Going analog this year?

Will 2026 be the year we go analog?
I’m not buying the dramatic plot twist.

Have you come across this hot take?
Next year is the “year of analog.”

Pens over pixels. Board games over doomscrolling.
Coffee shops full of journaling circles and zero laptops.

Sure, I can understand the desire behind it.

A lot of us are tired, even after a holiday break. Not “I need a nap” tired, though, more like “my brain has 47 tabs open and one of them is playing a video I can’t find” tired.

The speed and scale of the prediction is where I paused when I first saw this in early December. I’m not convinced of a full cultural flip by 2026.
I think what’s more likely is…

Analog may become a bigger slice of life, not the whole pizza.

There are a few pieces I read about this. I’ll start with 2 of them that capture the mood perfectly. I think it’s worth unpacking what’s being shared by others because it hints at how brands and organizations might respond.

What the “go analog” crowd is really reacting to

There’s a piece in VMAN SEA that opens with what I think is an obvious line for most of us: “screens have defined the rhythms of daily life.”

Dayne Aduna points to a subtle but important shift: social media time peaked in 2022 and has been slowly declining. Then he frames a bigger culprit: when AI-generated content rises, the signal-to-noise ratio starts to tilt toward noise.

That’s a real tension for anyone who builds online: creators, founders, nonprofits, brands — all of us. If the feed becomes cheaper to fill, attention becomes more expensive to earn.

Sammi Cohen of Social Currency comes at it from the human angle. She’s noticing a “quiet… anti-tech grumbling” and calls it a “quiet rebellion against the digital noise.”

This comes down to the emotional core of it: screens have been stealing our ability to be fully present with a single activity.

So the “analog renaissance” isn’t random nostalgia.
It’s a response to a very real cultural vibe:

• Overstimulation

• Algorithm fatigue

• AI content inflation

• Performance pressure of online life (constantly)

The prediction: 2026 as the tipping point

Both writers go bold on timing.

Aduna says that this year, experts predict that we’ll turn toward activities requiring “hands, eyes, and presence.” Analog hangouts and hobbies have been coming back (for example, mahjong events have risen by nearly 200%, plus the rise of book clubs and creative workshops).

Cohen goes even more direct, calling it now: 2026 will be the tipping point. She imagines “phone-free zones” becoming a sought-after amenity and analog hobbies being recast as “self-care and intentional living.”

And Aduna takes it further into a business lens:

Analog experiences become an offline economy, with “phone-free meetups,” journaling workshops, creative classes, and retreats as viable markets. He even paints a scene where coffee shops host journaling circles instead of laptop rows.

(Funny enough, my wife and I collaborated last year to host some Matcha & Mindfulness workshops, where she led the journaling).

What’s my take on this?

Digital isn’t suddenly leaving the group chat.

I had a similar reaction to Shreya, a creator who runs fashion publication Ayerhs in this post:

Here’s more on what I’m thinking.

1) The shift is real, but it will be uneven

A lot of the “going analog” trend is urban, trend-driven, and community-dependent. If you live in a city with third spaces, events, and flexible work, maybe it’s easier to opt into board game nights and crafting circles.

If you’re juggling multiple jobs, caregiving, accessibility needs, rural life, or just don’t have spare time and disposable income… the analog renaissance may just feel like a foreign concept for someone else.

2) It applies differently by generation and life stage

Gen Z shows surprising interest in digital-free alternatives, according to one of the articles. Sure, but I also think Gen Z will stay deeply online because online is where identity, opportunity, and community live (especially for marginalized folks, niche interests, and creators). And that’s what they grew up with.

Meanwhile, I could see:

• Millennials leaning analog as a counterbalance to burnout and parent-life chaos

• Older generations returning to analog out of familiarity (and frustration with tech)

• Younger kids being shaped by what parents normalize (screen rules, device-free dinners, etc.)

3) The future is “phygital,” not purely analog

As much as I’ve always hated the sound/look of the term phygital, the most likely outcome isn’t simply that offline replaces online.

I can see a situation where offline becomes a premium layer of connection, while online remains the infrastructure.

