February 19, 2026
Times are changing. Social media, technology and smartphone use are at an all-time high. Our lives are almost entirely digital. Everything is available at the touch of our fingers.
While this is great for convenience, it has brought about two real issues: the lack of privacy and the lack of human connection.
When everything is run through your phone, humans are merely the conduits for it. The other day, I went to the gym, and the lady at the front desk was unable to sign my guest up, a person standing right in front of her. Instead, he had to go through the app. The Wi-Fi was not working. There was nothing she could do. Common sense has failed us.
Try parking in London without your phone. Or forget your phone at home and try running a quick errand. You will likely be hit with a parking ticket. And if there is no parking machine nearby, or if the one that exists is broken, you are stuck scrambling.
And please, do not get me started on QR code menus. You sit down for a lovely night out with friends. Immediately, you pull out your phone to scan a QR code, only to deal with slow Wi-Fi that cannot load the menu. Before you know it, everyone at the table is staring at their screens, absorbing blue light on what was supposed to be a real evening together.
Humans have become merely observers of technology operating, or underqualified tech support. When the tech does not work, simple tasks become impossible. This is worse than paper straws.
Remember when children used to play outside? Nowadays, when I visit my nephews or younger cousins, everyone is on their iPads playing Roblox. It is a great game, I will not deny that. But the lack of physical exercise and engagement of our other senses is contributing to rising cases of depression and anxiety among young people. This is not anecdotal. A 2023 study published in The Lancet found that adolescent screen time exceeding four hours per day is associated with significantly higher rates of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Jonathan Haidt’s bestselling book The Anxious Generation made the case that smartphones have driven a mental health crisis among an entire generation. Governments are listening. The UK issued guidance in 2024 recommending phone-free school days. Australia passed legislation banning social media for children under 16.
Couple this with the endless stream of finance, relationship and lifestyle content on social media, and you get a curious case of emotional overload: the constant feeling that you should be doing something else, being somewhere else, earning more, living differently. People are chasing happiness when ultimately happiness is a baseline. Chase peace, and you will find happiness.
Privacy, meanwhile, is eroding at an alarming rate. A 2023 Pew Research study found that 79% of Americans are concerned about how companies use their data, and 73% feel they have little or no control over what is collected about them. Data breaches exposed over 8 billion records globally in 2023 alone. In the UK, you can barely function without handing over your digital identity. Renting a flat requires biometric selfies through verification platforms. Registering with a GP often means completing an online triage form before you can speak to a human. The government has moved immigration status to digital-only eVisas, meaning your legal right to live in this country exists entirely as a digital record. If the system goes down, you have no physical document to fall back on.
It is at this point of peak frustration that we will start to see a transition back to analogue, returning us to a baseline.
A new trend is already emerging. People are going analogue again to regain privacy and to regain connection. And the data backs it up.
HMD Global, the company behind Nokia, shipped over 50 million feature phones in 2023. The Light Phone, a minimalist device with no apps or social media, has reported over 200% year-over-year sales growth. Searches for “dumb phone” on Google hit their highest volume in five years. People are actively choosing to go back to the brick phone, and it feels like innovation.
Live events are booming. The global events industry was valued at over $1.1 trillion in 2023 and is projected to nearly double by 2030. In-person meetups on platforms like Meetup.com have surpassed pre-pandemic attendance levels. People want to be in the same room again.
The analogue resurgence runs deeper than phones and events. Vinyl record sales hit $1.2 billion in the US in 2023, outselling CDs for the second consecutive year. Independent bookshop numbers in the UK have been rising year on year. Film photography has surged among Gen Z. Board game cafes are opening across London at a pace not seen in decades.
This is not nostalgia. This is a correction.
Privacy is a basic human right. Our data should not be as exposed as it is online. Going analogue allows us to preserve our privacy and protect it.
Digital burnout and surveillance have reached their peak. It is time to return to normal and prioritise real connection with others. Real businesses, in person. Real conversations, face to face.
The next wave of innovation will not be another app. It will be led by privacy solutions and analogue tools, with our personal AI assistants quietly managing the digital noise in the background so we do not have to.
It is time to put your phone down, touch some grass, smell the flowers, and remember what is real for us humans: connection. Real, human connection.
I cannot wait for the 1920s.
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