Every year, the Oxford Dictionary chooses a word to sum up the past 365 days. In 2024, Oxford’s word choice changed how society viewed the internet and social media. “Brainrot” has defined a new generation of users who, through doomscrolling, spend hours online. According to Psychology Today, teenagers, between ages 15 to 18, spend an average of 7.5 hours a day on screens.
Over the past couple of years, specialists have shown how bad a chronically online lifestyle is for the brain. Since most algorithms operate in an infinite, inescapable loop, the online world is addictive and pleasurable, leaving users totally disconnected from the real world.
Once people began to understand the disadvantages of excessive screen time, young people began a “quiet revolution”: staying offline is now a new trend. However, since most people are not able to get off the internet, it became a luxury.
Gen Z is burned out from social media
Social media platforms, such as Instagram and TikTok, are built to deliver more information in the shortest time possible. This infoxication (term used by specialists to refer to an information overload), once triggered by the hyper stimulation strategies such as bright colors, 2x tools for videos, can cause a severe effect on young people’s mental state and also leads to addiction.
According to the article “Adverse Effects of Social Media on Gen-Z Users’ Behavior,” published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, teenagers’ addiction to mobile phones and other gadgets is increasing as social media use rises. Symptoms such as stress, fatigue, FOMO (fear of missing out), “phubbing,” and anxiety have led to a Gen-Z social media burnout.
The online world has overtaken the real world. For most people, their day starts and ends with a screen. Thanks to notifications and alarms, it’s impossible to really feel disconnected. Despite the mental health problems, this chronically online lifestyle is a distraction, increasing the cognitive load and even leading to procrastination. According to a John Hopkins Aramco Healthcare article, constant connectivity keeps the nervous system activated, making it difficult to unwind.
That’s why, besides the pleasure moments an online lifestyle can provide, the fatigue from constant online exposure can lead to physical exhaustion, often expressed as irritability and guilt for being unable to “turn off the screen”.As a result? Young people are burned out by the effects of social media.
Choosing the Analogic
As a way to “fight” against internet addiction, teenagers have started a “quiet revolution”: staying offline is synonymous with wellness. Embracing slower pastimes is a way to escape doomscrolling and brain-rot.
2026 has already been described as the year of the offline lifestyle. Since its beginning, social media has been flooded with videos of people engaging with others to discover new hobbies and start analogical habits. Ironically, the offline lifestyle is the newest viral trend on social media.
Often called as “granny hobbies”, teenagers started to self-discover new activities. Knitting, pottery, scrapbooking, reading, analog photography, painting, and many other hobbies are ways to relieve brain fog and increase well-being.
However, this trend is not only made by individual activities. Part of this “analogic style” is also about finding clubs to join, such as book clubs, poetry clubs, and more. Since the internet is often used to disconnect from the present, its deletion makes new bonds and face-to-face interactions possible. Instead of superficial relationships through a screen, choosing to go offline is a way to find new people and interests, for example, in clubs.
Going to coffee shops, grabbing a good iced coffee or matcha latte, taking photos in photobooths with your girlfriends, and monthly handmade activities: this is what young people are up to now.
Another analogic habit is choosing “vintage tech” as an alternative to online ones. Young people have started using disposable cameras instead of their cellphones, or even collecting vinyl instead of listening to their songs on streaming platforms.
Overall, in a world where AI and doomscrolling are everywhere, physical, authentic activities are the ultimate trend.
However, it’s a luxury
Young people have become more and more aware of the online world’s addictiveness. However, it’s hard to quit something that is designed to capture attention and even to afford to stay entertained offline. A Forbes article, “Offline is the new Luxury”, points out that, despite being an emerging habit, staying offline is a privilege:
“Offline experiences will go mainstream in the same way vinyl records did: as a niche luxury marketed as authenticity. The aspirational imagery of silent book clubs, slow morning routines, and chess meetups is a far cry from the reality of most people struggling to make ends meet. In 2026, being offline is a luxury because it signals you can afford to disconnect from the algorithm.”
Living in an analogical style has become a cultural capital. Despite being a way to stimulate a slow-down living, it creates a whole capital investment around the “habit”, driving up the costs to afford this lifestyle.
An offline lifestyle can be unaffordable for most people. But thanks to its viral content, young people are making an effort to disconnect and focus on the present.
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The article above was edited by Marcela Malafaia.
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