Dumb Tech is the New Luxury

How optimization became exhausting and why doing less is starting to feel better

If you are as chronically online as I am, you might also be a victim to a weird anxiety that sets in January.

The first week of January is when the internet tells you to prepare resolutions, a vision board and manifest your dream life. As if that was not enough to burden our free souls, this year a new trend set in: ‘post everything!’ And a new wave of posts started appearing, “I completed 240 workouts last year”, “I took a flight every week”, “I prompted chatGPT for 5,000 times in a single month”. My simple question to everyone posting these ‘wrapped’ stories: who cares?

A contrast that defines my life

In an increasingly digital world, I am tempted to log off. Go off-the-grid. Not in the traditional sense of throwing away my phone and cutting off my internet. But by refusing to be reduced to a ‘number’: a number in Sam Altman’s presentation to his investors, or one of the millions who tracked every inch of their existence on a Whoop.

My day job is to invest in AI startups. I love my Meta Ray Ban glasses. I’ve sent over 10,000 prompts to Claude & ChatGPT over the last year alone. And yet, I threw away my smart watch last year. I refuse to wear a Whoop or one of those fancy tracker-in-form of rings.

In this essay, I explore how analog is making a strong comeback in 2026 and how ‘dumb tech’ is becoming the new luxury.

Who Hurt Me?

Upon reflecting for the last few days, I could identify three instances that pushed me over the edge, and drove this feeling of over-saturation.

1. The Three-Touchscreen Car: Last month, my uncle wanted to buy a new car. While I may not speak to my relatives on a regular basis, everyone hits me up for new car advice. I helped him shortlist a few options and eventually he got his new car home in a shiny crimson red. At first, I was genuinely excited with the amount of tech that now comes loaded into a $40,000 SUV. As we hit the highway, I reached out to the dash to turn off the air conditioning and, to my utter dismay, there were no physical buttons! On the dashboard, there were these massive 12 inch touchscreens. Not one or two, but three of them! I asked myself, where art’ thou buttons?

2. The Year in Review, Industrial Complex:
   A few years ago, an intern at Spotify came up with the brilliant idea: what if we compile all the listening data of a user and present it in the form of a year-end gift “wrapped” that is designed to be shared with your friends and discover new music? And it worked beautifully. People loved showcasing they were among the top 1% fans of Taylor Swift. But soon, the internet caught up to the good stuff. Now, every app worth its salt prepares a forced ‘recap’ of the year, even the AI-bots have caught on to it. Over the last year, applications strictly meant for utility, like granola (meeting notes) or flighty (flight-tracker) started publishing these year-end summaries. And people loved posting them as humble brags.

3. The Notification Hell:
   Last January I got influenced by social media and installed a habit-builder app. I tracked every workout and physical sport I played for over 30 days. One fine day when I had guests home, the app kept blasting ‘only 30 minutes towards your goal’ and sent 20 notifications in a single day. Soon that app and the stress of keeping the streak destroyed the joy I derived from doing yoga. On another day when I was neck-deep in work, my Apple Watch kept sending reminders to “breathe”, “drink water”. And soon, I was petrified of my screen time across my iPhone, Mac and the Watch. I decided to put the watch away. Maybe these notifications motivate you. For me, they destroyed the joy of movement and turned yoga into a performance metric!

I am not Alone

I figured I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. I have noticed these trends and frustrations brewing right across my circle of friends to strangers on social media:

Signal #1: “I didn’t buy a tesla in my 20s”

A modern car has started to feel like a computer. Large touchscreens, digital panels and so many driving-assist tools that have taken the joy out of driving. I’m not saying that the added safety features aren’t needed, my concern is that the newer generations are being deprived from the joy of driving. We’re already seeing early signs of younger buyers gravitating toward buying older models and simpler cars. Recently, the trend of ‘You didn’t buy a tesla in your 20s’ took off on instagram. In this trend, creators showed an expensive or vintage car (e.g., Porsche, vintage Mercedes, Mustang) to highlight a preference for taste over the popular, high-tech, or “conformist” choice of a new Tesla. This trend further emphasized individuality, car enthusiasm, and choosing timeless vehicles over trendy ones.

@tizian.freund

tizian freund on Instagram: "You didn’t buy a Tesla in your 20‘…

Signal #2: The Analog Premium - iPods, Vintage Cameras and Vinyls Make a Splash

If you list an old, fully functional digital camera that is lurking in your basement, on facebook marketplace, I bet that you will attract offers at twice its original price. As pictures posted online get polished and enhanced with AI, everything ends up looking the same. Gen-Z is now craving for authentic and unaltered, vintage-style images. I have observed this closer to home as well when my wife carried a vintage digicam to our trip to Utah.

