Dylan BurchGen Z and Millennials have grown up in the digital world. Forced online for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the dependence on tech and the internet has made many young people want to take a step back and slow down in the fast-paced digital world they live in. More than 4 billion young adults spend over six hours on the internet each day.
Everyone is online, yet a growing majority is looking for something more tangible. In 2025, market researcher Mintel found that around 70 percent of adults participated in a crafting project, and on social media this year, the phrase “going analog” or “analog” has been an ongoing trend. The popularity of the social analog reels, combined with market sales of physical media, paints a clear message. Millennials and Gen Z are burned out on social media, subscriptions and algorithms. Platforms disappear. Servers get turned off, but a physical item stays with you.
I figured it is better to join the club than miss out on the party. Here are the physical media items you should use in 2026.
- Polaroid Camera
Analog photographs strike a nerve that digital photography does not with today’s youth. Since 2013, Millennials and Gen Z have been the driving force behind Polaroid’s resurgence in popularity, making up the vast majority of market sales today.
Going to a house party in 2015, I remember a friend walking around with her Polaroid camera snapping pictures of our summer camp friends. The camera would make a whirring sound and then spit out an image from its bottom. It was immediately apparent that it had something digital photos on Instagram did not. It had character; the camera worked its magic the moment your finger pressed the shutter.
2. Journal
Today, roughly half of adults write in journals as a means of self-reflection, with one third citing use on a regular basis.
In school, we wrote until our wrists ached, you pressed the pen or pencil into the page and felt a burning sensation in your fingers. Each page etched into memory.
When the iPhone arrived, it felt like we had entered the future, but tapping text onto a screen never felt personal; it felt disembodied and disconnected.
Looking through my notebook, I think back to sitting in 7th grade science class. The days I was engaged and wrote in detail, or when the page was torn out because my notes did not make any sense. Whether you doodled in the margins or wrote messages to your desk mate, the different colored ink made black and white paper look like a rainbow.
All of it is unique and yours alone.
Over time, through the pages, you follow your mood or mentality for that year, class, or summer and that reveals your character.
3. Book
The difference between reading online and reading a physical book is night and day. I have read a much larger physical book and retained more of the story than a short one read on the internet. When the book is in your hands, it demands your attention. Online, the convenience of having other options hinders your recollection.
If there was a book you wanted, you had to leave your house and go to the store, or wait for it to arrive. You would flip through the book, examine the covers. Maybe the book challenged you, possibly the story took a turn you did not expect or appreciate, but you got to the end regardless because you owned it. How could you not, when the book is sitting in your room? A time investment that reading online is not.
For those my age or younger, it’s one reason why many are going back to buying physical copies. We want to spend time holding the book, feeling, and owning it.
4. Wristwatch.
While a smartphone can tell time, it also has text messages, Instagram DMs, email notifications, and other messages that distract you and lead you down the path to doomscrolling. A watch, on the other hand, can only tell time, so there’s no distraction.
During the early 2010s, I worked as a summer camp counselor in the Sierra Nevada. In a rugged part of the country, Walton’s Grizzly Lodge was largely cut off from cell reception, so we relied on wristwatches to keep pace with our busy outdoor schedule and revolving groups of campers. Nobody had a cellphone. All electronics were confiscated upon arrival.
Back home, I was surprised to find that I actually missed having my wristwatch on. The digital clock on my phone felt emotionless; the clock on my wrist had a “face”, it had personality.
5. Vinyl.
Growing up, everyone had to have every song they ever heard stored on an iPod. It was a long time before I heard a song played from a vinyl record. There was a crackle-like warmth to its sound, whereas digital was smoother and cleaner, but felt less present, disconnected. With an analog record, it feels like the band is in the room with you.
More popular now than ever amongst Millennials and Gen Z, vinyl records have enjoyed a steady upward progression of market sales each year for close to two decades—outselling all other audio formats.
Last month, on March 16, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)announced that vinyl record sales surpassed 1 billion in total revenue for the year 2025, a 9% increase from the previous year.
