The Summer We Put Our Phones Down

There was once a time when summers didn’t live inside a screen; It lived in paper maps. Postcards, paperbacks slightly swollen from sun cream, playing cards, and holiday journals filled with ticked photos and half-finished thoughts.

This summer, as notifications compete for every spare second and doomscrolling for 5 minutes turns into hours, rediscover the joy of unplugging and reconnecting with nature.

Attention Restoration Theory

ART suggests that recovery occurs when we are exposed to environments that engage involuntary attention instead. Natural settings such as flowing water, blooming gardens, or shifting clouds gently capture our attention. This state, known as “soft fascination,” allows the brain’s directed attention system to rest and replenish.

In contrast, digital environments feel engaging but cognitively taxing. Scrolling through social media feeds, watching rapid-fire video content, or playing high-stimulation games may feel like switching off. Still, they often create what ART would classify as “hard fascination”, which is stimuli that fully capture attention while still requiring continuous cognitive processing.

By comparison, softer, lower-demand experiences allow the mind to drift, recover, and reset. We think it’s time to go outside!

Paper as a Place to Pause

If soft fascination is what the mind needs to recover, then some of the most restorative experiences are also the simplest and often the most analogue.

Love photography or simply want to cherish summer memories more meaningfully? Consider stepping away from the overwhelming array of settings and filters on smartphones and instead investing in a film or disposable camera.

These simpler formats encourage a different kind of attention. You can quietly capture moments without overthinking composition, angles, or lighting. There is no instant review, no endless retake, no pressure to optimise the image before you’ve even experienced the moment.

Beach reads offer a similar kind of escape. A paperback opened on a train, in a park, or by the sea creates a self-contained world that doesn’t compete for your attention or interrupt your focus. There are no notifications, no tabs to switch between, and no endless scroll pulling you away from the moment. Instead, there is simply a story, rhythm, and the slow unfolding of pages. It’s a form of attention that feels calm and continuous.

Paper games bring that same simplicity into shared moments. In pub gardens or parks, a folded quiz sheet, a deck of cards or a quick game of noughts and crosses on the back of a receipt becomes an effortless way to connect without screens in the way. There is something refreshingly unpolished about it, no setup screens, no charging, no apps, just conversation, laughter and a bit of friendly competition. These small paper rituals turn waiting time into social time, where attention is shared rather than fragmented, and the moment feels fully lived rather than half-distracted.