Nostalgia is in vogue and you now see thousands of teenagers flexing their old ‘iPods’ that were produced years before their birth. Adding a vinyl player which doubles up as ‘90s decor is a direct consequence of people trying to escape the treadmill of algorithms and add a personality to their spaces. Younger fans now treat vinyls as collectibles: Taylor Swift’s new album sold more than 1.2 million vinyl copies in the first week alone, in an era where her album is free to stream online!

Vinyl sales are making a comeback, surpassing CD sales for first time since 1997.

Signal #3: The comeback of the mechanical watch:

When Apple first debuted it’s watch in 2015, there were claims that it would kill the Swiss Watch Industry. 10 years later, although the Apple Watch is a stunning success, it’s sales continue to decline (down 19% y-o-y) as the younger generation shun smartwatches for old-school analog timepieces. On TikTok, users flex their favourite brands and styles spanning everything from five-figure “entry-level” Rolexes to Casio’s classic metal watch, which is priced around the $50 mark. Vintage Rolexes are being sold for often three times their retail price while the newer models accumulate an ever-growing waitlist. Even tech bros are starting to don their Omegas for sales pitches. Wearing a watch says something about you. Which is why the market is growing fast for micro-brands and luxury brands alike. The movement towards wristwatches is a move towards craft over computation. A well-built mechanical timepiece is a family heirloom while an Apple watch becomes e-waste in 3 years.

Falling Apple Watch shipments year-on-year

Signal #4: The “Dumb” Phone Movement

Laced with AI, as our phones get smarter, soon we would want to just ‘let ourselves be’, away from the constant trackers and distractions. In a bid to avoid distractions and doomscrolling, people are juggling between different methods. People start with app-timers and blockers, many people I know use their phone in greyscale. But a new category is emerging: dumb phones that strip away apps and features, keeping only the bare necessities ~ calls, texts, sometimes a camera.
In 2026, ‘digital detox’ outranked ‘losing weight’ as the most popular new year’s resolution, in a first. I believe as more people recognize the need to digitally reinvent and protect their brains from the attention economy, there will be a surge in demand of these dumb phones.

What am I keeping and What am I deleting

In 2026, I wanted to build a framework for adopting any new technology in my life. After weeks of thinking about this, I landed on a simple test: Does this tech give me a superpower, or does it just create a new anxiety?

Any new technology can fall into one of these two categories:

The Expanders:

These technologies give me superpowers, life is much easier and smoother if I use these. They either expand what I do or bring genuine joy.

• Claude is now an integral part of my workflows. It increases my output and efficiency by 10x and almost acts like a second brain.

• Most people might consider wearing AI glasses a step too far, but I love wearing my Meta Ray Bans. It is a God-sent as I take quick calls while doing daily chores or when I need to take pictures to remember things without taking out my phone.

• I am a voracious reader and I love the smell of physical books. Still, adding a kindle made reading while traveling much simpler and has become a part of my night-time routine.

• Watching a good movie on Netflix with my wife and cinephile friends a couple of times a week is a great way to relax and even find new areas of interest, often I find themes in a movie that I want to write on or read more about. However, what maybe value-additive for me, might be draining for someone else.

The Extractors:

These are technologies that demand constant attention without delivering real value or make your daily habits a chore.

• A few days ago my sister wanted to gift me an Oura ring. I was very reluctant. Every morning, I would track ‘how did I sleep yesterday?’ Oh now that I only hit 20% recovery, my energy must be low today.. Clearly, this tech brings anxiety (for me).

• Alexa/Google Home listening 24/7 for wake words and don’t work precisely when you need them the most.

• Goodreads yearly reading goals (racing through books instead of enjoying them)

• Cars with mega or multiple touchscreens that force me to navigate menus while driving instead of letting muscle memory adjust the cooling temperature.

The difference becomes obvious once you name it: Expanders make you more capable while Extractors make you more anxious. I’m keeping the first category and deleting the second. What about you?

The Full Circle

I am not becoming a luddite or an AI-doomer. I am becoming more conscious. Turns out I am not the only one feeling this.

The light phone has a waitlist and hotels are marketing ‘no wifi’ as a premium feature. Luxury resorts, even the one depicted in the White Lotus’ season 3 was built around a ‘digital detox’, where a staff member collects all your electronic devices to allow you to disconnect. The popularity and prices of vintage cameras, point and shoot cameras, vinyl players and iPods are skyrocketing. Vintage mercs are the envy of town again in an age where people are dunking on Teslas.

I spent my 20s being the first to adopt any new tech. My 30s will be about having the discipline to delete half of it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to wind my watch.