With new models such as the Boring Phone, the trend is partly being fuelled by young people’s suspicion of the data- and attention-harvesting tech they have grown up with, as well as a bid to live more offline. And while smartphones are the obvious target for this trend, the “newtro” (a portmanteau of “new” and “retro”) movement is heralding a revival of analogue media, including cassettes and fanzines, against the backdrop of the enduring, and much-heralded, vinyl boom.

…Touch and other physical senses are also important to David Sax, the author of The Revenge of Analog. “We are haptic,” he said. “One of the benefits of analogue is its tactility – things you can use and touch and taste and feel. There was this assumption that we would be living in a digital future … The experience of the pandemic showed us one truth we kind of downplayed: we have bodies that exist in the physical world and need to go places and touch things. We desire more of the world than what’s available on 20cm of glass.”

Read more:

Skopeliti, C. (2024, June 12). ‘We need to go places and touch things’: the people turning away from smartphones. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jun/12/young-people-turning-away-from-phones-social-media-addiction