Analog Your Life: A Philadelphian’s Guide
In the age of Claude and Waymo and remote work, the task of disengaging feels Sisyphean. So much of life feels constantly, distractingly accessible, but also fleeting, intangible, and permeable — the way something necessarily must be to live in a cloud. But humans are still physical creatures, and also (sometimes) reflective ones. And so blessedly there is a widespread, growing sense that a backlash to the downsides of the Digital Age is officially here. You needn’t look far to see that the push for tethering more to real life and less to devices is everywhere right now: on bestseller lists, in schools, at colleges, at home, at work, even in think pieces about AI and its inevitable takeover.
To that end, we bring you a Philly-centric how-to for an escape, for reclaiming some analog joy, for feeling real again. Less a set of rules and restraints; more a guide to being in the digital world, but not of it. It’s motivation. Inspiration. A clearing of the mist, via zip-lining and old-fashioned water-cooler work gossip and dancing and browsing actual sales racks and all manner of ways and reasons to hop offline and tap back into the real, tangible joy of being alive in this world right now, and human.
For decades, we’ve asked whether technology could do something. Increasingly, we’re asking whether it should. Do we really want every idle moment filled? Every errand completed with a click? Every creative task outsourced? We’ve “optimized” our lives to death. Can we please reclaim some joy already? Keep reading …
Oh, that we could all just rid ourselves entirely of these attention-stealing addiction machines glued to our hands like hard, expensive little appendages! Alas, neither time nor tech goes backwards; like $20 burgers and the Kardashians, our smartphones are an immutable fact of modern life. (How the hell else are you going to pay that parking meter, huh?) What doesn’t have to be a fact of life, says Catherine Price — a Philly-based journalist and best-selling author of How to Break Up With Your Phone, The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, and 2025’s The Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-Filled World (which she co-wrote with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt) — is the zombie-like dependence and reflexive devotion to which so many of us have succumbed.
Price’s philosophies on the topic are so smart, so guilt-free, and so geared toward her own raison d’être — fun! joy! a life well lived! — that she manages to stand out in the vast and growing sea of thinkers who are writing about digital restraint these days. “It’s not about giving up your phone so much as it is building the relationship you want with it,” she says.
Start here, with some of Price’s easiest, best tips for a less phone-dependent, more fun existence. Keep reading …
Here’s what we want more of: Wandering into a coffee shop we’ve never visited. Not worrying if our phones are charged before going out. Eye contact with fellow citizens. Mental quiet in the midst of a bustling city. Someone else ringing up our orders. The pleasure of looking up noticing that gargoyle, mural, or pocket park before. You know: the real-life magic that drew us in in the first place. You too? Here, some hacks to help. Keep reading …
Ordering online is so much more sterile than real shopping. You point and click, and click again, and then you’re done. This is, of course, the appeal — much more convenient than carving out time to browse the racks, possibly fruitlessly. But it’s also soulless and heartless, like shopping in a sensory deprivation tank. You can’t feel a dress’s softness; you can’t see if it clings in the right places; you can’t hear your best pal gasp (or laugh) when you pop out of the dressing room. All the bots and the Bezoses in the world can’t replace the joys of a real-life browse (or spree!); it’s our job as consumers to keep that joy alive. To that end? Here are five Philly brick-and-mortars to help revive your IRL shopping habit. Keep reading …
Here’s the thing: While today we do things faster, we’re not always sure we do them better. Which is why we recommend adding a little retro analog energy to your work life. (Or at least getting a fax machine. Man, those are truly amazing.) Keep reading …
Illustrations by James Boyle. Lettering by Angela Southern
Published as “Analog Your Life” in the September 2026 issue of Philadelphia magazine.