Social media is so last year: SA teens are rebelling against the digital age

Today's tech-savvy teens are permanently plugged into digital devices. They're streaming, retweeting and following. They're wired and wireless. But some teens are unplugging themselves and turning their backs on tech.

These "retro teens" read books, wear dead people's clothes, listen to LPs on turntables, worship The Smiths and The Cure, and include "35mm" in their Instagram feeds. They shun virtual reality for actual reality, and their parents are beaming: not only have their children not morphed with technology into some kind of Frakenscreen monsters, but second-hand "mom jeans" are dirt cheap.

Five Cape Town teens have joined the retro revolution: Anna Emery, 16; her 18-year-old brother, Noah; their cousin Oli Shaw, 16; and friends Anoushka Beattie, 15, and Ama Gaisie, 16. And they are making old school cool.

A COUNTERCULTURE MOVEMENT

In each generation there are young people who rebel against society's mainstream: beatniks in the 1950s; hippies in the '60s and '70s; punks in the '80s; and, more recently, hipsters. While hipsters have become much maligned for their organic man buns, artisanal coffee and fixie bicycles, hipsterdom started out as a rebellion against consumerism.

And, according to Anna, retro is a similar uprising - waging a gentle battle against selfieism, instant gratification and anything that isn't authentic.

"Retro is taking the mainstream and saying, like: 'Well, screw you,'" she says.

Anna is a proud book nerd who has gained international recognition for her blog (ohsofictional.com) and was a guest at the recent Young Adult Literature Festival in Charleston, US.

What is retro, I ask.

"It's a movement," says Noah. "A counterculture movement."

Anna says retro is the move away from digital, which is cold and disposable, to records and film and individuality. "In the digital world, things can be replicated, but retro is real - it is unique, not mass-produced. It's authentic."

Clothes were her point of entry into this world. She noticed people wearing '80s-style bomber jackets and thought: "Oh, this is a thing." Her discovery led her to second-hand shops where she found a treasure trove of loose-fitting jeans and clothes she describes as "back-in-the-day stuff".

"You might call it old man's-type clothes - button-up tops, velvet, and corduroy everything. The clothes are a huge aspect of it."

For Noah, it was the music that led to the clothes (you could say the chords led to the cords). He is wearing more corduroy than a '70s folk festival. His wardrobe is inspired by his idols: alternative rock musicians from way back when. He says his outfit is not only cheap, it gets people's attention.

"You're drawing attention to yourself in an alternative way - not by wearing flashy brands."

Anna agrees. "The clothes make you confident because you know you stand out, but you also look good. The mainstream wear tight jeans and crop tops - they dress to accentuate their bodies so they are attractive to someone else. It's not comfy dressing."

According to Oli, retros dress for themselves. "They're saying: 'I think this looks very nice.' The mainstream says: 'I think other people think this looks very nice.'"

"My parents really don't get it," says Anna.

Anoushka gets a lot of her clothes from her grandma. "She has such cool clothes. She gives them to me and says they're so uncool, but I tell her that when it comes to clothes, ugly is the new pretty."

Ama, who "sort of fell into retro", says there's nothing quite like the joy of thrifting. "You never know what you're going to find and that's so exciting. I can put my own outfit together and know no one else will be wearing what I'm wearing."

'STOP TRYING SO HARD'

Occasionally a non-retro will give Ama a look that says "Stop trying so hard", but it doesn't bother her.

What bothers Oli, though, is that some members of the mainstream are jumping onto the retro bandwagon. "You'll find plenty of Metallica tees in retail stores now - people wear them without knowing what they stand for. They've never even listened to the band but they buy the tees because they've seen people like Kim Kardashian wearing them. They're into celebrity culture and don't actually believe in the retro culture."

Metallica mod is following hot and heavy on the heels of Che chic - the iconic image of the anti-capitalist revolutionary Che Guevara that decorates T-shirts, socks and nappies.

The retros call people who cash in on the retro image without buying into the culture "retro basics". They are posers, who will buy overpriced vintage clothes in boutique shops while true retros spend hours trawling through thrift shops for their old-fashioned clothes and buy them at a fraction of the price.

"I don't mean to be hating on anyone, but retro basic is basically not cool," says Anna.

"But without them," adds Noah, "we wouldn't have a culture."

Retro is partly a rebellion against digitalisation, where whatever you want is at your fingertips. "Whether it's taking photos, downloading music, streaming movies or whatever - you can get it instantly," says Noah. "With retro you have to put in effort to get what you want. If you're looking for an album on vinyl, you may have to search through 10 different shops to find it. When you do, it's much more rewarding than instantly downloading it."

Anna loves the bleak rock and synth-pop bands of the '70s and '80s such as The Smiths, The Cure, Soft Cell, Talking Heads and Pink Floyd.

