Gen Z's Analog Summer Why Flip Phone & Walkman Are Back 2026

If you’ve scrolled through TikTok or Instagram recently, you might have noticed a surprising trend: young people are swapping their sleek smartphones for clunky flip phones, trading Spotify for Walkmans, and filling tote bags with journals, puzzles, and paperback books instead of power banks and chargers. Welcome to the “Analog Summer,” the defining Gen Z movement of 2026.

It sounds counterintuitive, but the numbers tell a compelling story. According to Afterpay’s Spring/Summer 2026 Trends Report, Walkman sales are up 111%, and instant film camera sales have soared by 157%. This isn’t just a niche trend; it’s a significant cultural shift.

What Exactly Is an “Analog Summer”?

At its core, the “Analog Summer” is a conscious and deliberate step back from the digital world. It’s about replacing doom-scrolling with tangible, screen-free activities. This movement takes many forms:

The “Analog Bag”: The centerpiece of the trend. These are tote bags filled with portable offline items like leather-bound journals, paperback books, mini watercolor palettes, and puzzles . Think of it as a “Mary Poppins bag” for the digital detox era. Content creator Sierra Campbell, who is credited with coining the term, explains the simple philosophy: “In order to replace a habit, you have to replace it with something else”.
The “Dumbphone” Revival: Flip phones and stripped-down “dumbphones” are seeing renewed demand. The appeal is their simplicity—they are designed to be difficult to spend hours on, limiting users to calls and texts. Traffic to the website Dumbphone Finder even jumped 12-fold from 2022 to 2025.
Physical Media Makes a Comeback: From iPods and CD players to vinyl records, Gen Z is embracing physical media. In the first half of 2026 alone, U.S. CD sales were up 16% to 16.3 million units. The appeal? Ownership and intentionality. A physical copy of your favorite album or movie can’t disappear because a licensing deal expired. Plus, a Walkman gives you the whole album in order, with no algorithm nudging you toward a remix.

Why Are Digital Natives Going Analog?

For a generation that has never known a world without the internet, this pushback is significant. The reasons are deeply rooted in the well-documented downsides of hyper-connectivity.

Digital Burnout: Gen Z is tired. On average, they spend about nine hours a day on screens. This constant connection is taking a toll, with around 66% reporting negative impacts on their mental health and over half attempting digital detoxes to cope with anxiety and burnout.
Rejecting “Corporate Greed”: Many young people are exhausted by a digital landscape littered with advertisements and designed to extract their attention, data, and money. The analog movement is a way to opt out of this relentless engagement economy.
Pushing Back Against AI: As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, Gen Z is seeking authenticity and deliberate, human-created experiences. Interestingly, while many use AI, 41% say it makes them anxious, and 49% worry it could harm their ability to think critically.
The Joy of Inconvenience: There’s a strange comfort in the limitations of analog tech. A CD must be bought, unwrapped, and physically played; it can’t be swapped mid-song. This “inconvenience” forces a kind of commitment to what you’re listening to or watching, rather than defaulting to whatever an algorithm serves up next.

How to Embrace the “Analog” Spirit

You don’t need to throw away your smartphone to join in. Here’s how you can bring a little more analog into your life:

Curate Your Own “Analog Bag”: Start small. Put a paperback book, a notebook, or a crossword puzzle book in your bag. When you feel the urge to scroll, reach for one of these instead.
Rediscover Physical Media: Dig out your old CD collection or visit a local record store. The experience of listening to an album from start to finish is vastly different from shuffling a playlist.
Try a “Dumbphone” Challenge: See if you can switch to a basic phone for a weekend or even a full 30 days. You might be surprised by how much mental space it frees up.
Embrace “Boring” Hobbies: Activities like embroidery, needlepoint, crocheting, and even snail mail pen pal clubs are booming. They are meditative, screen-free, and produce something tangible.

The Analogue Paradox

It’s worth noting the delicious irony of this trend: a movement to get offline is being promoted and sustained entirely on social media. Hashtags like #analog and #offlinehobbies have millions of views. Some critics argue that it has become just another consumerist trend, with people buying expensive “retro-style” gadgets and craft kits to show off online.

However, for many, this is more than just an aesthetic. As one young person put it, it’s about agency—young people wanting to figure out a healthier relationship with technology. It’s not a complete rejection of the digital world, but a conscious choice to interact with the non-smart forms of it. In an age of constant connection, the most rebellious act might just be to unplug.

Are you ready for an analog summer? Let us know in the comments below!