Issue 02 - Analog New Year

Like any Gen Xer worth their salt, I do not care for being told I have to do something. Peer pressure never really worked on me as a kid. And generally, I need to understand the value of something myself before buying in.

Which is why the absolute fervor with which the marketing industry has embraced AI in nearly all its forms, and the accompanying “adapt or get left behind” messaging being beamed into my brain every, damn, day, is making the belligerent monkey inside me cast major side eye.

Stay with me for a minute. This isn’t another “AI is evil, coming for our jobs, and must be avoided at all costs” rant…exactly.

I’m not a luddite. I’m not afraid of technology. I’ve been in the digital marketing industry for a Gen Xer’s amount of time, and have witnessed and embraced all of the changes with the enthusiasm of someone with a curious mind and a love of novelty.

I use AI. I use it nearly daily in a professional capacity. The things the industry says it can do and what it can help marketers accomplish are all mostly true. 

As a human with a particular affinity for convenience, it can be incredibly difficult to resist AI’s siren song that promises a freshly asphalted path to productivity and efficiency. These are things that I acknowledge.

But the belligerent monkey has some questions. Like: 

The thing you hear the most from people who talk about the virtues of AI is the monumental productivity gains. You can get SO MUCH DONE in a fraction of the time. 

Okay great, so…does that mean we’re all about to get double the PTO? A national 4-day work week? 

Hold on a second, the monkey is laughing directly into my ear…

I’m pretty sure history has shown us that with every advance in technology, we’ve all simply taken on more work. 

I don’t know any marketers who are looking for more to do. If you are one, please get in touch with me. I’ve always wanted to see a unicorn.

As for who benefits, I dip into paranoid monkey territory. 

I have legitimate concerns about AI privacy and the ability of any entity, whether it be government or corporate, being able to easily build profiles, scrape social media, produce deep fakes, or utilize facial recognition for nefarious purposes, or simply to offer me a customized price at the grocery store. 

To say we are living in uncertain times where privacy is concerned is being very generous.

As for the costs…y’all…

The datacenters required to keep this whole thing running are an absolute blight on the environment, consuming obscene amounts of water and electricity, and raising utility prices for everyone.

Chatbots are breaking people’s brains because they don’t understand that it’s just spicy autocorrect.

And I honestly don’t even want to talk about what Grok is up to.

When an entire industry insists that I must participate in this…monkey no likey.

I have thought about this a lot over the last few months. And I’ve thought a lot about how to write about it. 

The belligerent monkey in me sees the belligerent monkey in you, who also doesn’t want to be told what to do.

I don’t want to tell you what to do. But I feel compelled to talk about what I see and about what doesn’t feel right. 

So much of this just doesn’t feel right to me. And based on what I’m reading from many of my peers, I’m definitely not alone.

Every time I use AI in my work, I acknowledge these costs, and I try to make judicious decisions in an effort to mitigate my impact. I can’t fight an entire industry, but I can set boundaries that work for me.

That’s why embracing analog activities in my personal time feels like an especially appropriate counterbalance in 2026. 

New York Magazine is calling it “friction-maxxing”. Maximizing life’s daily frictions that big tech keeps telling us need to be smoothed out. It seems like the only way to rebel against technology that threatens to consume every area of my life.

More real people time, more outdoor time, more books I can hold and smell, more handwritten notes, more time spent with my brain’s thinky thoughts. 

Abandon the cart and go to a brick and mortar store, walk through the nature preserve, visit the history museum, breathe the ocean air.

Let the monkey enjoy some time amongst the trees…before they’re all clearcut to make room for another datacenter.

There’s nothing more analog than preparing delicious treats for yourself and your loved ones— baking, mixing, stewing and brewing. 

This adorable Alice in Wonderland cookbook was gifted to me by a dear friend and I plan on using it to sharpen my pathetic cooking skills in the most whimsical of ways.

I am absolutely mesmerized by all of Jon Ching’s work. Surreal, wondrous, detailed, and every bit organic and alive. This piece is featured in January on my Jon Ching wall calendar.

This month’s picks for tuning in and tapping out.

Hey, remember physical media? Like, records, and CDs, and DVD’s? 

Remember owning the art you loved, carefully curating it, and not renting it from a company who can decide to disappear it on a whim? That’s what we’re doing this month.

Go buy a physical copy of your favorite album. Record, CD, cassette tape, I don’t care. No matter what it is, chances are you can get your hands on a physical copy of it. You’ll be delighted by how much joy you can get out of listening to an album you’ve heard a thousand times simply by playing a physical copy of it.

Go buy a DVD of your favorite movie, or better yet, actually go to the movies. Have an experience with your fellow movie lovers all out in the world together.

Okay, I know I said I wasn’t going to tell you what to do, but I feel pretty strongly about this. Apologies, though. On to the list!

🎙️Episode 870: My Other Self - This American Life. This episode focuses primarily on a reporter who creates an AI version of himself and sends it out into the world. It’s funny when he’s annoying telemarketers, but takes a turn when he has it talk to his friends and family.

📺 Pluribus - This is what happens when you really, really, really don’t want to be part of the hive mind.

🎵Nanobots - They Might Be Giants - Just a joyful tune about how everything’s gonna be just fine.

We’re going straight to the Mad Tea Party for this one.

Curiosi-Tea
1 cup canned lychee in syrup
8 cups water
6 Jasmine green tea bags
Zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1 lemon (optional)

As I write this, it is eleven days into 2026. Eleven days of unignorable cruelty, chaos, and uncertainty.

The questions that underlie most of what I do these days and the questions I hear from the people in my life are: What is happening? What do we do? Are we going to be okay?

I’m no history expert, but I don’t think I have to be one to see that what’s happening out there isn’t good.

I think the best path to being okay includes shoring up our communities, our courage, and our resilience. 

Going a bit more analog. Getting educated. Shedding excess and distraction. 

Making more conscious choices about how we spend our time. Fighting the patterns and behaviors that have been trained into us by the technology that smoothes out our daily lives. 

And continuing to ask ourselves who benefits from all this smoothing.

Thanks for sticking with me while I got a bit heavy this month. Hopefully you found some inspiration, respite, and joy. Until next time.

Stay Human,
Alexis