Old media as an icon of youth: Platform-mediated nostalgia and the revival of the Casio TR camera on Rednote

This article examines the revival of a short-lived, non-canonised medium to challenge dominant assumptions in media nostalgia research. Focusing on the resurgence of the Casio TR camera on Rednote, it draws on participant observation, analysis of 120 posts, and 11 interviews. The article shows that nostalgia is organised through four platformed scenarios — acquisition, use, loss/deception, and spectatorship–demonstrating that nostalgia is socially distributed and not confined to prior ownership. Building on the concept of mnemonic imagination, the study argues that nostalgia extends beyond recollection, linking past, present, and future practices. It further shows that revival is sustained through configuration and re-interpretation: users integrate the device into hybrid media ecologies while symbolically revaluing it through narratives of youth and aspiration. The article argues that platform-mediated nostalgia does not simply preserve obsolete media, but reworks the past into a resource for present use and future-oriented cultural production.