Analog activities — you know, the types Grandma might have proposed as a form of entertainment when you were staying over as a child — are trending in 2026, especially amongst the Millennial and Gen Z generations. Viewed as an antidote against the soul-sucking doomscroll (akin to the function “dumb phones” have right about now) “grandma hobbies” saw a 525-percent spike in interest from January 13 to January 15, 2026,according to Google Trends.On TikTok, people are turning to, and documenting their experiences with, puzzles, needlepoint, watercolor, mahjong, and similar pursuits. One thing’s clear: We’re fatigued by the endless news cycle, disillusioned with the state of social media as it stands, and want to collectively self-soothe with something that requires patience, using our hands, and emptying our minds of the nonessentials.
Analog activities — you know, the types Grandma might have proposed as a form of entertainment when you were staying over as a child — are trending in 2026, especially amongst the Millennial and Gen Z generations. Viewed as an antidote against the soul-sucking doomscroll (akin to the function “dumb phones” have right about now) “grandma hobbies” saw a 525-percent spike in interest from January 13 to January 15, 2026,according to Google Trends.On TikTok, people are turning to, and documenting their experiences with, puzzles, needlepoint, watercolor, mahjong, and similar pursuits. One thing’s clear: We’re fatigued by the endless news cycle, disillusioned with the state of social media as it stands, and want to collectively self-soothe with something that requires patience, using our hands, and emptying our minds of the nonessentials.