Digital fatigue and the neo-Luddites

In the 19th century, textile workers across Britain smashed mechanical looms in protest. A visceral rejection of the machines they believed were eroding their livelihoods; these rebellious workers were called Luddites. Today, a surprising consumer trend echoes this instinct, though in a softer, more psychological form. Instead of jobs being under threat, it’s attention, agency and a sense of cognitive quiet.

A growing minority - visible on the Tube, among friends, and even in the hands of my boss - are returning to iPods, Walkmans, flip phones, Kindles and MP3 players. What might seem like a retreat for nostalgic feeling may also be a deeper cultural pushback against a hyper-connected digital world.

Scrolling social media has become the easiest chore imaginable; most platforms have identical infinite feeds which coerce you into the mindless scrolling of looped short-form content, which is so personalised and never-ending it can feel cognitively corrosive, yet equally addictive.

The rapid influx of AI‑generated content onto these same social media sites snowballs this noxious feeling, flooding feeds at the snap of a finger, ready to publish generative slop. It ramps up the volume and intimacy of digital content while clogging feeds and simultaneously eroding quality, or at least any recognisable human feel - polluting timelines with painful, low‑effort synthetic videos.

Yet some are pushing back - or at least consumers are trying to negotiate the terms and conditions in the fiercely changing attention economy. Google search trends and sales data back the renaissance of neo-Luddites. On eBay, searches for the discontinued iPod are frequently trending alongside other forgotten 90s tech. ‘Dumb phone’ sales among 18-24 year olds jumped 148% from 2021 to 2024. Whilst CIPA reported a 30% surge in 2026 for compact cameras as younger consumers seek simpler, single‑purpose devices.

Consumers aren’t rejecting technology outright; those opting for a lite digital detox aren’t seeking to emulate Ted Kaczynski or radical anti-tech anarchists. But the appetite in a growing minority - especially amongst the younger generations - to dumb-down their tech is a direct critique of the attention-extraction model that has shaped their online lives for over a decade.

Policy is beginning to reflect this consumer behaviour and is reflected in countries such as Britain and across the globe in Australia, which have both aligned in their approach to restricting social platforms’ outreach to limit the ability to shape or define adolescence. Both countries are introducing social media bans to teenagers to safeguard attention, signalling a broader governmental initiative in protecting digital wellbeing and youth protection.

Theresa Santos, Associate Director in our Digital team, said: “The answer to digital fatigue isn't just less technology - it's better use of it - people are becoming more selective about how, when and why they use the tech they have access to. For comms professionals, that's a timely reminder that meaningful engagement has always mattered more than maximising impressions.”

Brands have the opportunity to produce a content strategy which coincides with emerging digital wellbeing behaviour. Creative aesthetics that feel grounded, slower and give more narrative breadth, leaning towards respecting attention and reducing cognitive overload. In a world of infinite content, material needs to clearly resonate.