Do You Need a Busy Bag?
Before smart devices became a part of everyday life, my fellow moms and I would pack our young children’s Busy Bags.
These bags were like an older version of a diaper bag and kept our little ones occupied while we stood in the line at the Post Office or to keep their little eyes off the candy aisle at the grocery store. Before tablets, parents had to help their children emotionally regulate themselves in boring situations like a dinner out at a restaurant or on long car rides. These bags were filled with crayons, stickers, markers, coloring books, snacks and books.
It is now 2026, and I would like to introduce you to the viral trend of the “Analogue Bag.”
The trend, sparked by content creator Sierra Campbell in 2025, is as follows. Pack a tote with hands-on, screen-free activities like a knitting project, a watercolor set, a crossword puzzle, a book or e-reader to help curb screen time and live a more “analogue” life.
I get so tickled when younger generations discover something old and rebrand it as brand new information. I tease, but I am so here for the analogue bag. For once, I am so far ahead trend and it feels very vindicating!
I have been bringing UNO cards and cross words to restaurants for over a decade to coerce my family members to put their phones down. I carry at least one book with me at all times and, to my husband’s dismay, I travel with several, even for short trips. I mean, you always need a back-up or two in case you lose interest or finish the first.
The reign of the smart phone has been hard on us romantic old souls, especially those of us whose Love Language is quality time. You see it a lot in public. A couple sitting together for a meal. One staring and scrolling while the other, unbeknownst to their partner, sadly looks on wondering when it will be their turn…our children look at us this way too when we have devices in our hands.
I think the tide is changing. As long as the grid prevails, there will always be addicted, chronically online people. However, more and more, I am hearing people talk openly about their discontentment in technology, particularly their smart phones.
I don't know if it is the onslaught of AI in everything or that we are dangerously close to the singularity point where we can no longer tell what is real or fake, except what is right in-front of us, but something is making people long for spending their time with things they can experience “IRL.”
If the online world is your thing and you have no quality of life issues, then by all means, don’t overthink it, however many people today seem to have a deep sense of discontentment every time they pick up their phones. It almost feels as though we are helpless and being forced to do it when we don’t want to, and we know life is literally slipping away.
We have one, wild and precious life to live (Mary Oliver) and when you do the math, you discover that someone who starts with a smart device at 15-years-old and is on it for the average American screen time of 5-7 hours per day, will give away over 20 years of their life to looking at that device if they live to age 85. This is beyond tragic. I’m in my mid-forties and don’t have that kind of time to just give away to Facebook or Instagram.
Researchers have coined the term digital anhedonia to describe a phenomenon where chronic screen overexposure blunts our ability to enjoy real-world experiences. A 2025 study published in Cureus found that frequent social media users show reduced brain activity in the regions responsible for processing pleasure and reward during offline tasks (Lakhan, 2025).
In other words, the more we scroll, the less satisfying everything else becomes. Even things we used to enjoy. Children are especially at risk, according to a Harvard Medical School report, which noted that much of what happens on screens provides meaningless stimulation of dopamine receptors compared to real-world experience, and that boredom itself is actually the mental space we need to stimulate creativity and imagination.
But fear not! The brain is remarkably adaptable. When we choose tangible hobbies such as painting, gardening, cooking, reading, learning an instrument, or playing a game, we can retrain our reward systems. If your brain is experiencing anhedonia, then these hobbies will feel boring and unsatisfying at first. But, if you keep it up, those dopamine receptors will recalibrate and before long, they will not only feel satisfying and fulfilling but you will crave these things instead of scrolling.
We reach our highest potential by living well and experiencing a good life. I think we all instinctively know that scrolling and handing our children a screen is not the good life.
An analogue bag is a great way to start pulling back from the digital world and to start living again in the real one. Maybe you try it for a month, work through the discomfort and boredom, trust the process, and see what trying something new (old) might do for you.
Sources:
Lakhan, S. E. (2025). "Hijacked by the Feed: Social Media Neuroengineering-Induced Digital Anhedonia." Cureus, 17(4), e83256.
Harvard Medical School. "Screen Time and the Brain." Harvard Medicine.