Tired of AI, people are committing to the analog lifestyle in 2026

Also there seems to be more of it about. Like facebook is crazy these days if you don't have things to block the junk. What used to be holiday pic from friend, post from mum is now holiday pic then three in your face hot / AI generated influencers doing in your face stuff then maybe your mum. It makes my head hurt.

It always feels such an anti-pattern this kinda stuff. Nothing stops you from having a healthy, limited relationship with the technology you have, however you define that to be. Buy a dumb phone because you feel some aspect is addicting to you rather than meaningfully addressing it. Get an ipod because spotify is bad rather than learning to play music files in some capacity on your phone. Start buying VHS tapes and dvds because netflix is clearly the only option.

The list goes on, and all too often rather than fixing habits they just consume in a different sense until they lapse and go back to hold habits. By trying to be the opposite of 'thing' they still let 'thing' control them. Although the fact all this author's examples are still posting about it all on tiktok doesnt have me sold one bit on them healthily disconnecting.

I am one of those analog people, and have been long before it was (apparently?) cool.

- I have not had a cell phone in 5+ years

- I do not use LLMs at all outside of occasional experimentation to understand the current capabilities I am knowingly giving up

- I subscribe to no streaming services, favoring my VHS/DVD/Blu-ray/laserdisc/vinyl/cassette/cdrom/cartridge collection

- I have an extensive collection of paper, books, magazines, etc to browse and inspire me.

- I have an extensive board game collection to play when friends are around.

- I only use desktop computers at home, keeping me offline and present when not in front of one.

- I have 40+ pre-internet game consoles hooked up in my garage to 25+ CRT TVs, along with a pinball machine, 3 arcade cabinets, and an OG VGA PC gaming station.

- I have an EE/craft corner with soldering irons, 3D printers, hand tools, and everything I need to make a lot of my own stuff at home.

- I have an extensive collection of mechanical puzzles to keep my mind constantly solving new deductive reasoning problems with no screen time

- I rarely leave home with any electronics, favoring an analog watch, cash, paper maps, and recently, a film camera.

- I exclusively rely on, mostly self hosted, open source software for all my work so I am the one in control of what it does and how I use it. I also FOSS license 100% of my work as well.

- I co-run two tech companies from Silicon Valley

- I regularly invent and deploy new security defense tactics and tools

- I hang out with maybe 10 IRL friends every week on average

- I travel often, including internationally. (I do take a tiny laptop with me when traveling)

- I have a family

Turns out, all of the above balances out just fine, and I am so much happier keeping as much of my life and mind grounded in the real world as possible.

You turn the knobs you've got. If you have a problem, and "just try harder to do the hard thing" doesn't work, you have to try something else.

I had to quit alcohol for a year+ before being able to reintroduce it in small and manageable ways. Some people have to quit forever. Not an unreasonable metaphor for device addiction.

> It is also restrictive. You can't read your notes and make summaries and write your own interpretation of what you've read without switching context between apps.

A lot of folks really underrate how inferior digital technology is to paper, in many ways. Digital has some advantages (e.g. copying, transmission, physical size), but is grossly inferior in other ways (flexibility, engaging spatial awareness, etc.).