Is it cringe to be extremely online now?

The bag Emily Karst keeps in her car is filled with everything except her phone.

Instead, she usually packs her journal, watercolor supplies, embroidery kit, reading lamp, and a murder mystery-themed puzzle book.

Karst, 32, calls it her “analog bag,” and she’s not the only one carrying one this year. Many people say that carrying this accessory – usually filled with hobby supplies rather than electronic devices – has become a way to minimize their screen time.

“Even when I’m at home and my analog bag is hanging up, when I’m like, ‘Okay, what do I want to do?’ that neural pathway that said, ‘Well, pick up your phone’ starts to fire with the urge to maybe do some embroidery,” said Karst, an assistant principal at an elementary school in Ohio.

The bag’s popularity reflects a broader shift in 2025: People have generally become more intuitive about how much time they want to spend online. By turning to non-digital activities for entertainment, they attempt to unplug, reclaim their attention span, and find new fulfillment in real-life experiences.

Ironically, those choosing to step away from the internet have also turned to social media to document their digital detox journey. In addition to showing off their “analog bags,” some social media users have started online movements around the concept of returning to non-digital activities, from junk journaling — a type of scrapbooking that often involves pasting together found or recycled ephemera — to “boredom brutality,” a trend in which people challenge themselves to just sit still and do nothing.

Consumers have also shown an appetite for mobile apps and technology products aimed at combating doomscrolling, or the tendency to scroll excessively online, often leading to heavy consumption of depressing content.

YouTuber Hank Green’s Focus Friend app, which topped Apple’s App Store charts earlier this year, gives users a little grain on their phone that knits more items the longer the user stays away from certain blocked apps. This year, a small app-blocking device called Brick also generated buzz. It prevents users from accessing annoying apps and websites until they touch their phone to the Brick to disable the locks.

“I think we’re all longing to get back into community and real life, like real, tangible relationships. Everyone is so online now that it hurts my soul,” said Maddie DeVico, a small business owner in Colorado. “There’s a huge movement here. I think the culture is starting to change and people are realizing how being constantly connected can be detrimental to mental health ultimately.”

To combat her own social media addiction, DeVico, 31, took clay and molded a physical dock so she could “hang up” her cell phone like a landline when she didn’t urgently need it. It reminded him of his childhood, when phones were attached to a designated location, like the kitchen wall.

When she shared the idea on TikTok this summer, a wave of viewers responded by creating and posting their own copycat phone docks. Now, DeVico said, she hangs up her phone on its dirt pedestal every night. She’s trying to set up phone-free mornings and dinners, as well as a few phone-free zones in her home.

In addition to finding more time for hobbies like writing, painting and cooking, DeVico said, the habit has also allowed him to get excited about the little things again, like spotting a roly-poly in his backyard.

Others touted similar attempts to physically separate themselves from their phones. One writer, Tiffany Ng, wrote about her experience chaining her phone to the wall for a week. Tech founder Cat Goetze, who goes by CatGPT online, built a Bluetooth-enabled landline phone and surpassed $120,000 in sales in the first three days after its July launch.

What many people misunderstand about the phone-free movement, Goetze said, is that it doesn’t require an all-or-nothing approach: “A lot of people say, ‘Just get a flip phone. Take this supercomputer, throw it in the ocean and go back to the ’90s and get a stupid phone again.'”

“What I realized is that what really works is balance, and balance doesn’t mean getting rid of your smartphone,” Goetze said. “It’s about setting up external factors that make your smartphone less easily accessible at all times.”

But people don’t just detox from their phones to increase productivity. For many, learning to have fun analog is just as much the goal.

As DeVico says, “Grandma’s hobbies are back.” Tutorials on crochet, knitting, scrapbooking and other forms of crafting have enjoyed sustained success on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Meanwhile, social clubs organized around everything from books to running to mahjong have exploded in popularity in recent years.

Shun Hawkins, 31, loves junk newspapers. In her analog bag, she stores stickers, washi tape and clippings from fashion magazines to stick on. She pulls out the bag when she wants to dive into a day of crafting, keeping a doodle book and a Nickelodeon-themed coloring book with a box of colored pencils and markers inside.

“It reawakened something in me that I felt like I lost a long time ago. I didn’t even go to school for something that I’m passionate about. And now being 31 and being home and being able to do things like junk journaling and doodling again, it’s rekindling that passion for me – even wanting to go back to school just to get into fashion,” said Hawkins, who lives in Tennessee. “Something like that, I feel like it wouldn’t be possible if I didn’t detach myself from social media.”

Another glimmer of hope for Hawkins: more crafting means less doom scrolling. One recent morning, she found herself rearranging the knick-knacks in her room when she woke up instead of immediately reaching for her phone.

The desire to go analog has also become a selling point at social events and in nightlife.

Hush Harbor, a Washington, D.C. cocktail bar, began offering its customers a rare experience by banning cell phones within the establishment in order to encourage people to be more present and better connect with their communities.

Christa Eduafo, a New York DJ known as DJ Chvmeleon, has also found success with her monthly phone-free parties, which she launched in June.

The goal, she says, is to revive a culture in which people feel comfortable enough to dance and let loose without fear of being photographed or recorded by a stranger.

“There’s more interest in capturing a moment to post later than there is in experiencing a moment in real time, and that impacts the real-time experience,” Eduafo said. “So it’s almost like everyone goes to an event or a bar because maybe they saw it on TikTok and saw that there might be a moment that they could capture and post themselves. But if there’s a room full of people waiting for something to capture, then there’s nothing to capture.”

Goetze, who also hosted a “no phone party” in Los Angeles this fall that drew more than 700 people, said the concept forced people to interact with each other without being able to pull out their phones as a social crutch. She noted that it made the experience “one of the most current events I’ve been to in a very long time.”

She’s planning a small tour of phone-free parties elsewhere next year. It has become clearer than ever, she said, that people are desperate to reconnect in real life.

“They crave the ability to be present with others. This manifests itself in all aspects of our lives. And we achieve this through a variety of different factors,” Goetze said. “We’ll get there through physical events; we’ll get there by reconnecting with our hobbies and spending time in groups. And I’m convinced the solution isn’t just about getting rid of something. It’s about adding something new.”