The 80s trend has taken over the Arab world - and there is also criticism

The 1980s trend, in which celebrities and businesses upload vintage-style images created by artificial intelligence, has taken over the Arab world. Alongside advertisements and nostalgia, the Arab media is criticizing the phenomenon: Al Jazeera questioned 'indirect nostalgia', Saudi Arabia warned against collecting biometric data, and a Lebanese newspaper affiliated with Hezbollah wrote that behind the images lie years of war and displacement.

The 1980s trend, in which celebrities and businesses upload vintage-style images created by artificial intelligence, has taken over the Arab world. The images, simulating a return to the colorful decade, have gained wide distribution on social networks, alongside advertisements from restaurants, telecommunications companies, and banks that exploited the trend for marketing. However, the Arab media has extensively criticized the phenomenon. The Qatari television station Al Jazeera questioned 'indirect nostalgia' – a longing for a period never experienced, and noted that nostalgia has become a market exploiting yearnings. The Saudi channel Al Arabiya published a warning about a 'trap for collecting images and data', cautioning that facial images contain biometric data that can be exploited for facial recognition. The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, affiliated with Hezbollah, chose to address the issue and wrote that in Lebanon it is impossible to separate the return to the 1980s from the country's history, as behind every photograph lie years of war, division, displacement, and scarcity. Despite the criticism, other entities exploited the trend for advertisements, such as a Saudi hamburger restaurant and a Saudi telecommunications company.