Xbox's ownership, it's unclear right now where the gaming giant is headed.

According to Osaki, the full vision will be clear by "year-end," while van Dreunen thinks it will be "within 24 months."