The latest must-have accessory is a “stop-scrolling bag” – a tote packed with analog activities like watercolors and crossword puzzles. We spend hours glued to our screens. “Analog bags,” as they’re also called, are one way millennials and Gen Zers are reclaiming that time. “I basically just put everything I could grab for instead of my phone into a bag,” including knitting, a scrapbook and a Polaroid camera, says Sierra Campbell, the content creator behind the trend.
The 31-year-old keeps one bag at home in Northern California, carrying it from room to room, and another in her car. The trend has quickly spread on social media, part of a bigger shift to unplug. Roughly 1,600 TikTok posts were tagged #AnalogLife during the first nine months of 2025 – up over 330% from the same period last year, according to TikTok data shared with Axios.
“It speaks to an incredible desperation and desire for experiences that return our attention to us, that fight brain-rotting, that are tactile … that involve creating over scrolling,” says Beth McGroarty, vice president of research at the Global Wellness Institute.
I like the idea behind this but how do you promote your analog life on TikTok without also using tech at the same time
I think there’s a difficult intersection of
a. This stuff is cool and trendy right now so a lot of that content is aspirational
b. TikTok is addictive and extremely hard to kick + lots of people now see it as their primary source for style and lifestyle inspiration leading back into a.
as others’ve typed out: not a zero sum act.
just below two hours a day and brain isn’t rotting.
also i’d reformulate: not necessarily simultaneous, just some time. can be disjointed in time: to look up or record and to do in the everyday groove.
You don’t have to quit cold turkey.
Oh for sure and you prob never get rid of it completely, just find a healthier balance. It just feels ironic recording an analog activity in front of a smartphone
I think the idea is to get a break from the digital life, not abandon it completely