2025 Trend: The return of physical experiences
A shift is unfolding, a quiet rebellion against the pixelated world. We’re craving something real again. Something we can hold in our hands.
This thought started with letters. I should have known.
This is the April Cottage Letter. I put it together this rainy weekend. A three pager, a wildflower card, and a sticker. So hefty and feels good on the fingers. Also in a luscious lavender envelope. Get yours at the Etsy shop. They go out this week! As I packaged up the first letter, I noticed…
How NICE it is to feel the weight of a letter.
A real letter. Envelope, stamp, ink on paper, words that had taken their time getting written, then passed from one hand to the next from my mailbox to yours. Real human hands connecting us, culminating in a quiet moment to sit down and read it.
This month’s letter is so good… it’s hard to be humble on this one… it ended up better than than I expected. The magic of pens and paper, space and quiet.
The digital age had reached its tipping point.
I think we all have PTSD with the news. Constant BREAKING NEWS is breaking us. We don’t want to watch it but we have to see… just in case something happened. Then we get sucked in and our minds shrink, our days collapse, and at the end of the day we don’t think of our highlights so much as the headlines.
It’s got to stop.
Let’s return to physical experiences. It’s not just about nostalgia. It’s about presence.
The paper comeback. Let’s be the trend.
Journals, postcards, and stationery. There’s something about writing on actual paper that slows the mind. You have time to grab two thoughts at once and merge them into something greater than their individual parts.
And books! Paper books that smell niiiiice.
Psychology Today says “printed books lead to better comprehension and information retention, with the physical act of turning pages, creating an ‘index’ in the brain that aids memory.”
Let print books stack up on nightstands once again! We’ve grown tired of scrolling ourselves to sleep.
Tactile shopping: The anti-algorithm.
I’ll be heading to the mall to return or exchange a pair of pants I bought online. I should have just went to the mall in the first place. I’ll be trying on, thumbing through, and seeing new hues and patterns. An immersive experience like in the olden days. The feel of fabric is one of the missing pieces of online shopping (I’m looking at you Shein).
Thumbing through things. A novel throwback.
Stopped by the local independent bookstore the other day. Had a nice chat with the proprietor. She had me thinking big thoughts days later. Thoughts about printing notecards and art again. Gawd how I loathe print-on-demand. Tried it and loathed it. It’s what made me pull back from selling products in my Etsy shop. Crappy paper. Horrible inks. Plasticky feel. Yucks. The stationery equivalent of buying the aforementioned pants online.
Though you’ll have to buy the notecards online when I figure them out. That’s the rub.
I know. I know. We need an online life. I’m just suggesting we pull back a bit to find balance. Tactile stuff. My kid has been running around with her instant camera and having a great time with the photos that pop out instantly. SOMETHING to show for the creative efforts.
Art without the compulsion to document it for an audience.
Except now, in this blog post. Where I am documenting it for an audience.
This shift isn’t about rejecting technology. It’s about remembering what it feels like to touch, smell, and hold the world around us. To not get hypnotized by screens.
Basically, we should all embrace our granny nature.
Grannies are masters of the tactile experience: clotheslines, baking from scratch, letter writing, moments that don’t need to be Instagrammable. It turns out, the greatest trend of 2025 isn’t a product or a platform. It’s a movement back to something we’ve always known:
Life feels better when you can hold it in your hands.
PS April is Letter Writing Month. Get on it!
PPS If you don’t know what to write, get a gift subscription of letters in my shop.
PPS Mother’s Day is coming up in many countries. A letter subscription makes for a great gift.
PPPS If you’re already this far, leave a comment.
