What’s in Your Analog Bag? Why the IRL Journal Belongs in It
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Ironically, if you’ve been online lately, you may have come across an "offline" trend: the analog bag.
The idea is simple. Keep a few things nearby that gives you something to do away from a screen — maybe a book, a puzzle, something creative, and of course a journal.
It’s especially popular with teens and young adults right now, but the idea behind it feels much bigger than a trend.
And yes, there’s something a little funny about discovering an analog trend online.
But maybe that’s exactly why it makes sense.
This isn’t about deciding technology is bad. We use it to connect, learn, shop, work, create and stay in touch. The point isn’t to replace any of that.
It’s simply about making room for something tangible, too.
Why a Journal Fits
A journal feels especially at home in an analog bag because it asks very little of you.
No setup. No charging. No system to learn.
It’s simply there when you want it.
And there’s something different about putting pen to paper.
A thought becomes tangible.
A moment that might otherwise pass becomes something you can hold onto.
Not because every day needs to be documented or every thought needs to be preserved, but because sometimes the ordinary things become much more interesting with time.
Not Just for Today
I’ve been thinking about this more lately because my daughter often asks me questions about what my life was like when I was younger.
What did I do?
Where did I go?
What was I like at her age?
I can answer some of those questions. Others have simply faded, and it makes me wish I had written it down.
Not the major milestones. We usually have photographs and records of those.
It’s the everyday things that disappear.
What we thought about. What mattered to us. What made us laugh. What we worried about. What ordinary life actually felt like at a particular moment in time.
Imagine finding a journal your mother or grandmother kept when she was young.
Her handwriting.
Her words.
Her younger voice.
Suddenly, you aren’t just learning facts about her life. You’re connecting with a version of her you never knew.
That’s something digital storage doesn’t always give us in quite the same way.
A handwritten page is tangible evidence that someone was there.
The Idea Behind the IRL Journal
IRL means in real life.
That thought fits naturally with something we’ve always cared about at Adorn Designs: creating tangible things that hold meaning and connection.
It’s also at the heart of our IRL Journal — Offline Thoughts & Things I Didn’t Post.
We want this journal to be a place for the parts of life that don’t need to be shared, posted or turned into content.
There are no prompts telling you what matters.
There are no rules about how often you should write.
It’s simply a place to put some of your real life on paper.
Today, that might mean carrying it in your analog bag.
Years from now, it might mean opening an old journal and meeting a version of yourself you’d almost forgotten.
And someday, someone you love may open those pages and feel a little closer to you, too.
A Little More IRL
Maybe “analog bag” will still be a phrase we use five years from now.
Maybe it won’t.
Trends have a way of coming and going.
But the idea behind this one feels lasting.
Our digital lives aren’t going anywhere — nor should they.
There’s just something worth preserving about the physical ones, too.
The handwriting.
The paper.
The things we can hold.
The tangible reminders that a real person lived these moments.
A little more IRL.
A little less screen time.
Not because one world is better than the other.
Just because there’s room for both.