Are you familiar with "analogue horror"? It's a genre of (mostly) video horror that uses video and audio filters that make it look as if it's shot on a 1980s or 1990s video camera (or even a 1980s/1990s home camcorder.) That sort of style evokes a lot of nostalgia in 80s/90s kids.

It obviously doesn't add fidelity to the image to use such filters that blur, add white noise, and add video artifacts like you might see from a malfunctioning VHS player. It removes fidelity.

But it adds a "quaint" and sometimes surreal feeling to the media, particularly for folks who have been exposed to a fair amount of that medium of video. Or even folks who have only been exposed to retro recreations of elements of that medium.

I'm sure something similar is already happening to the brains of the younger generation. They're forming connections to AI slop. And some day, I have to imagine elements of AI-generated video content will be used -- on purpose -- in new media to evoke a sense of quaintness, nostalgia, and otherwise "mid-2020's-ness".

I don't think they'll exclusively use "GenAI" technologies (stable diffusion, Dall-E, etc) to give media that feeling either. It's weird to think about now, but they'll probably be make ways to add AI-slop elements in novel ways that the actual GenAI technologies aren't capable of. (Again, making a connection with VHS-looking filters, I don't imagine most people making things like analogue horror content today are using actual VHSs and vintage camcorders.)

So, I can agree with your premise, OP, but only with the slight addendum of "for now".

I hate that this is what the mid-2020s is going to be remembered for, but I guess every decade has something to be embarrassed about. NFTs/blockchain/cryptocurrencies, Beanie Babies, The Macarena, gestures broadly at the 80s, etc. But great things have come out of all of those decades as well.