A Lot of Us Are Going Analog

As technology distracts, polarizes, and automates, people are still finding refuge on analog islands in the digital sea. The holdouts span generations, uniting elderly and middle-aged enclaves born in pre-internet times with digital natives. The common thread? They're all setting down their devices to paint, color, knit, and play board games instead. These analog havens provide a nostalgic escape from tumultuous times for generations born from 1946 through 1980, says Martin Bispels, 57, a former QVC executive who recently started Retroactv, a company that sells rock music merchandise dating to the 1960s and '70s. "The past gives comfort. The past is knowable," Bispels tells the AP. "And you can define it because you can remember it the way you want."

Despite the convenience and instant gratification offered by today's digital culture, even millennials and Gen Zers—those born from 1981 through 2012—yearn for more tactile, deliberate activities that don't evaporate in the digital ephemera, says Pamela Paul, author of 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet. "Younger generations have an almost longing wistfulness because ... so little of their life feels tangible," Paul says. Three ways in which analog has taken hold:

• Greeting cards: Digital communication has become more economical, as well as quicker and more convenient, than sending cards, as the cost of a first-class US postage stamp has soared from 33 to 78 cents in the past 25 years. But tradition is hanging on thanks to people like Megan Evans, who started a Facebook group called "Random Acts of Cardness" a decade ago. "Anybody can send a text message that says 'Happy Birthday!'" says the Ohio resident. "But sending a card is a much more intentional way of telling somebody that you care."
• Stick-shift singularity: Fewer than 1% of new vehicles sold in the US have manual transmissions, down from 35% in 1980, per an analysis by the EPA. But there remain stick-shift diehards like Prabh and Divjeev Sohi, brothers who drive cars with manual transmissions to their classes at San Jose State University along roads clogged with Teslas. They became enamored with stick shifts while virtually driving cars in video games as kids and riding in manual vehicles operated by their dad and grandfather. "You are more in the moment when you are driving a car with a stick," Divjeev says.
• Rediscovering vinyl's virtues: The introduction of compact discs in the '80s triggered an evisceration of analog recordings that hit bottom in 2006, when 900,000 vinyl albums were sold, per the Recording Industry Association of America. For context, 344 million vinyl albums were sold in 1977. The slump has unexpectedly reversed, however, and vinyl albums are now a growth niche. In each of the past two years, about 43 million vinyl albums have been sold. "I really love listening to an album on vinyl from start to finish. It feels like I am sitting with the artist," says 24-year-old Carson Bispels, son of Retroactv founder Martin Bispels. More here.