Kind of like how everyone said remote work would replace offices — and instead we got messy hybrids, anchor days, and Teams calls from the condo you spend all day(s) in.

There’s another angle here, too.
It goes beyond how things look and feel.

Analog as ownership, not “aesthetic”

The algorithm really knows I’m interested in this, because a few days after I started writing this edition, I was served up a detailed post by Save the Planet Society, which offered another angle on going analog.

As you’ve read above, analog is being framed as a response to overstimulation (reclaiming attention, slowing down, getting back into hobbies, and reducing the constant hum of the feed). This organization agrees, but adds to the argument:

Both brands and consumers may want to consider this. When I think too much about it, it’s wild to think how much of my work is not physically accessible.

Some people may want more offline moments, more presence, and more tactile joy. Maybe a deeper driver isn’t just attention fatigue, but ownership fatigue.

Here are 3 things I took away from STPS that could also inform your perspective:

1. Analogue is a pushback against renting everything, not just screen time.
   Subscriptions replaced ownership, catalogues disappeared, and access can vanish overnight. I have hundreds of thousands of photos in Apple’s iCloud, for example, which I need to keep paying to store there indefinitely. Remember when AWS (Amazon Web Services) went down in October? That was 2025’s longest outage and included losing access to countless things we “rent” on Snapchat, Reddit, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, Zoom, Uber, Lyft, Disney+, HBO Max, Apple Music, Roblox, Fortnite (17 million of us around the world were affected). The argument is that analog becomes a way to reclaim control.

2. Digital is invisible, but it still exists physically in the world.
   We know there are hidden infrastructure costs of the cloud (energy use, storage, AI demand). So the argument is that planned obsolescence didn’t disappear; it became software-driven. Think of how many devices you’ve thrown out not because they’re too broken, but because the ecosystem outgrows them or there’s simply a slightly better option available. Now think about the many millions of devices being used to power online systems, apps and store our data — they’re not in your community, but they have a massive (often disruptive) presence in others’ communities.

3. The analog ‘revival’ can get co-opted into landfill aesthetics.
   It’s looking cool in small doses now, but they warn that “analog” easily turns into mass-produced nostalgia (plastic turntables, disposable cameras, retro drops). Real analog, in their view, is decentralized, durable, repairable, and resists scale. The risk is brands selling the look without the substance.

Required Watching

Before I share some final insights… Because visuals really help with context here, and there’s so much commentary about this being shared on social, I’m including a few videos for you to get caught up (and understand what triggered me to write about this).

You bet I’ll be asking my advertising students about all this in January.

How will brands adapt?

If analog becomes a stronger cultural signal (even without a full migration), brands will adopt it more — because brands chase attention as if it owes them money.

Here are a few ways I can see brands adapting.

Analog as a feature, not a throwback

Brands likely won’t market it as “retro” but instead as…
Focus, wellbeing, craft, community, presence.

Basically, analog becomes more of a status signal.
(“I’m so well-adjusted I can enjoy a book.”)

Experiences over impressions

If “attention is a valuable resource,” as Aduna suggests, then experiences that help people reclaim it become the product.

We can likely expect more workshops, small events, creator-led meetups, and pop-ups with “no phone” moments baked in.

Designing for trust in an AI-noise world

When content is abundant, credibility becomes the differentiator.

That pushes brands toward real people (founders, creators, staff voices), proof of impact, community-led storytelling, and fewer, better touchpoints (curation > volume).

Questions to consider

• Do you think 2026 is actually a tipping point, or just a catchy headline?

• Who do you think this “analog movement” is really for right now? (Gen Z? millennials? burned-out professionals? parents?)

• Do you feel like you own anything (music, books, software, photos), or are you mostly renting access?

• If you lead a brand, what would it look like to build for presence instead of pure performance?

• What’s one analog habit you’d like to reclaim, even if you start small?

If you’re reading this on your phone while listening to a podcast or standing in line somewhere, well, I don’t offer a print subscription to The Intersection… yet? 😅 

Maybe later, we all go touch grass (snow) now. Or at least a paperback.

Thanks for reading! Would love to know your thoughts.

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