"My parents used to listen to this music when I was a kid and I didn't take much notice, but when I got into it and really listened I realised it is so much more authentic than the radio music we hear. They put effort into their lyrics."

"In the '80s the lyrics meant something," says Noah.

"Yes," agrees Anna, "they were fighting for something. It was raw and honest."

"Back then," says Oli, "it was real feelings."

There has been a resurgence in vinyl, which music industry stalwart and vinyl store owner Benjy Mudie believes is partly thanks to retro teens.

"A lot of young people are turning away from disposable pop music and embracing music made decades ago," he says, adding that South African teens are gobbling up Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC and Depeche Mode records.

He says playing vinyl - aka black gold - is a complete visceral and physical experience. "From taking the record out of the sleeve, placing it on the turntable, cleaning it and then dropping the needle on the disc and waiting for the magic to burst forth from the speakers ... the occasional crackle or pop. This experience is nonexistent with downloads and streaming."

Trevor Bessik, of Revolution Records in Observatory, Cape Town, agrees.

"Vinyl is pure; it's the sound of the old days and young people are embracing it extensively," he says.

Some retros have replaced their smartphones with "vintage" flip phones, but Noah doesn't believe rejecting tech for the sake of it is helpful.

"I don't believe retro should be about going out of your way to make your life inconvenient. There must be a reason why you do something."

The teens have retro radar and can identify fellow travellers - not just by their clothes and music tastes but by their philosophy, which embraces individuality and scorns conformity. Anna says being retro means being accepting and tolerant. "We are not conservative," she says.

"We are a community," adds Anoushka.

They meet like-minded people at live-band events, and '70s- and '80s-themed dance parties at "exclusive" clubs. "It's not exclusive in the sense of 'Oh, you suck, you can't join us'," says Anna, "but in the sense of it's only people like us who know about us."

Unsurprisingly, selfies are not part of their ethos.

"Selfies?" says Anoushka, her mouth twisting in a grimace. "Not so much. I'm not hating on anyone who takes selfies, but selfies are self-centred and cringy. If you like them that's fine, but they're not for me."

Anoushka is not off social media entirely but is not a fan because it "takes away time from living in the outside world; and living in the now".

If Anna's relationship with social media was expressed in Facebook terms, she would describe it as "It's complicated".

"Social media is a good way to promote my blog and I'm on Instagram to share my photography. I try not to be affected by the likes and followers. That need for validation can be addictive - and that's toxic. Before I got into retro, I felt like if you didn't post about it, then it didn't happen. It's really easy to use social media to project an image of yourself that is not who you really are in real life - and that's like lying. It's not authentic."

REBELLION AGAINST SUPERFICIALITY

"Authentic" is a word the retro teens use a lot. According to Noah, it's one of the unspoken pillars of retro. He says retro is a rebellion against the superficiality of the digital world.

"Being retro gives us a way of having genuine, tangible experiences in a generation that's very ..."

Noah pauses as he searches for the right word.

"... fake?" say Anoushka and Anna together.

"Ja," says Noah. "Fake."

Retros are on a quest for authenticity in a post-truth world where it's increasingly difficult to separate the facts from the fakes. Besides, with global warming, captured politicians and stable genius presidents throwing Twitter tantrums, it's little wonder they are seeking refuge in the '80s.

It sounds like a good place to be, which is why I'm going to climb into my faded 30-something-year-old dad jeans, put on my hallowed, moth-chewed Dark Side of the Moon T-shirt, unearth my Back to the Future VHS tape and overindulge in some authentic "back-in-the-day" nostalgia.

KEEPING IT REAL WITH FILM

Just as there has been a resurgence in vinyl, there has also been a revival in film photography.

Dennis da Silva, co-founder of the Johannesburg-based Alternative Print Workshop, where photos can be developed using antiquated printing processes, says the worldwide revival in film is significant.

"Some people see their dad's old camera lying around, pick it up and fall in love with it, and there's also a general trend of people getting back to craft, using their hands, getting dirty again. There's something about the quality of film that is just magic.

"Don't get me wrong, digital is superb, but the mechanics of the printing process make film superior. Digital is easier, cheaper, efficient and more accessible, but it will never match the quality of film - and while most people don't care, people who appreciate the beauty of film do."

People like Anna. Picking up her dad's old film camera is exactly what sparked her interest in film photography. "With digital you can take a photo and if you don't like it, you can delete it and retake it," she says. "You can take a thousand photos until you eventually take one you like. With film, you don't know what the photo looks like until it's developed.

"That forces you to think about how you shoot and because film is pricey, it makes you that much more careful. I love buying the film, loading it and shooting it - and it's really satisfying when it turns out great. The prints feel more personal and special. It feels more real."