Welcome to 2026! My winter hibernation is over (or at least I hope so), and I’m ready to write again. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want my first post of the year to be, and I found the perfect topic to discuss.

If you have been actively using social media you may have noticed a new trend rising over the last few weeks. And I’m talking about analog life. It really fell into my heart and I decided to talk about it. What is an analog life? Basically it means trying to spend less time online and having a less digital-centric lifestyle, opting for physical items and real life experiences. People are so sick of spending the majority of their time doomscrolling and seeing those staged images of a perfect life. They want something real, they crave for something deep, memorable and meaningful.

This lifestyle started to gain momentum especially with the rapid development of AI. Most people, at least creative people, hate seeing AI generated content everywhere, cause it devalues the real art made by humans. And it is also a kind of a riot against this soulless minimalism. I’m not talking about the healthy and logical minimalism, I mean those huge houses that have no traces of life because everything has to be white and clean and ideal. As though it’s not a home where people spend their lives but hotel rooms with no personal touches.

That’s why people came up with a new lifestyle – the analog. I guess it’s safe to say that this lifestyle tries to take people back to the good old 90s or 00s, when life was simple, someplace messy, not perfect, yet colorful, fun, interesting and much more meaningful. Millennials and early gen z-s remember how fun it was when they had no smartphones, no social medias. It made them feel free. And now it brings back the true value of life, showing how we should live and develop. It doesn’t mean cutting off internet entirely, cause let’s be honest, that’s not quite possible today, at least if you don’t want to become a solitary castaway, being entirely cut off from the civilization. And internet does have its perks. So it’s really about finding the right balance and living more offline than online.

I’m 100% down to this trend and tbh I have been living an analog life even before it became so popular. But if before it may have been considered as being weird (cause why would you carry an ipod, a film camera and a book, when you have your phone with you, or prefer to watch movies they show on TV), now it’s very much relevant and trendy haha.

If this trend resonates with you and you want to adopt it into your lifestyle, here are some ways you can do so.

• get physical copies of books, magazines, DVDs, CDs… The entertainment sphere has kind of lost its charm when everything became digital. There’s no feeling better than looking forward to see your favorite film on TV on a certain day, listening to your favorite album on vinyl, flipping through the pages of a book or a magazine. These all make you feel connected to the real life.
• take content with real cameras and print photos. Just think about it. Pretty much all our memories are kept in phones or computers. And if something happens, like an electrical apocalypse or something, we’ll be left with no memories of the last decade. That’s why it’s important to print photos and keep them in albums. And let’s confess that looking through the printed photos is much more fun than scrolling them in your gallery.

• trying out different hobbies. You don’t have to be professional about it, you don’t even have to go to special classes. You can start doing pretty much anything you want at home, at your own pace. And there’s so much you can try – painting, pottery, pilates, yoga, dancing, knitting, embroidery, cooking etc. When you find something that you’re passionate about, you’ll forget about checking your phone for a long while.

• playing board games, doing puzzles and crosswords. Imagine getting together with your friends or family and instead of fighting about politics or gossiping, you just play fun games that will also develop different skills and abilities. It will make your time spent together more enjoyable and memorable. When you’re alone, you can always do puzzles or crosswords which, again, is both pleasant and beneficial for your brain activity.

• going to libraries, local small shops or thrift shops. This will help you become less consumerist and actually enjoy the process of finding your favorite book in the library, or the perfect top in a second hand shop.
• journaling. Lots of journaling. I know that it’s easier to write your plans or thoughts in your notes, but that won’t give you the same feeling as writing everything down on paper. It will clear your mind, help you be more organized and understand yourself better. And it’s the perfect way to be creative, especially if you decide to do some scrapbooking and junk journaling.

• spending less time glued to the phone. I think you have already guessed that all the tips described above are for one big purpose – to spend less time in your gadgets that have become the epicenter of our lives. This lifestyle teaches us to let go of this addiction and treat our phones not like a part of ourselves, but merely a tool to use when necessary.