Apparently, 2025 was the year people started flirting with the idea of breaking up with the internet.

Analog bags are a thing now. Phone-free parties. Digital sabbaths. People announcing publicly, online that they are logging off. Which is ironic. But also understandable. Because the vibe has shifted. The endless scroll isn’t charming anymore; it’s exhausting. The comment sections feel feral. Everyone is an expert. Everyone is mad. Everyone is filming.

I say all of this while blogging. On the internet. About being turned off by online culture. Yes, yes. I see myself.

But here’s the thing: it’s not about rejecting the internet entirely. It’s about context. Time and place. Boundaries. Consent.

I leave my work phone aside after 9pm. Not dramatically. Not ceremoniously. I just stop. Because at that hour, I am no longer an executive. I am a human. Possibly in pajamas. Definitely unwilling to troubleshoot anything that could wait until morning.

And please if we are sitting at a dinner table together and you’re on your phone? I feel like I should gently wave my hand in front of your face. Hello. I am a live human. With expressions. And thoughts. And mouth sounds.

There’s something quietly dehumanizing about competing with a glowing rectangle while sharing bread.

So yes, people are pulling back. Seeking texture again. Real conversations. Eye contact. Silence without performance. We want to feel less surveilled by the algorithm and more held by actual presence.

And yet.

Here comes the twist.

AI is charging forward at full speed. Writing with us. Thinking with us. Optimizing us. It’s not going away. We’re not going back to rotary phones and handwritten ledgers (though the aesthetic is tempting). So the question becomes can we really move back to analog when the future is clearly digital?

I don’t think it’s either/or. I think it’s both, with intention.

Analog isn’t about rejecting technology. It’s about reclaiming our nervous systems. It’s about choosing when to engage instead of being constantly available. It’s about remembering that efficiency is not the same thing as meaning.

AI can help us think faster. But it can’t help us feel better unless we let ourselves unplug long enough to notice how we actually feel.

The goal isn’t to disappear offline. It’s to show up more fully when we’re online and more fully when we’re not.

So yes, give me the phone-free dinner. The analog bag. The long pause before responding. And also give me the tools that make work smarter, creativity richer, and life a little more spacious.

We don’t need to go backward.

We just need to stop pretending that being constantly plugged in is the same thing as being connected.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put my phone down.
Probably right after I hit publish.

(See? Growth.)