In a digital age dominated by screens, a surprising new fashion trend is encouraging people to look down at something other than their smartphones. The 'analogue bag', filled with offline pursuits like crosswords, knitting, and sketchbooks, is emerging as a stylish and practical tool to combat screen fatigue and reclaim personal attention.
More Than a Handbag: A Toolkit for Offline Living
Forget splashy designer logos; the latest must-have accessory is defined by its contents, not its label. These so-called analogue bags are essentially curated kits for unplugged living. Championed primarily by millennials and Generation Z, the concept is simple: prepare a bag or basket with everything needed to stay entertained and engaged without a screen. As one advocate describes it, it's a "toy box for your attention span."
The term was coined by Sierra Campbell, a 31-year-old content creator from California, who voiced a common modern fear in a TikTok video: "My biggest fear is that I’ll lie on my deathbed and regret how much time I spent on my phone." Her January video showcasing her own bag—containing a New Yorker subscription, gel pens, and a sketchbook—was viewed over 200,000 times in just five days, sparking a major trend.
A Wider Backlash Against Digital Overload
This trend taps into a growing cultural pushback against constant connectivity and doomscrolling. The statistics in the UK underline the urgency: according to telecoms regulator Ofcom, the average adult in Great Britain checks their phone every 12 minutes. A separate 2022 survey by USwitch found UK adults spend an average of five hours daily on their phones, excluding work-related screen time.
David Sax, author of The Revenge of Analog, supports the movement. He notes that simply willing yourself to meditate isn't realistic for most. "Our phones have everything you could ever ask for, so you need an alternative to hand in order to fill that void," he explains. The analogue bag provides that tangible alternative.
The trend forms part of a broader analogue resurgence, sitting alongside renewed popularity for vinyl records, physical magazines, and point-and-shoot cameras. It also aligns with the rise of 'cosy' in-person hobbies like pottery, crochet circles, and dinner parties.
Changing Habits, Not Just Detoxing
Critically, the analogue bag represents more than a short-term digital detox; it suggests an attempt to fundamentally alter our relationship with technology long-term. Campbell's inspiration came from Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit, which outlines the cue-routine-reward loop. The strategy is to keep the cue (e.g., boredom) and the reward (stimulation), but change the routine from picking up a phone to reaching into a bag of offline activities.
Campbell reduced her own screen time from seven hours a day to three using this method. Her advice is pragmatic: "If you go to your phone for news, put a newspaper in your bag. If it’s for entertainment, try a good book. For creative inspiration, sketching tools or knitting."
Professor Pete Etchells, a psychology expert at Bath Spa University and author of Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time, argues we are not so much addicted to phones as habituated to them. He sees hope in the analogue bag phenomenon: "It’s great that people are starting to think about what the [options] look like – and how we can make access easier to those." The trend underscores a vital message: we have agency over how we spend our attention, and sometimes the best tool for a digital break is a very analogue bag.
