I’ve been seeing this whole “Analog Bag” trend floating around the internet lately, and as a 54-year-old Gen-X woman, I have to laugh a little.

I mean . . . I am an analog bag. 🙃

Apparently we’re calling crossbody bags, backpacks and hobby totes “analog bags” now, which is fine—I’m not here to gatekeep canvas . . . or vegan leather, or . . . you catch my drift.

Some of us have been carrying around books, notebooks, crafty projects, and random cables in oversized bags for decades. If the internet wants to rebrand that, so be it.

What interests me more isn’t the bag itself—it’s what it represents.

A Return to the Tactile

I’ve known the world before everything went digital. I’ve also lived a life with one foot in analog and one foot in digital. It still amazes me that some people on this planet have never known a world that was fully analog. And lately, if I’m honest, I’ve felt my own life tipping too far toward the algorithm-shaped side of things.

Maybe “The Analog Bag” symbolizes a call back to who I truly am, or where I feel most creative?

Chasing Libraries and Record Stores, Not Algorithms

I’m becoming increasingly uneasy with living an “algorithm-based life,” where some “intelligence” is constantly analyzing and spoon-feeding me content, as if it knows me. Because, see, it doesn’t know me, it just knows way too much of my information, and I’m beginning to question why it needs to know so much. For advertisers, that’s why. And I’m beginning to question whether that trade-off is worth it.

Now don’t get me wrong—the internet is brilliant. Digital media is incredible. I literally work in it. But convenience is so dang easy that it quietly reshapes us before we notice. And there’s an entire billionaire class built on making sure we never quite look up long enough to question it.

Maybe the analog bag is a symbol of putting up digital boundaries and literally “clocking off?”

That’s the part I’ve been thinking about.

Influenced by Choice

For me, the beauty of analog isn’t nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. It’s intentionality. Choosing what influences me. Letting conversations shape me. Going to a record store and talking to the owner. Joining a book club. Hearing what my friends are actually listening to or watching, instead of what a “for you page” thinks I should consume next.

An analog life feels built, not force-fed.

Aesthetic or Quiet Rebellion?

Maybe the “Analog Bag” trend is just another aesthetic cycle. Maybe it’s overconsumption with better lighting. Or maybe it’s a tiny Renaissance—a sign that more of us are craving something tactile and intentional again. That’s the part that gives me hope . . . and not just a little bit of it.

I’m not anti-internet. I’m not anti-digital. Everything has its place. I just know I’ve been feeling an imbalance lately, and that’s the recalibration I’m leaning into.

Just some thoughts.
For now.

Jaye,
“That Analog Bag” 📚🤓

This started as a chatty video. If you’d like to watch the rough draft version of these thoughts, it’s up on my new YouTube Channel:

Click to Watch on YouTube!