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Top Tips on Making Life More Analogue (and Why So Many of Us Are Craving It)


What does “analogue living” actually mean?

Analogue or Analog traditionally refers to non-digital, physical systems think film cameras vs digital cameras, vinyl vs streaming, handwritten letters vs emails and so on.

In lifestyle terms, it means choosing tactile, offline, slower experiences over screen-based or algorithm-driven ones. That can be in every walk of life - choosing a book over a tv programme, planning your day in a paper diary rather than on your phone, buying a physical newspaper over the news online.

It does not mean rejecting technology entirely, it’s about balance and intentionality, in other words, choosing when to engage digitally and when not to. Analog living is less about nostalgia and more about regaining focus, presence and depth.

Why everyone is talking about “analogue living"

There has been a dramatic increase in people talking about making their lives “more analogue,” largely due to screen fatigue, social media overwhelm, constant notifications, fractured attention, and the feeling that life is somehow being performed rather than lived.

This has led many people to consciously rebalance their digital use with slower, more tactile, offline habits and routines.

In this article, we’ll explore why this shift is happening, what people are concerned about, and practical ways to live more analogue day to day.

Why the “return to analogue” trend is happening

There are many reasons why analogue living appeals to so many people, along with the craving to leave digital overstimulation behind - from comparison culture and constantly seeing everyone else’s highlight reels, to doomscrolling, being bombarded with negative news, and the gradual loss of attention span.

There is a common feeling of being burnt out from being constantly reachable and accessible at all times. There’s a growing desire to step away from the overconsumption of content and from the pressure to monetise everything or make it appear productive. It’s exhausting to feel as though you constantly need to showcase your life or prove something.

When your creativity feels stifled, and you're feeling mentally cluttered, there can be a real pull towards a type of activity that doesn't require you to be screen-based or publicly productive. It's often questioned whether rest can really truly be rest if its screen based.

As a culture, we went headlong into online living about two decades ago and only now are we really starting to question that - easier connection, more personalised viewing, endless entertainment on demand, algorithm-curated taste, instant purchasing, frictionless communication and the ability to document and share every moment - aren’t always a good thing.

In the process we are becoming aware we have lost boredom, we have lost patience, we have lost long attention spans, we have lost the pleasure of anticipation, we have lost privacy, we have lost uninterrupted thinking time, we have lost deep focus, and perhaps most quietly of all, we have lost the ability to sit comfortably with our own thoughts.

Concerns around a life lived mostly online


Through all this, we risk losing touch with why we live our lives the way we do and instead, everything starts feeling performative. Experiences are increasingly filtered through the question, “Will this look good online?” Holidays become photo opportunities, dinners become content, hobbies become potential side hustles. You feel like you have missed an opportunity if you forget to take a photo of something.

Instead of losing ourselves in an activity, we find ourselves stepping outside of the moment to arrange it, narrate it, edit it and perform it. The result is a strange split consciousness - part of us living, part of us curating. Over time, that erodes the simple pleasure of doing something for its own sake (here is an article where I wrote about this previously - “my life is not an Instagram strategy”).

When so much of our visual and cultural input is mediated through algorithms, our taste begins to narrow without us noticing. We are shown more of what we have already liked, more of what performs well, more of what resembles what everyone else is making. Gradually, it becomes harder to tell what we genuinely love from what has simply been placed in front of us repeatedly.

Trends accelerate faster, originality flattens, and creative confidence diminishes because we are constantly measuring ourselves against a feed that has been engineered to feel definitive. Add to the mix AI and the difficulty of knowing whether what we are seeing is real or not anymore, and it’s hard to see yourself and your own opinions in anything anymore. In that environment, personal discovery becomes rare.

Digital connection is abundant, but it is not always deep. We can keep up with hundreds of people’s lives without speaking to any of them properly. We can “react” without responding, scroll without engaging, observe without participating. Conversations become fragmented and intermittent. It is not that online connection is meaningless, but it can quietly replace the more demanding and more essential forms of intimacy.

The benefits of living more analog

There are positives to consciously reducing our relationship with digital media. We can return to focusing on one task at a time without being interrupted. We can take joy in the slow processes of analogue living - like taking the time to find that old CD collection and choosing to listen to an album from start to finish, without adverts or the decision paralysis of what to choose next. In the likely event you don’t have a spare CD player lying around, this could also be achieved with a radio.

There is a certain magic that occurs when you’re living in the moment - so much so that you forget to document anything. Allowing yourself the freedom to completely devote yourself to a project, with the knowledge that it’s just for you. What might happen when you find yourself spending time in your own company? Perhaps this is where deeper thinking and mental rest can be achieved.

