Analog Wellness: The New Face of Wellbeing and a Return to the Real World
In an era of constant connectivity, analog wellness brings silence, presence, and the luxury of living without notifications --- not a step back, but a clear step forward.
In the past month, we've been increasingly participating in conversations about how our time is planned down to the minute. For some of us, even every minute of our free time is structured --- exercise, self-care, productivity. In the background of this pace pulses a constant feeling that time is running out, that we're falling behind ourselves, others, expectations.
At the same time, algorithms are learning to predict our desires, all with the goal of keeping us glued to screens for as long as possible. On the other hand, many of us are trying to "catch" algorithms and build a presence on networks, while simultaneously being frustrated that we don't have perfect photos, perfect lighting, the perfect moment. We're chasing digital status, validation, while at the same time being overwhelmed by affirmations reminding us that we should "slow down", "rest", "find time for ourselves".
That's precisely why, this week, we're thinking about a term that's appearing more and more often and with increasing seriousness --- analog wellness. It's not a nostalgic idea of going back to the past. It's a cultural response to digital saturation, an attempt to re-establish a relationship with what is real, tangible, slow, and quiet.
The term "analog wellness" is increasingly present in global reports on the future of health and living. According to the latest trend report from the Global Wellness Summit, 2025 will be marked by the so-called "great shutdown" --- a mass abandonment of the digital --- and simultaneously a "great engagement" in the analog: movements, hobbies, shared activities, real touch and real words.
It's about a deeper paradigm shift. Not a detox. Not a temporary escape. But a permanent redefinition of the way we choose to be present in the world.
More Than a Break: Why Analog Wellness Isn't a Digital Detox
Analog wellness is often initially misinterpreted as a digital detox. But there is a key difference between these two ideas: detox is temporary. It involves disconnecting with the goal of "recharging" and then returning to the same routine. Analog wellness, on the other hand, is not a break. It's a shift.
A digital detox is like a breather during a marathon --- analog wellness changes the route.
It's about creating a new pace, a new relationship with the everyday. Instead of seeking balance between screens and real life, analog wellness starts from the assumption that real life should take priority. Not as an idealized image, but as a series of small choices: a face-to-face conversation instead of a message, reading a book instead of endless scrolling, a hobby that requires hands instead of an algorithm.
In this sense, analog wellness is not a return to the past. It's a future in which we choose differently. We choose presence, touch, a rhythm not determined by notifications. And, most importantly, we choose the quality of attention we give --- to ourselves, to others, to the space in which we live.
What makes this movement relevant in 2025 is the fact that a growing number of people no longer want just short-term disconnection, but long-term change. A change that doesn't mean giving up technology, but a new kind of relationship with it --- one in which it is no longer central.
Analog wellness doesn't ask us to reject modern life. It asks us --- how can we make it more real?
What Does Analog Wellness Look Like in Practice?
If digital means fast, connected, constantly available --- analog means slow, local and focused on presence. These aren't big decisions, but everyday choices that create a new texture of the day.
Analog wellness begins by returning attention to things that can't be accelerated: physical activity not tracked by an app. Home rituals that don't demand a result. Meetings in real space, at a specific time, with people who are there. There's no autoplay function, no likes, no archive.
These are some of the forms increasingly taking place in the lives of those who choose analog:
Book Clubs
They're being organized more and more often not only by bookstores and libraries, but also by cafes, coworking spaces, cultural initiatives. Some are thematic, some spontaneous, but they all share a common goal --- to put conversation back at the forefront. No comments under a post, only an exchange of thoughts in real time, an exchange of experiences, an exchange of energy and reconnection. In our Materia Book Club, members often say that the book club is a kind of "therapy" for them, and it is, we are reconnected with each other.
Hobbies Without Goals
The growing popularity of ceramics, candle making, sewing, or drawing without a template shows that people are seeking activities where the result is not the main motivator. The presence of hands, the smell of materials, the feeling of creating something at your own pace --- that's what brings back a sense of aliveness.
Cultural Matinees and Rituals Without Phones
Going to the cinema, theater, to an exhibition or concert without a phone in hand is becoming a new practice of mindful presence. Not photographing. Not recording. Just looking. Listening. Being there. More and more people are rediscovering the magic of quietly watching a movie without notifications or participating in the silence of a museum, without the need to post anything. These are rituals that remind us that attention is a limited resource --- and that the choice of how we spend it deeply shapes our everyday life.
Analog Technology
The growing interest in records, film cameras, journaling by hand doesn't come from nostalgia, but from resistance to over-optimization. No editing. No erasing. There's only the moment and the way we experience it. We let our thoughts be free, out of the box, to capture them on paper and leave them there, without too much need to do anything with them. Just to free ourselves.
Silence, Boundaries, and Immeasurability
Today it seems that everything is available to everyone and that everyone can do everything. When we live in such a world, we lack the magic of the hard-to-achieve, the enchanting moment when a long-awaited desire finally comes true. And just the opposite --- what becomes luxurious is what can't be instantly consumed. Luxury is time when nothing interrupts us, a conversation that lasts more than two minutes, a presence that didn't come about because of a plan in a schedule.
Analog wellness without technology is a luxury that doesn't need to be documented to be real. While smartwatches and fitness apps have for years defined "advanced" self-care, today more and more people are rejecting the need for data, numbers, analyses. Not because they're not useful --- but because there are too many of them. And because sometimes the feeling is more important to the body than the result.
