Does the analog consumption trend exist only on the internet? Maybe it just helps us feel better about ourselves

2026 has begun as the year of the analog, a consequence of nostalgia for an era that Gen Z never lived through and yet seems determined to experience at all costs. On TikTok, content from influencers documenting their own "digital detox" journeys continues to hold its own against the algorithm, becoming a format capable of capturing an entire generation. According to Deloitte's Connected Consumer 2024 report, Generation Z spends an average of 9 hours a day online, making them the age group with the highest use of digital tools.

Furthermore, more than half (56%) say they struggle to limit their screen time. But is it truly possible today to live an analog life? And, more to the point, doesn't documenting it on social media seem like a paradox — and perhaps even an excuse to make ourselves feel better? Rather than aspiring to some kind of self-imposed obsolescence, why can't people find a middle ground for managing their relationship with their phones in the age of total digitalization?

A paradoxical narrative

Everyone tells a story tailored to their own life, but we don't all live the same reality. If social media teaches us what it means to have the privilege of being able to disconnect and therefore live in a more analog way, it also shows us disparity — social and professional differences. The truth is that not everyone can afford to "cut ties" with a world that is now digitalized and that, spoiler alert, runs on technology and computer systems. But what does living an analog life actually mean today? No longer using social media? Replacing your smartphone with a dumbphone — a device designed solely for making calls and taking the occasional photo? Or listening to music on cassette or on a record player?

Does the analog life really come down to the devices we use — or rather, to our phones? Or is the truth that the problem isn't the tools themselves, but social media as such? Dais, a 23-year-old content creator, tells Dazed: "I started this journey because I found myself wasting time scrolling through content. I'd open TikTok for a few minutes, look up, and half an hour had gone by. I create content online and also work in social media, so my actual jobs depend on it — but I knew I needed to make a change during my free time."

Hers is not an isolated statement. There are thousands of videos like this, in which the real elephant in the room is social media addiction. We are fascinated by other people's narratives — stories that at times take on utopian contours. And in 2026 we are so obsessed with other people's lives that we even aspire to evoke a bygone era, like the 1970s, when life seemed simpler and, through the eyes of a generation that never lived it, also more authentic.

Is analog synonymous with authenticity?

Behind all this generational anxiety, perhaps, lies the fact that constantly watching other people's lives — which often appear better than our own — is painful. And so the magic formula of the analog becomes a palliative. There is also another dimension to consider. Vertical platforms like TikTok or Instagram are forms of entertainment. This doesn't make digital devices traps for ordinary people who lack the time they so deeply miss — it simply makes them tools. The entire 21st century is built on entertainment and the creation of content as a product. The very influencers who document their journey toward a more analog life, via their phones, are doing exactly that.

This also demonstrates how certain professions have changed and how social media and technology have become resources through which to earn a living. Technology, in and of itself, also represents a shortcut for all those tasks that would otherwise require physical travel and a greater investment of time — the same time that Gen Z spends scrolling through social media. Tax systems, healthcare systems, public services, education, and — rightly so — news channels are now almost entirely digitalized.

The analog life is therefore a utopia and an excuse on the part of Gen Z to avoid accepting the fact that the hours spent watching lives that aren't our own are not the result of digital subjugation, but rather proof of how our capacity for attention and concentration has gradually shifted away from what in our daily lives demands greater responsibility: improving it, reaching meaningful goals, or simply learning to take care of ourselves independently, without being influenced by people who, as is the way of the modern world, build their livelihood on that very advice.

The analog revolution

Rather than pointing the finger at technology and crying out for an analog revolution as though it were the tool capable of freeing us from all the ills of the modern age, we might instead take responsibility for the choices we believe are best for us. And if, every now and then, we happen to spend a few hours scrolling, that isn't necessarily a behavior to demonize. It's entertainment and, in some cases, even a form of relaxation — a way to switch the brain off. What should perhaps truly give us pause are the reasons driving us to want to eliminate social media and, more broadly, technology from our lives altogether. Because, in the end, claiming to live an analog life while documenting it through a phone on social media is not only a paradox, but also a great lie.