90s nostalgia: I lived prefer it was the ’90s for every week. It was lonely, however not in the way in which you’d anticipate

As a member of the undefined side of Gen Z wedged between 1997 and 2003, I can’t lay declare to the “90s kid’ label. But it hasn’t stopped me from daydreaming about life in that era, long before smartphones and algorithms took over.

Was the grass really greener in those analogue, largely unplugged days? I decided to rewind the clock to 1996 and spend a week offline to find out. 

The game plan

If I could tell 2008 Charlotte she’d one day long for an era where the 6pm news was taped over her Bridge to Terabithia VHS, I just know she’d punch me in the boob.

But today, as I grapple with a shameful average screen time of seven hours and the constant threat of digital burnout, I’m excited to journey back to a time when Friends episodes were not yet viewed via re-runs. Devising my guidelines for the week, I placed particular emphasis on the ’90s’ “slow-living” ethos that will hopefully reboot my tech-addled mind.

For the experiment, I might:

• Dumb-down my smartphone – in-built wellness options could be used to lock each app on my telephone (together with social media), save for calls and alarms.
• Inform my associates I’d solely be reachable by way of chilly name, and map out some concrete social plans for the week forward.
• Only use my laptop computer for work and devoted ‘administration’ timeslots for unavoidable digital duties.
• Strike up passing conversations with strangers. Chat. Engage. Ask them for the time. Dare to be perceived as insane in public.
• Drag my movie digital camera from the depths and lock and cargo it with a trusty roll of Kodak Gold.

• Carry a novel – plucked from the purgatory of my ‘to-read’ pile
• MAHGA: Make Analogue Hobbies Great Again. Draw, write, scrapbook, bake – heck, do a puzzle if I have to.
• The metro and Uber are out; the prepare, the bus, my very own two legs and embracing continual lateness are so in.
• Recreate appointment TV by rummaging round for my field set of ’90s TV relic Early Edition and schedule set occasions to rewatch this over the week.

Armed with this hodgepodge assortment of out of date media and a pre-Y2K mindset, I set out.

Day 1: A impolite awakening

There’s one thing to be mentioned concerning the look on individuals’s faces if you pull a full-sized map of the Sydney Metropolitan Area from the again pocket of your denims.

This is the truth I instantly met on my analogue odyssey: whereas ’90s dwelling is an pleasing premise, it runs the chance of showing performative or holier-than-thou in 2026.

I additionally felt the load of curious eyes when inspiration struck in a public setting and I drew out my pen and pad to scribble the thought down, my Notes app a distant reminiscence.

As I shook out my cramping fingers, I couldn’t assist however surprise if this was actually the identical hand that after bashed out 2000-word English essays in highschool.

Day 2: The lonely actuality of bursting the bubble

I haven’t made eye contact with a single stranger in two days. No, actually.

While this experiment has already served as a reminder of what the within of a prepare seems to be like, analogue dwelling in 2026 is lonely – and never in the way in which you’d anticipate.

The social dynamic amongst associates and acquaintances has been largely the identical so far, if not higher. It’s my interactions with strangers, or lack thereof, that give me pause.

With your telephone doubling as a digital pacifier, you stay blissfully unaware of how absorbed you might be till you lookup, select to be current – and discover completely nobody else is in the identical boat with you.

One viral phrase doing the rounds on social media instantly springs to thoughts: “You can go back, but nobody will be there.”

I wasn’t below the delusion passersby would sense my phone-free aura and tuck their very own units away in solidarity, however I actually didn’t anticipate this. I can rely the variety of individuals I caught wanting up on one hand. No one smiled at each other – not even an change of pleasant nods.

Toto, I’ve a sense we’re not within the ’90s any extra.

Day 3: ‘Slow’ dwelling?

I by no means supposed to place the “slow” in slow-living, however time blindness tends to take maintain if you don’t have a telephone clock to look at.

As I don’t personal a watch, the straightforward act of time-telling grew to become a masterclass in scanning environments for a clock tower – or figuring out essentially the most approachable-looking stranger to trouble.

Without Google Maps, my late morning additionally grew to become a logistical disaster, reuniting me with the long-forgotten pleasure of traipsing 5 further blocks after disembarking on the incorrect prepare cease.

You know what? Google Maps makes us all far too destination-oriented, anyway. Forget effectivity over enjoyment – give me meandering any day of the week, although maybe not those after I’m already working late for work.

Day 4: The sheer weight of all of it

My romantic dream of analogue media shortly collided with the back-breaking actuality of lugging it in every single place with me. 

No one knowledgeable me dwelling just like the ’90s would imply a bag weighed down by every part and the kitchen sink in lieu of 1. single. telephone.