One of the best gifts you can give someone is your undivided attention. And as memory retention is said to improve by reducing digital exposure, even referencing something they mentioned previously might make you both feel genuinely more connected.

Another benefit is that using your hands and working with physical materials gives you the tactile satisfaction and forces you not to look at a screen.

Practical tips to live a more analog life
  • Set screen-free evenings: try using a self-control timer like Freedom or Brick to help you block out apps from your phone at set times which distract – for example, I have all emails, social media and work-related apps blocked automatically from 7 pm to 8 am every day.
  • Replace phone alarms with an analogue clock so you don’t have to take your phone to bed with you. If this is a challenge for you because, like me, you listen to audiobooks before bed, then Kindle can also play audiobooks or see if you can find an old unused handset and just get your audiobook app on that.
  • Sending people letters or cards: Some lovely greetings card companies like Hadley Paper Goods, Art Angels, Cambridge Imprint – why not buy a whole load of cards and stamps so you can send someone a physical card to celebrate an occasion or just say hi.
  • Keep a physical diary over a phone one – something you can put ideas down into, to write down appointments and occasions or even look at Laura Jacksons enormous wall planner so you can plot the whole year out.
  • Print photographs rather than storing digitally – after having Sasha, I bought a little Canon Selphy printer and have been going through once a month and printing out pictures so I have them physically in an album rather than all lost on my phone
  • Subscribe to a print magazine and read all the sections you don’t necessarily think you’ll find interesting – World of Interiors, Faire or Uppercase as ideas.
  • Cook from recipe books rather than apps – pick a book and try and work your way through recipes rather than darting about online.
  • Listen to full albums or the radio rather than playlists.
  • Browsing a bookshop rather than looking for one online.
  • Keeping a physical folder of inspiration (see more about this in our video on Finding inspiration) rather than creating a Pinterest board.
  • Walk without headphones rather than listening to a podcast and download the Merlin app, which will identify any birds you see or hear (this feels like a good example of balancing digital with analog).
  • Removing your email from your phone so you can only check it when physically sitting at your computer.
  • Join a class - something that means you have to leave your phone in another place and out of sight, like a yoga class or bread making course.
  • Swimming is probably the best example of being forced to step away from digital media. This time to yourself allows you to get into a rhythm, it’s low impact, and you can do it at a pace that suits you. You can also practise mindfulness through your breathing, and the mental health benefits of swimming are said to be excellent.
  • Some of our favourite activities are thankfully already naturally analogue - embroidery, painting, sketching (more on this below).
  • Exhibitions, galleries and museums - take your time and notice the details
  • Reading a newspaper - in short increments if you're trying to balance your exposure to the news.

We would encourage you to make micro changes to your habits and routines rather than attempt an extreme digital detox, which you might not enjoy and could quickly lead you back into old ways.

Why creative hobbies are central to analogue living

As mentioned above, stitching naturally limits your phone use because your hands are occupied. Having an interest like embroidery or needlepoint gives you something to focus your attention on, while also reducing the urge to scroll.

It encourages patience as you work towards creating something tangible. It gives you a sense of progression while allowing you to deepen your creativity, learn new skills, and create art for your home.

Why getting offline is essential for creativity

There are a few issues when it comes to navigating creativity in a world that revolves around being online. One of the main issues is that if trends dominate visual culture online this can easily influence someone’s decisions without them even being aware of it. The biggest risk is that everyone ends up making the same thing. And subconsciously, you may absorb others’ ideas, which can muddy the waters between copying and originating your own artwork.

There is also a certain pressure to create “shareable” work. But how can you truly learn or experiment if everything has to be shared? This can, in itself, influence the type of art you create, potentially shaping it for the benefit of others rather than for yourself.

The opposite of this is what offline creativity can offer. By not being exposed to the constant stream of content online, you allow your personal taste to develop and feel more encouraged to experiment. Perhaps the most impactful aspect of creating offline is that it removes performance anxiety, which can easily stunt anyone's creative enthusiasm. But best of all, it makes creativity feel much more playful.

How to find inspiration offline
  • Visit second-hand bookshops
  • Look at vintage craft books to find methods for crafts which you could learn in new ways
  • Museum sketching
  • Looking in charity shops
  • Visiting clothing shops to find colour palette inspiration
  • Wallpaper sample books
  • Walking outside to find inspiration in patterns or colours
  • Going to galleries and exhibitions
  • Signing up for a course to learn skills like printmaking etc

Even more ideas just from our resources: