I am tired of the internet. I’m tired of doomscrolling, of wasting my evenings and mornings and afternoons and nights on apps. 2025 flew by and while I had fun and I’m proud of what I accomplished, I can’t help but think, “What else could I have done in place of all the hours I spent on my phone?”
The internet seems to agree. My for you pages are all covered in videos talking about “logging off in 2026,” showing off a journal ecosystem, their parent’s old Disney movie collection, their hobbies they are picking up this year, their book TBR, and tons and tons of printed photos to make in a scrapbook. I hear the phrase, “I don’t want my kids in 20 years to ask me for photos of me in my 20’s and all I have is my photo app or Instagram.” My dad, though he watches most movies on a streaming platform or digitally, has a movie collection because he knows platforms take away movies all the time.
Some people might be more like my dad, with a fear of not being able to access that media. Others may be like my mom and I, who love to tangibly touch our memories. I have sporadically but quite extensively journaled throughout my entire life and regularly look back on old entries. My mom scrapbooked my early childhood and we love to flip through old spreads together, feeling the layers of paper, stickers, and embellishments. I love to hold a physical book in my hands, and though I am terrified of ruining my books, I also smile at the floppiness of a book I’ve read 100 times or the accidental fold crease in the paperback cover, knowing it was my comfort book in high school I brought everywhere in my bag.
I am fully on board with going analog in 2026. I think it will bring more connection with those around us, as we print our memories and flick though DVD cases collected by our loved ones and read the books our siblings passed down to us. I am excited to not be constantly bombarded by the lives of others and unintentionally comparing, being jealous, or wishing something could be mine. Half the time, those opportunities could be mine, but I’m busy scrolling.
However, I’m nervous that “going analog” will just be a trend that puts junk in our home and makes us feel disappointed in ourselves. That the expensive cricut will sit in the corner of our rooms making us feel bad for not doing something that we thought we wanted to do. That we will spend so much money on craft supplies to end up not liking it. That we won’t enjoy listening to albums and actually will just want to keep listening to our Spotify playlists.
There is an in-between. Because our life is already analog. We do not live in a screen. We spend some of our time on a screen, yes, but we are not in a screen. I have always been crafty, and one of the reasons I think I get told, “OMG, you are just so good at crafting,” is because I haven’t always had craft supplies. Growing up, I had access to the recycling bin on the back porch. Kraft macaroni and cheese boxes had a side cut open and suddenly was a house for an acorn I found outside. I drew a face on a popsicle stick, made a hold in the middle of a gum wrapper, and suddenly a had a man in a poncho. I drew stick figures on the back of my homework I got back. I used unsharpened pencils as drumsticks on a old tin can of rice from the food storage in the garage.
In high school, smash-booking was really big. I love smash-booking, because it’s like junk-journaling but solely about using what you have. I just taped handouts and sticky notes and Valentine’s cards and ribbon bookmarks onto the pages and wrote a little about them when I felt like it. I didn’t have fancy paper, markers, stickers, or a portable photo printer. I worked with what I had to make something fun to look back on.
In college, I wanted to get back into journaling and using a planner so I ripped out pages from my high school English class journal and used that until the end before buying a new one I liked better. I bought one pack of colored construction paper and used that in all kinds of creative ways to make well over 25 cards before upgrading to fun, cute, nicer paper. I traced and cut all my shapes by hand for months to see if I really like making cards and should invest in tools. I use my library and only buy books after I’ve read them and know I like them.
The point is not that you should have to deal with cheap, bad products and cheap experiences. You are allowed to enjoy a hobby with nice materials. But finding a way to test something out, not spending all your money, not taking up space in your small apartment, will help you allow yourself to really enjoy it. I don’t want to feel guilty for not doing something for fun, when nobody is making me do that! When you allow yourself to have a test period, with less commitment, you’re giving yourself the freedom to explore and enjoy what you’re doing, rather than putting pressure on yourself to enjoy it.
Go analog in 2026. Print photos and scrapbook them with cheap construction paper. You can always redo it in a few years if you stick with it and have better supplies and knowledge. Use your library and get DVDs and books and see if you like the space they take up, or the relief of not needing to keep (or have spent money on) a book you don’t like. Use a notebook you already have (Do you have any half-used notebooks from high school or college? Do you have a notebook you got at a bachelorette party that says “bridesmaid” on the front? Use those!) and see if you actually like journaling regularly.
Going analog is about having a healthier relationship with hobbies and media. About doing things that make you feel happy, fulfilled, and proud of yourself. It’s not about consuming as much as you can, buying everything all at once, forcing yourself to enjoy something (that you don’t have to do if you don’t like), or making you feel disappointed in yourself for the way you use your free time.
I can’t wait to see all the creative ways people use what they already have, and how those supplies transform over time to be a collection of tools and supplies they truly use and love. I hope this trend of going analog sticks around and we maintain journals, scrapbooks, and hobbies to pass down to generations for our grandchildren and the historians to have a peek into what 2026 was like.
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