Less Scroll, More Soul... in 5,4,3,2...
1... Introducing 'Scroll Aware' and the first step towards an Analogue Renaissance
I’m so excited. It’s been less ‘Eureka’ and more a fog slowly clearing through the end of a telescope but after months of reading, writing and processing, my thinking has crystallised into a next professional chapter I can’t wait to write. One that hones in on the problems I care most about and draws on all my experience to date.
Let’s start with a thought experiment: a short utopia in an age of dystopia.
It’s 2035, and the Analogue Renaissance is thriving.
It all began in 2025, when a people-powered #LessScrollMoreSoul movement took hold. The message appeared everywhere as a reminder of what society was losing in our 3 hours+ of daily scroll and what we had to gain from reclaiming some of it back. GenZ led the ‘digital defiance’ charge as frustration grew around childhoods they realised they’d lost, but it quickly spread as all woke up to the fact that we are what we pay attention to and that our time was ours to optimise, not others’ to mine and sell.
A craze kicked off to visibly carry and use phone sleeping bags to signify disconnection and presence to ourselves and those around - our kids, friends, colleagues. Phone cloakrooms are now common at social gatherings with ‘no-phone zone’ signage in most public spaces. It is now frowned upon for phones to be out in social settings.
Selfies, once hailed as a form of self-expression are now viewed as narcissistic and deeply uncool. Amateur public filming stopped, accelerated from 2031 by the risk of prosecution for sharing images without consent. Posting children on social media stopped altogether by 2030 after a number of AI-image manipulation abuse cases captured the media’s attention.
Public spaces began to be designed more thoughtfully to invite connection: benches facing each other, communal talk tables, free chess boards and community walls for public expression and local event promotion. Dating app use declined, ‘single zones’ and public connection walls replaced them. Eye contact came back into fashion and analogue is cool again - vinyl, paper-planners, alarm clocks, disposable cameras, game nights. Bookshops are “digital detox zones” with cafés, events and open-mic nights.
The previously diminishing concept of local, in-person community has crept back. Corporate CSR budgets increasingly back local initiatives - grassroots sports, youth clubs, events and community facilities. ‘Digital Sabbaticals' for young adults became common-place with 3 to 6 months spent off-grid, and the unplugged travel sector now booms.
As evidence for the efficacy of ‘free’ antidotes grew, ‘Disconnection prescriptions’ became mainstream in mental healthcare; ‘Helicopter’ parenting continues to give way to ‘cavalier parenting.’ Kids fall. They get back up. Chores are back in vogue along with teen jobs. Band-aid sales have gone up, inversely correlated with the decline of antidepressants.
In education, whilst tech and AI remain critical subjects in this tech-enabled world, their use in other disciplines has decreased with schools reviving slow learning: books, pens, gardening and map-reading. ‘Life lessons’ include media-literacy, financial management, “how to hold a real conversation” and “how to manage conflict” . Offline competence matters again and the humanities have received a new emphasis and boost as the ‘soul’ subjects that distinguish us from AI.
As global governments woke up to the shifting public sentiment, 35 countries (so far) have enforced age-restrictions on social media. The Advertiser Revolt of 2027 effectively forced the social business models away from outrage and insecurity-fuelling toward quality-first content. Paid tiers were introduced for those who wanted to reinstate friend-only feeds or editing-control over 3rd party content.
The ‘Digital Balance’ sector is booming and IRL (in-real-life) is big business once again.
Naive? Perhaps. But a huge cultural shift is coming… you feel it as so do most people. And many elements of this utopia, especially the shifts in social norms and perception, I now consider my professional mission…
a quest to reclaim technology as an enabler for our real lives as opposed to a destination where we spend most of them.
And deeper than that:
To remind people in a dopamine-driven, hack-obsessed, over-consumption world that happiness and pleasure are not the same thing, indeed they conflict.
To promote the age-old wisdom that happiness comes from embracing people, place and perspective (or ‘soul’ time): time in nature, sport, community, the arts, creativity, skills-building and collaboration.
The phone is not really the problem
The smartphone is awesome. A truly magical wand in our pockets that can enable soul time: inspiration, logistics management, event-booking, education and community-building. It’s much more specifically infinite scroll and the attention (addiction) economy that is causing most of the problems.
It’s the ‘free’ business model of doom-scrolling (along with its sophisticated algorithms that sate our worst human instincts) that is lobotomising society. An industry that’s literally mining us of 720 billion minutes per day (143 mins/ user/ day), 260 trillion minutes or 500 million years of collective human time annually (source). The average 18 year old is currently on course to spend 93% of their free time for the rest of their lives in scroll (source).
