Recession Indicators: Stetson Students Weigh-In on 2000s Revival

The current Stetson student’s childhood might have looked like “Wizards of Waverly Place” on television, sounded like kitten heels click-clacking down the street and felt like head-banging at a house party to a live performance by the All-American Rejects. Yet Stetson students don’t need to sleep to flashback to this reality, these things have all happened in 2025. The 2000s revival begs the question of why the era is coming back so soon, considering we only had one decade to breathe. 

There is a conventional belief that trends move in twenty-year cycles. National Public Radio (NPR) credits this to trend-setters like Hollywood producers and clothing designers getting nostalgic for their childhood. Indeed, 2000s trends have seen a steady increase since 2020 and feel stronger than ever in 2025. 

“I love the fashion, makeup, celebrities and pop culture in general from that time. The early internet era also fascinates me, and everything from that time feels…chaotic and oversaturated, colorful and fun,” said Grace Wold '28. Wold is a proud participant in the Y2K (Year 2000) revival. She’s a fan of  music, from nu-metal and R&B to NSYNC and Justin Timberlake. She says the movies of the decade also call to her for their unique personalities, in  contrast  to the “soulless cash grabs” of today. Katryana L Vieira-Carreiro also dips her toes into 2000s culture, enjoying 2000s pop and the nostalgia of the movies that brought her and her family together. “I think it’s mostly Gen Z and millennials clinging to the ‘simple times’ or nostalgia of the 2000s during a turbulent time in everyone’s lives and the high inflation,” Vieira-Carreiro '25 said.

As Vieira-Carreiro alluded to, the persistence of this nostalgia in our modern life could be linked to the mirroring economic struggle between the 2000s and 2020s. In 2001 there was the Dot-com Recession, which was considered shallow; America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)   fell only 0.6% and unemployment reached 5.5%. In the Great Depression of 2008, however, Americans experienced a  GDP fall of 4.3% and unemployment rates reached  10%. 

As of September 2025, the unemployment rate is 4.3%. In August of 2025, President Donald Trump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner after a report was released showing a slowdown in hiring rates. President Trump claimed the data was manipulated but  provided no supporting evidence. 

Mark Zhandi, Chief Economist at Moody’s Analytics, a third-party financial services company, told ABC News in August that "The risks are increasingly high that we're going into recession…We're not there yet – and maybe this thing gets turned around. But that's increasingly becoming hard to do with each passing week.” Zhandi pointed to Trump’s tariffs as a culprit in reducing job growth. On a positive note, the country saw a 3.8% increase in GDP last quarter. According to Fortune magazine, JP Morgan CEO Jim Dimon said the government shutdown was a “bad idea” and hinted that despite the GDP growth, a recession could still occur in 2026. 

From a citizen’s perspective, Wold believes that the current economic uncertainty plays a role in the 2000s trends people choose to bring back. “When things are financially uncertain, people tend to thrift more, DIY their looks and find creative ways to express themselves without spending much. Y2K fashion fits that perfectly: it’s about remixing, layering, and making bold choices without needing brand-new stuff,” Wold said. It might not just be the people making economic uncertainty an aesthetic, Vieira-Carreiro said, but also large corporations are as they profit off of nostalgic millennials and Gen Z. “...The corporations are noticing this trend and since [millenials and Gen Z] have the buying power for the next few decades they are gonna cater to those groups’ interests,” Vieira-Carreiro said. 

For Wold, the trend of thrift shopping is exciting, which she sees as friendly for both your bank account and the environment, “I think it says something that even people who are financially ‘well off’ or stable still choose secondhand shopping," Wold said. “For me, it’s not just about saving money, it’s about finding unique stuff and valuing what already exists instead of constantly buying new.”

The public seems to be recognizing the similar economic uncertainty between the 2000s and 2020s through the rise of the ‘recession indicator’ trend. ‘Recession indicator’ has been a heavily-used phrase online this year. People have been posting videos discussing what they find to be recession indicators and commenting the phrase on others’ posts when something evokes 2000s nostalgia. Stetson’s current study body was generally born between the years of 2003-2007, so they grew up during the great recession. Neither Wold or Vieira-Carreiro recollect much about the recession; Wold was 3 years old and Vieira-Carreiro was 5. Though they don’t recollect much about the economy, they remember the staples of their childhood that are reemerging in 2025. When asked their favorite recession indicator, Vieira-Carreiro said, “My favorite is all these bands making a comeback like the Jonas brothers, Big Time Rush, even Fifth Harmony making a cameo. I don’t think they personally have much to offer nowadays with the pop girlies dominating the charts alongside K-Pop but still it’s like every month people are doing ‘comeback’ tours.”

Nostalgia begs us to put on our rose-colored glasses, but Wold and Vieira-Carreiro acknowledge that not everything about the 2000s can classify under the ‘golden years’ category. “The 2000s were full of problems too, but looking back on them now feels like escapism. It feels good to revisit an era that seemed more optimistic, even if it wasn’t,” Wold said. She wants to leave ‘eating disorder culture’ in the 2000s. “It feels like body positivity has been backsliding lately and there’s so much content online that glamorizes or even teaches disordered eating,” Wold said. “In the 2000s as well, being super skinny was idealized and addiction or unhealthy habits were often part of the method or lifestyles of ‘ideal’ women.” For Vieira-Carreiro, the fashion of the 2000s is “god-awful.” She doesn’t miss the trends like “wearing a spaghetti-strapped shirt on top of a long sleeve shirt and the nude pale lip with pencil thin eyebrows.” 

For their guesses on what decades will come back next, Wold guesses the 2010s, noting Gen Z’s trend of romanticizing the decades of their childhood. Vieira-Carreiro guesses the 1970s, saying the '70s futuristic fashion predictions resemble the slick styles of today. For now, Stetson students will have to wake up and relive their early years, recession indicators and all.