The conveniences I missed at the moment are obtrusive. Gone are the times of whipping out my telephone for photographs; I’ve now engaged a complete SLR, solely to search out nearly all of the developed roll seems to be prefer it’s been shot from a transferring car.

In buying and selling seamless digital effectivity for the friction of the bodily world, I’ve additionally misplaced varied objects, together with my EFTPOS card, in document time. As I trudge to CommBank to order a alternative, I ponder the opportunity of asking work to expense my chiro payments.

Day 5: Has my mind healed itself?

Although the prospect of being alone with my ideas for maybe the primary time in 14 years was daunting, it seems it’s not half unhealthy.

Sans headphones or screens, I opted to sit with discomfort in moments of boredom, oftentimes discovering my thoughts wandering in surprising methods.

I couldn’t assist however really feel my sometimes busy thoughts was being suspiciously well-behaved. It’s troublesome to know what stage of placebo was at play right here – however I swear my focus, consideration span and capability for clear, rational thought had elevated tenfold.

The grandma deep inside has burst forth, filling my time with baking, studying and a newfound penchant for newspaper crosswords.

Where beforehand my burnt-out mind had little capability for ardour initiatives, I’ve now discovered myself reaching for artwork provides and embracing a long-lost love.

Day 6: Friends S26E6 – ‘The One Where Charlotte Shows Up at Your House’

While I wasn’t afforded the privilege of dwelling within the New York condo adjoining to my rag-tag crew of 20-somethings, my week, surprisingly, has not been quick on socialisation.

From communal dinners and puzzling classes to film nights and pub catchups, the way through which the individuals in my life rose to the event, embracing my ’90s endeavours, actually crammed my cup.

This week, I’m formally a yes-man. When a pal calls to ask me on a last-minute hike, the one applicable response is, “Why the hell not?”

Gone are the times of speaking to my finest pal’s mom on the landline to ask if she may play, or hightailing to her place on my razor scooter. But by way of rigorous pre-planning and chilly calls, I had a social schedule for the week deliberate all the way down to the hour.

Yet because the time rolled round to satisfy mates for a film night time, I used to be overcome by the horrible, niggling feeling our plans had been cancelled or forgotten, and that I used to be about to point out up at their entrance door with no prior affirmation.

I steeled myself as I ascended these steps, and – to my rapid aid – discovered all of them awaiting my arrival with ample film snacks on the prepared. They had been anticipating me, and all my anxiousness had, fortunately, been for naught.

Day 7: Snap again to actuality

Anything value figuring out this week I’ve heard by way of the grapevine, the rumour-mill – or an occasional copy of the Sydney Morning Herald.

There’s no denying 2026 is a nasty time to be well-informed. The privilege of shutting all of it off and present in a bubble freed from battle, violence, synthetic intelligence and social injustice being blared by way of a display in my hand did wonders for my psychological well being.

Sooner or later, although, the bubble all the time bursts. When I lastly disabled my telephone’s ’90s mode, the following waterfall of all I missed was sufficient to ship me (and my telephone) into psychosis.

The authorities again house had proposed a invoice that will make it simpler to unload conservation land. There’d been roughly 10,000 updates on the battle in Iran. Dua Lipa’s wedding photos had dropped. And extra notifications than I care to confess ram-raided by way of the stratosphere inside point-two milliseconds.

My screen-free week was over, and with it, my peace.

The verdict

Our dad and mom had been proper. It actually is these damned telephones – however eradicating myself from the every day hubbub, muting the noise and sitting with my ideas would solely get me up to now.

The inconvenient actuality is that, as a lot as we could yearn for a return to less complicated occasions, many bodily programs central to that interval not exist in 2026.

The power that outlined the analogue period now belongs to a timeline that has already closed. It forces us to understand we will solely ever revisit these intervals as observers – or, in my case, trialists – versus energetic individuals.

The digital consideration financial system will proceed its indefinite development, and for higher or worse, society’s core infrastructure – employment, banking, public companies – will proceed to function round expectations of fixed digital connectivity.

It’s virtually sufficient to make all of it appear pointless – till, after all, I examine my display time for the week. Just below an hour and a half, all of which was spent on unavoidable work duties, fairly than private use.

By merely selecting to lookup, I’d purchased myself again six entire hours of my day, seven occasions.

In roughly 42 hours, I’d reconnected with hobbies and passions that’d lengthy been kicked to the wayside. No longer had been they collateral injury in my mind’s battle towards digital burnout.

While we will by no means totally return to what as soon as was, we will positive as hell thread components of that point all through day-to-day life. Even if “nobody else is there” – you might be. And reclaiming your personal life will all the time be value it.