Why Are Gen Z Turning To Digital Minimalism?

If I’m being totally honest, the first time I heard the phrase ‘going analog’ I assumed there was a new trend to ditch digital watches. Turns out, it is a trend—it just doesn’t have much to do with telling the time.

Search terms such as ‘analog life’ and ‘digital detox’ have seen a 100% increase in popularity over the past six months. In a total 180 from the brat summer, partygirl chic that permeated 2024, and the "brainrot" of 2025, the desire for an ‘analog life’ is grounded in slow living, reduced screen time, and ultimately, returning to a simpler way of life.

This new turn to digital minimalism includes, but is not limited to:

• Using social media intentionally: replacing over-curated feeds with community, art, and research
• Ditching scrolling: replacing “bad” screens with intentional media consumption (films, TV, and books)
• Physical media and pen-on-paper habits
• “Unplugged” hobbies: baking, reading, arts and crafts
• Seeing friends and family in person rather than texting them
• Hiking, day trips, and returning to nature
• Reducing screen time in favour of slow living

What shocked me most about the caveats of the analog life, described as a radical act of resistance, is that I, who can explain most niche internet references from the last five years in excruciating detail, and is commonly referred to by my friends as ‘seriously chronically online,’ does all of these things. Yes, I do have a slightly abnormal understanding of the landscape of Twitter cultures, but I also read at least 50 books a year, hike and climb regularly, and have an average screen time of 4 hours, a fact that shocks most people I know.

I’ve often joked that ‘I just use my screen time effectively’ but by the rulebook of analog life, my day-to-day experience is apparently rather unplugged. It’s not surprising that younger generations have begun to turn away from the digital world. This paradox—in this case, consuming how to not consume—occurs across Gen Z’s various experiences with the digital world.

Though Gen Z are more reliant on digital tools, including AI and social media, for work and education than older generations, this relationship is not all smooth sailing. While mistrust in AI sits at around 61% for both older and younger adults, the reasons for it vary across generations. Boomers and Gen X report high concerns about privacy and data issues. Zillennials, on the other hand, are most anxious about the misuse of information, and primarily, job security. With the employment market in crisis for young adults, almost 40% of Gen Z fear that the vulnerability of entry-level roles to automation means that AI could replace them in the workplace. Though concerning, these factors have had one positive consequence for young adults: employment, or rather unemployment, has become democratised. You might have seen memes like this floating around over the past year:

As graduate prospects for young people continue to decline, typically ‘high earning’ degrees have become oversaturated. The likes of Computing and Law now find themselves within the bottom ten for earning potential, whilst Languages and Social Sciences, too often denoted as ‘mickey mouse’ degrees, have risen to the top ten. For those who once chose money over passion, some of these obstacles have been removed. Indeed, the past year has seen degrees such as Computer Science and Business Studies have a major decline in applications, whilst Politics and Social Sciences are on the rise. To me, it is not a coincidence that a trend based on nurturing one’s wellbeing has coincided with this rearranging.

As it seems, young people, to put it frankly, are sick of the internet, sick of AI, and sick of having to disregard their passions for money. There is a nostalgia amongst young adults who never got to experience adolescence without the internet influencing their every move.

Jess Kirby, “2026 is the Year of Analog”

There is, however, an irony behind the trend of ‘going analog’. If you search for these terms across Substack or TikTok, you will find countless announcements: ‘for 2026, I’m going analog’, ‘how I’m reducing my screen time’, ‘a hot girl’s guide to digital minimalism’. I can’t help but think—if everyone was truly unplugging, surely I wouldn’t be hearing about it so much? It seems that in the year of our lord 2026, everything, including the act of not doing, must be packaged as a pretty, digital product (read: trend) for us to consume.

When I was recently scrolling (oh, the horror!) on Instagram, I noticed that 25 of my mutuals had liked the same reel as me, saying: ‘I spent two hours scrolling, and I don't remember what I watched, and I didn’t write in my journal like I wanted to. Do I want to spend my entire life consuming?’ I imagine them all, sat there just like me. “How profound,” we say in unison, double tap, and scroll onto the next. There are now countless apps, such as Opal or ScreenZen, which you can pay for, on the phone you paid for, to stop you consuming the content that you pay for. Even though ‘going analog’ has been sold to us as refreshing, new, revolutionary, I can’t help but see it as a bleaker product of an already bleak reality.

Considering all of this, I’ve decided that my goals for 2026 are not to ‘go analog’, reduce my screen time, or to use social media ‘more intentionally’. Instead, I want to:

Abbie Holmes

• Read a little more. I didn’t reach my reading goal for the first time ever last year, and all the uncracked spines on my shelves made me a little sad.
• Spend money on experiences rather than stuff. Those kitten heels in my Vinted saves are very pretty, but I live in a hilly city and will not wear them.
• Spend more time doing what I love (climbing, drawing, watching films) and less time worrying about what I need.

Young adults do need, and evidently want, a digital detox, but I’m not sure if a trend is the way to do it. To truly ‘log off’ we need to decentre the internet from our lives and wellbeing, and instead centre ourselves and our relationships. Trying to decrease the sway of the digital by making it yet another micro-trend will, just as the House of Sunny Hockney dress, seal its death within three months. Surely, if we spend more time doing what we love, our screen time will decrease, without making a rota or paying an app to do it for us. The only set-in-stone resolution I have for 2026 is this: consume less, and do more (and try not to tell everyone about it).

Five days into 2026 and I’m already tired of this analog trend.

Going analog is not an excuse to buy more crap. An analog lifestyle will not fix all your problems—you still live in this modern world. Offline technology is nice, but it’s not analog (flip phones, digital cameras, CDs and DVDs). Think about how you can live intentionally with your objects, with your full presence. Navigating back and forth between the physical and digital world is how you’re going to make any long-lasting change.

— Carolyn Yoo