The Analog Bag Trend Is an Antidote to Algorithm Brain Rot and Doomscrolling

In May 2025, Sierra Campbell committed to the most gallant task a person can undertake in our modern era: She would get off her phone and go “analog.”

The 31-year-old content creator and mom of two substituted her scrolling for hands-on, no-screen hobbies. She started knitting in her free time. Watercolor painting. Using Polaroid cameras. Doing crossword puzzles. Writing letters to pen pals.

Since last spring, Campbell has reduced her screen time by two to three hours a day, she tells Marie Claire. In the process, she also inspired thousands of other netizens to put their phones down and pick up a pair of crochet hooks. Throughout this experiment, she would carry a small tote wherever she went that made her activities as accessible as a phone in her front pocket, dubbing it her "analog bag." Others followed suit.

Google searches for “analog bag” are currently at an all-time high. On TikTok, where Campbell first introduced the concept in August, they've become, somewhat paradoxically, an antidote to doomscrolling and algorithm brainrot.

Emily Karst, a school vice principal in Ohio, now carries around a bag containing a watercolor kit, a scrapbook, and a needlepoint set. “I thought [analog bags] had potential not just as another trend, but as a genuinely practical solution to something I noticed in myself: that instinctive pull to grab my phone the second there was a pause in my day—not to look something up, but just out of habit," she says. "My analog bag has been one of the simplest, most effective tools for breaking my reflexive scroll cycle."

Los Angeles-based lifestyle content creator Molly Hobson concurs, adding that hers helps her practice mindfulness. “When I was younger, my mom had a craft drawer in our home, and I could always count on finding something inside that would keep me grounded," she says. "Now, when I’m feeling overwhelmed, I reach into my bag to de-stress."

Campbell had all of this in mind when she first started taking her crafts to go. “Artificial Intelligence being forced on us from every direction has served as a kind of collective rock bottom," she says. "We're tired of the lack of slow creativity, personal connection, and all the good things that make us human. Creating the analog bag was my way of saying, I don't care how phone-dependent we are—there has to be another way to reclaim our full lives outside of a screen.”

There is, however, an undeniable paradox here. Analog bags are an internet trend, making the entire phenomenon somewhat of an ouroboros. Users watch videos telling them to get off their phones… on their phones. Maybe they eventually put it down and drive to Michael’s to buy felting supplies, only to later toggle back to TikTok for a tutorial on how to make a 3D woolly squirrel.

But Campbell, who has been researching digital addiction for over ten years, notes that analog bags aren’t a cold-turkey substitute for phones; rather, they’re a piecemeal tool to curb screen time.

“The book, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, talks about how replacing a habit [with another] is the only true way to wean off one, so I made something that mimics my phone's entertainment features without the doomscrolling,” she says.

“For me,” says Karst, “analog bags are much more about intentionality than an anti-tech approach. Digital content is engineered to pull us in, and so many of us are living by default with our phones. The trend offers people a tangible, joyful alternative, a way to reclaim attention, peace, creativity, and presence without rejecting technology outright.”

It's also a trend with zero barrier to entry and cost restrictions. For the bag itself, you can use anything from an old canvas tote to the laptop bag you bring to work. As for what goes inside? Ask yourself what you turn to your phone for.

“The news? Put a physical newspaper in your analog bag," Campbell says. "Creative inspo? Magazines, a sketch pad, and a flower press. Are your hands bored? Needlepoint or knitting should do the trick."

The most important note of all, according to Campbell, is to "make your analog bag compact, take it everywhere, and use it as a physical reminder that you have better things to do than just watching others live their lives on a screen!”