And it’s not just the time-opportunity cost, but the damage done to our powers of concentration - especially pernicious to young brains still wiring-up - but a problem for all who now exist in a distracted state of multitasking overwhelm with the weight of global problems on our shoulders.
‘A model that’s literally mining us of 720 billion minutes per day (143 mins/ user/ day), 260 trillion minutes or 500 million years of collective human time annually’
Maybe you have more self-control - well done - but if you’re not worried about these stats for civilisation’s sake, read them again.
And I’m not saying I don’t deeply care about specific ‘harms’: the proven links to child anxiety, extremism, polarisation or dis-information- entrenching insecurities and tribal instincts. But I see these as downstream from the issues of time and focus and shifting adult perceptions as the key to unlocking action.
In recent years we’ve seen the total extinction of boredom. Children never experience it despite the evidence of its critical importance for creativity, agency and resilience-building. The average child now spends less time outdoors than a high security inmate (source). And how often do any of us adults sit with our thoughts, processing or making sense of our experiences, chewing on curiosity rather than tapping it into Google or ChatGPT? We don’t, not even on the can.
‘The average child now spends less time outdoors than a high security inmate’
For as long as our attention is manipulated, we are not in full control of our own lives. If we’re not careful, the next great social divide will be between those who know how to harness it and go ‘deep’ and those who don’t (likely, as with all disparities, to fall along socio-economic lines). The former will rule the latter (as China appreciates).
But enough with the gloom. The tides are shifting.
Introducing Scroll Aware…
…with constructive optimism at its core.
Scroll Aware is a new social enterprise to tackle tech addiction and a collective-action movement to reclaim time, attention and soul in a screen-saturated world. A national (international?) #LessScrollMoreSoul consumer ‘health’ campaign will kick it off soon with many high profile partnerships in place or in discussion.
Whilst the zeitgeist is shifting (see the recent Deloitte survey where 53% of GenZ favour a ban on social media for U16s), many initiatives are discounted as doom-mongering (even if truth-telling) and/or luddite. As such, Scroll Aware has a fabulous opportunity to shape a positive conversation with measurable targets for behavioural change that invert the scroll:soul ratio.
Scroll Aware is a non-partisan social enterprise. It’s a positive, antidote-based take on the challenge and less anti-tech or anti-phone as pro-people, pro-place, and pro-perspective. 'Less Scroll' is the push - shining light on the addiction economy incentives and imploring brakes and boundaries, with 'More Soul' the pull - reminding people to act on the age-old, life-affirming benefits of offline living and in-person time; re-emphasising the benefits of nature, sport, community, art and more.
Scroll Aware is a coalition of businesses, influential ambassadors and not-for-profits united under a ‘Less Scroll, More Soul’ banner and committed to cross-pollinating the best of each others’ work.
Together, we want to give people the inspiration and courage to log off, look up, and live more intentionally.
What you can do:
Professionally…
Please share this mission with any consumer brands, charities or organisations in your network who are in the business of ‘less scroll’ (digital balance) or ‘more soul’ ie. promoting sport, leisure, nature, hospitality, toys, events or community. Forward them this blog and/or our champions summary.
Get your own organisation involved (share with leadership, marketing, CSR and HR teams).
In September, we’re hosting a London Summit of ‘champions’ and partners who believe in this mission to shape and launch the collective action manifesto.
Personally…
Share share share. Share this. Share the website. Please share your thoughts on your social channels and reach out to anyone in your network who might be able to help us amplify this message.
Pledge to more intentional living. It’s free. We’re building a waitlist right now to whom we'’ll be sharing updates and short nuggets of motivation, inspiration and recommendations for more intentional living.
Get a ‘Smaart Pocket’: The gift of time. A sleeping bag for your phone to visibly signal your intentionality, when with friends, children, colleagues or to yourself when you feel the need for focus or relaxation (with % of proceeds to Scroll Aware. UK delivery only for now). In fact, ask your organisation/ employer to buy them for all their staff or for client-gifting…
Try our free ‘smartphone habit audit’ for a personalised report on your habits, or download free phone screensavers for personal use or venue-signage for your workplace or hospitality venue.
Know anyone famous? Send them my way…. we’re actively seeking high profile patrons and ambassadors who want to be part of building a legacy project.
Join me. Both volunteers and future hires are so welcome to reach out.
I’ll close with a huge ‘thank you’ to all those who have supported and advised me on this so far, given me their time and opened up their contact books. Heroes, the lot of you. And I’m delighted to welcome everyone else to the Less Scroll, More Soul people-powered movement.
Join us. And let’s go.
This is brilliant. It’s what I wish for too. I’m hoping that local face to face communities become the norm, and would like to create one of my own. Thank you Jessica for the work you do.
Really pleased to read this Jess, it’s great!