8 Ways to Go Analog, Turn Off Your Phone and Explore the Outdoors

Algorithms keep urging us to optimize every moment for content, but the real counter-trend is gaining ground: Pinterest’s trend reports track “analog living” surges, and Airbnb’s no-cell-service listings book months in advance. Every dinnertime conversation somehow turns to getting offline and going analog. Here are some of the ways fellow travelers and I do just that. 

Go Birding

Hand-optical viewing devices like the NOCS we know and love turn you into a citizen scientist without batteries, apps, or notifications interrupting. Scan for constellations, track migrating warblers, or study cloud formations with precision no screen can match. If you’re allowing yourself a little bit of phone time, download the Merlin Bird ID app, whichs is basically Shazam for warbles. 

Shoot Film (Or Something Like It)

Trade your phone’s camera roll for a vintage film camera from the thrift, and see how framing really slows down once you’re contemplating development. Another great option is the Camp Snap, an instant digital camera with no digital backing that forces you to slow down and look through the viewfinder. Film costs money and intention; every shot matters, so you become selective about what deserves a frame.

Getty Images

Go Foraging

Spend an afternoon identifying what grows in your neighborhood by heading on a foray with someone like Flora & Funghi in the Bay Area. That “weed” becomes a name, a season, a use, and suddenly you live somewhere specific instead of just passing through it.

Become a Citizen Botanist 

Pick up a copy of Botany in a Day, Luc Satterlee’s guide that teaches you to identify plants by their flowers in one afternoon of real attention. One afternoon changes how you see every forest walk forward. Another great book that operates in the analog is All the Rain Promises and More, David Arora’s mushroom guide transforms a damp forest into a treasure hunt where the ecosystem reveals itself through fungi. Once you start noticing mushrooms, you’ll never see a fallen log the same way.

Plant Pressing 

Pick specimens and press them between pages like you used to when you were a kid. Think of it as herbalism meets scrapbooking, and a way to hold onto a place without a photograph of yourself in it. We’ve also been huge fans of exploring cyanotype prints of oceanic elements like kelp and seaweed, inspired by Cyanokai. 

Thomas J. Story

Explore the Night Sky

Our digital editor and resident astro-enthusiast Nicole Clausing loves using her circular sky maps. Rotate the paper star chart to match the night sky and navigate by Orion. Your phone has no signal up there anyway.

Paint in Plein Air

Pack a travel watercolor set and have fun with depicting the outdoors, even if you aren’t an expert. Sketch the landscape instead of photographing it; your hand learns what your eyes saw in ways a lens never will. Grab a watercolor workbook if you’re just getting started, or a Tobios portable watercolor kit if you’re looking to save on space.

Get Back to Journaling 

Ditch the digital notes app and carry the journal of your choice. I bring the Leuchtturm1917 Travel Journal everywhere I go, from dining solo to backpacking adventures and trips on the train. This German-made notebook with numbered pages and quality paper that invites a pen instead of a finger. You’ll write longer, think deeper, and end up with a physical artifact of a trip instead of cloud storage.

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