The following is excerpted from an online article posted by USA Today
“Analog bags,” tote bags filled with portable offline items like leather-bound journals, paperback books and mini watercolor palettes, are taking over TikTok and Instagram.
Content creator Sierra Campbell coined the term in a TikTok last year about tips to lower screen time, and it’s been spreading on social media since.
“I’ve been really trying to take steps back because it’s so easy to get consumed in TikTok [and] doom scrolling,” Kasler says. “Putting all these things together that help me unplug and focus on real life hobbies.”
Young people are increasingly embracing flip phones and landlines in place of their smartphones — traffic on the website Dumbphone Finder jumped 12-fold from 2022 to 2025, according to the site’s founder, Jose Briones.
Walkman sales are up 111% and instant film cameras 157%, according to Afterpay’s Spring/Summer 2026 Trends Report. Pinterest Predicts’ 2026 report found searches for “snail mail gifts” are up 110% on the platform. Eventbrite in June declared it “The Offline Summer.”
“Young people are saying, ‘Hey, we’re frustrated with all the negativity, all the pessimism, feeling like just addicted or too dependent on these technologies, and we’re doing something about it,'” Routledge says.
“It’s not either no technology or technology,” Routledge says. “It’s the story of young people wanting to use their agency to figure out a healthier relationship with technology.”