Last summer, University of Wisconsin-Madison junior Rachel Gerhardt accidentally left her phone in an Uber. She never got it back.
For two weeks, a phoneless Gerhardt wrote down notes on a pad of paper, took calls from the landline at her job and walked around campus without headphones.
“I think that is when it became like, ‘Okay, this is something I could actually do.’ If I needed to, I could not have a phone,” Gerhardt said.
By the time she bought a new iPhone, Gerhardt was just starting to enjoy life without one. A few months later, she shelved her brand-new device in favor of a flip phone.
But Gerhardt isn’t the only one opting for a ‘90s lifestyle in 2026. Today, as more young people report feeling unhappy with the amount of time they spend on phones, a swath of students are flocking to older technology and physical media.
In late 2025, trends like “going analog” and “friction-maxxing” began picking up steam on social media. Despite the irony of going offline trending online, users posted videos showcasing the benefits of their digital detoxes. The trends involved deleting social media, journaling and embracing forms of physical media, like DVDs and vinyl.
“Seeing all these videos, I was like, ‘I might as well try it out,’” Gerhardt said.
For Gerhardt, extreme measures like switching to a flip phone have worked better than any other method of reducing screen time. When she no longer had an option to scroll social media, the urge to open the apps disappeared within just a few days.
“People are trying to step away from relying on social media,” Gerhardt said. “Social media kind of makes you feel more alone than it does actually connect you.”
Ayla Carli, another UW-Madison student who switched to a flip phone in 2025, has fully embraced an offline lifestyle. Today, Carli checks out CDs from the library, rents DVDs from home video shops and visits record stores.
“It feels good to be disconnected,” Carli said. “I don’t feel tied down to anything. I can just walk around, be chill and not feel stressed about having this piece of technology connected to me.”
As the younger generation looks for ways to combat their overdependence on devices, interest in physical media has surged. For the first time this century, vinyl sales reached $1 billion in a calendar year.
Steve Manley, the owner of B-Side Records on State Street, said he’s noticed the recent increase in interest. A 42-year veteran of the record business, he attributes the trend to growing frustration with algorithms and social media. “Going to a place, touching the physical things and looking at them that way is better than staring at a screen,” Manley said.
Gerhardt agreed and added that artificial intelligence may also be contributing to dissatisfaction.
“People are very frustrated with the AI automation of it all,” Gerhardt said. “People want creativity that’s not from a robot.”
Switching to a flip phone, albeit a drastic change for most, is one way that some students are avoiding unhealthy relationships with their devices. But for Gerhardt, the trend also marks their generation's nostalgia for a phoneless era when connections were made in-person instead of online.
“A lot of people are really missing that sense of community,” Gerhardt said. “And maybe they're going to social media feeling like they should be finding community there, and it's really not the same.”
Editor’s note: Gerhardt writes for the Cardinal opinion desk.
