A Black Girls Guide to Going Analog

In the day and age where social media has literally taken over our lives, more people are craving the nostalgia of an analog lifestyle: from physical media of scrapbooks, photo albums, handwritten letters, CDs, and even collecting DVDs. Instead of complaining that we are losing recipes, we are doing something about it. From the viral DIY Louise Carmen journals taking over #journaltok, to the return of the polaroid camera, we are slowly getting back to memory keeping. I mean, I’m tired of buying more storage on my phone, so those 12 cent photo prints from CVS will do. Plus it’s so much more fun to flip through a scrapbook you made yourself than scrolling through thousands of photos on your phone.

Why I Love Scrapbooking

I’ve always been a crafty girl but within recent years, scrapbooking has become my favorite form of self care. It’s the perfect mixture of getting creative with scissors and glue while having a forever memory of that vacation, girls night, or birthday party. I have spent so many Saturdays sitting on my couch just recapping date nights, concerts, and my morning coffee shop visits, and through my little scrapbook. It is my intentional time to remember that creativity can be found through ripped pieces of paper and washi tape. It’s the little feeling of joy I get every time I collect little pieces of “trash”

In addition to this being a super cheap hobby, scrapbooking is a simple way to get back to that analog lifestyle without breaking the bank. I watched a girl make an entire book from collected scraps of mail and paper around her house. Where most hobbies come with expensive materials or a heavy machine, I’ll take my paper cutter and glue sticks any day—it’s the simplest, most heart warming way I’ve found to unplug.

Scrapbooking is Created Through Imperfection

 There’s really no wrong way to do it. It’s not a special technique or a class you have to take, sometimes the best spreads are the ones that didn’t take much thought. There have been many times where I just randomly placed a bunch of photos on a page and now those are my favorite spreads. Getting back to the analog lifestyle is meant to release stress. The goal is peace not perfection.