Why Millennials Can’t Let Go of These 20 Surprisingly Outdated Obsessions

Remember when dining out meant sliding into a cozy padded booth, the warm glow of stained glass lamps casting a nostalgic hue over your table, and your soda arriving in that unmistakable chunky red glassware? Well, apparently Pizza Hut thought millennials might want a taste of their childhood too—and in 2026, they quietly started rolling back the ’80s and ’90s vibe by resurrecting those classic restaurants. It’s a move that not only tugs at the heartstrings of anyone who grew up during that golden era of pizza parlors but also makes smart business sense by saving big bucks on renovations. But Pizza Hut’s retro revival is just the tip of the nostalgia iceberg; Millennials seem to be hoarding a treasure trove of “outmoded” gems—from old-school emojis to flip phones and even mixtapes—that the younger generations have left in the dust. Curious why this generation clings so fiercely to the past while the future zooms ahead with AI chatbots and subscription overload? Let’s dive in and explore the cultural quirks that make Millennials the ultimate nostalgia enthusiasts. LEARN MORE

In 2026, it was quietly reported that longstanding fast-food favorite Pizza Hut had, for several years, been gradually bringing back its old-school restaurants, in an attempt to revitalize the business after the brand was sold to new owners. The retro-styled refits—complete with padded booths, stained glass lamps, and classic chunky red glassware—proved pure nostalgia for anyone who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s when Pizza Hut restaurants were at their heyday. (And it proved to make good business sense too, with the rolling out of the retro design costing a fraction of a standard renovation.) 

Needless to say, the refit restaurants quickly proved popular among Millennials—and nor were they the only outmoded things that Millennials still cling to. 

OLD-SCHOOL EMOJIS 

While it’s Gen Alpha who seemingly use the most emojis overall, recent studies have shown that emoji use differs greatly across the generations, with Millennials—who grew up on a diet of Buzzfeed quizzes and MSN Messenger—sticking to tried and tested emojis that the generations after largely ignore. The Face With Tears of Joy Emoji is still the go-to laughter response among Millennials, for instance, but is dismissed as cringe and outdated by Gen Z and younger (who prefer a rather less wholesome skull to show extreme hilarity). And while Millennials so no problem at all with a simple thumbs up, Gen Z finds it passive-aggressive and noncommittal. 

GIFS

It’s not just old-fashioned emojis that Millennials are holding on to, either. More than a third of Millennials regularly use GIFS as a means of expressing their opinions, with two-thirds claiming doing so allows them to convey their feelings more accurately than words alone. The generations behind, however, are increasingly turning their backs on gifs, which are apparently being seen as ever more cringey among Gen Zs and Gen Alpha. 

FLIP PHONES

Millennials might like sending emojis and gifs, there was something about using a simpler screen or a far more complicated handset back in the day. Early 2000s flip phones might have had grayscale screens, shrill ringtones, and next to no battery life, but there was something about flipping a phone open to answer it that a swipe of a touchscreen just can’t match. No wonder the tech world now seems to be nostalgically re-embracing the style more than 20 years later. 

CLASSIC KIDS TV

Speaking comforting classics that you grew up with, one thing Millennials and Gen Z can seemingly agree on is that kids TV was far better back in the day than it is today. These two cohorts watch more repeats of classic childhood movies and TV favorites than any other generation. 

THE BIG SCREEN EXPERIENCE

When it comes to finding something entertaining to watch, Millennials are also near single-handedly keeping the big summer blockbuster alive. With a worrisome one in ten cinemagoers claiming that the summer movie experience has all but died out, Millennials are bucking that trend, with almost two-fifths proudly claiming the opposite and that the summer blockbuster is alive and well. (Perhaps growing up with The Matrix, The Mummy, The Sixth Sense and the first Star Wars prequel all released in the same summer might have something to do with it.) 

STAND-ALONE BLOCKBUSTERS 

On the subject of blockbusters, the big-budget movie experience at the moment is dominated by remakes and spinoffs, or else stories set in some pre-existing universe. Sequels and IP-mining are by no means new, of course, but with almost 40 films in the endless expanded MCU and Disney currently slating more remakes and sequels than original stories, it seems the standalone blockbusters of the 80s and 90s are a thing of the Millennial past.