Join the analogue movement! Check out four key tips for the best screen free hobbies, from colouring in to starting a book club.
Are we all struggling with internet burnout? In this increasingly hyper-connected world, it is difficult not to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content we are constantly encountering. At times it’s information overload, fed by social media and ‘the algorithm’.
So what’s the solution? According to many 2026 vision boards, going analogue.
This trend combines the rise of nostalgia and the desirability of an impressive physical media collection (think Cameron Diaz’ beautiful DVD wall in The Holiday), challenging all of us to embrace hobbies that make us intentional. This has manifested as buying a digital camera, scouring the thrift stores, and building an ‘analogue bag’: a specifically curated bag of items designed to cure doom scroll boredom.
If you’re looking for some inspiration on where to start your analogue journey, look no further! Scroll on for a curated list of hobbies we’d recommend to embrace physical media in 2026.
1. Join or Start a Book Club
Starting a book club is the perfect analogue hobby! Every step of organising a book club and attending one is tailored towards enriching your perspective and connecting with others, through fun and meaningful discussion. Plus, reading a book is one of the best hobbies to start a physical media collection (if we do say so ourselves!).
If you’re struggling for where to start, we would recommend picking a theme and working through titles for fun comparison. Theme ideas:
1. The Great Retelling Debate: Pick books that are retellings, to compare with the original! Taking inspiration from Sunnie Reads, Reece Witherspoon’s new YA book club, we recommend Beth is Dead, a YA thriller retelling of Little Women.
2. The Book Was Better: Pick books that have movie adaptations. That way you can have two events in one; movie night, and book club! Why not try People We Meet on Vacation, or Project Hail Mary?
Looking for more advice? Here’s an article on running a book club for The Summer I Turned Pretty, completely stepped out.
2. Start a Review Journal
2025 signalled the rise of the junk journal; physically writing your thoughts down rather than letting them sit in your notes app (we’ve all done it).
Why not take it one step further and start a review journal for the physical media you’re engaging with? It’s a great hobby to go with that book club you just started.
If you don’t want the daunting task of starting from scratch, use the Bookish Journal (sneak peak here). It’s full of fun prompts and challenges, but with enough blank space to really make it your own! Also has space for a little book cover image, so you can finally use that tiny instant printer that you absolutely needed.
3. Colour In!
Colouring truly is a peak analogue hobby. Combining mindfulness with having fun creatively, you can choose how complex you make your colouring page; either as a complex shadows and pattern girlie, or simple and sweet!
We have a convenient list of colouring in books here, but our choice would be Coco Wyo’s Cozy Days (so cute). Grab a pen or pencil and get ready to unwind!
4. Reject modernity (Buying Sweet Treat), Embrace Tradition (Making Sweet Treat)
No one is immune to the lure of a sweet treat, but what if you made your own? Baking is a rewarding hobby in more ways than one: you’re away from screens, you get to eat your hard work, and other people compliment you on your skills. It’s the hobby that keeps on giving!
For the best analogue experience, we recommend flicking through physical cookbooks; the idea of working through an entire cookbook has been floating around for a while, and we can’t think of anything better than a cookbook like Everybody Loves Cake as your starting point.
And that’s it! Happy baking, colouring and reading in 2026, and long live analogue!
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