Is 2025 the year we’ve reached peak consumer tech?
We have wearables and devices that track our every step, breath and burp, awake or asleep. LLMs can tell us anything, anywhere, in a second (as long as we’ve got our trusty internet connection). I have about 5 different apps to pay for parking, depending on which London borough I’m in, and my Spotify algorithm is so finely tuned it knows what I want to listen to at exactly 7.48am on a Wednesday morning. Wearable AI friends are a thing (albeit a thing people don’t seem to want).
For many, myself included, the question being asked is: has it all gotten… a bit much?
Perhaps. Technological overwhelm is real, and the continual advancements and integration of AI into our everyday lives is exacerbating that. We’re more connected to each other than ever, but we’re also lonelier than ever, and Brits are generally feeling pessimistic about the impact of the Internet on society. But what can we do about it?
Digital minimalism and reclaiming attention
In an effort to take back my attention, I deleted social media from my phone back in September, and I don’t miss it. I log in to LinkedIn once a day on my computer and check Instagram on desktop perhaps once a week. I haven’t yet weaned myself off Reddit, but I’ve generally replaced scrolling with Sudoku and Duolingo (¡Hola a todos!).
I’m slowly becoming part of a growing trend called ‘digital minimalism’ – the term for a life less digitised or finding tranquillity in the digital age. The concept’s simple – just like we might go through our house room by room to declutter and destress, we do the same with our digital lives, reducing noise and notifications to find a little more peace.
And it’s not just me.
The term has been increasing in popularity over the last five years but took off in the latter half of 2025. Searches for dumb phones – simple models which don’t have the bells and whistles we’ve been told we need to exist – are on the up too. It’s not surprising that the r/digitalminimalism community has 114k members and counting, a forum that’s full of ideas of how to log off and become more present.
To be clear, digital minimalism isn’t about removing anything with a circuit board from your life, rather, it’s about designing technology that doesn’t demand your attention. There’s an argument to be made that beyond a lifestyle choice, it’s a reaction to bad design and a desire to surround ourselves with few, better things.
Case in point? Even iPods are having a revival moment, partly fuelled by the discourse around media ownerships and artist rights, partly by tired millennials turning to nostalgia to escape the bombardment of modern life. iPods are wildly heralded as an excellent piece of design and a pivotal moment in consumer tech history (although the less said about the new ipod ‘sock’ – sorry, ‘pocket’ – the better).
But wait, you say. You work for a tech consultancy. You’re supposed to live and breathe this stuff.
And therein lies the dilemma; how can one be surrounded by technology and yet at the same time, feel the need to escape it?
Here is the thing: I am not opposed to technology. But I want to make conscious, informed decisions about how I choose to integrate it into my life.
The parking app situation is the perfect example of this. My local council replacing parking meters with apps is great on the one hand, but takes away an element of choice on the other, forcing me to get my phone out when perhaps I’d rather just go to the machine and pay by card. For me, it’s an intellectual argument, but for those without the ability to download apps, it’s added friction and potential parking fines.
And this is the part that matters, as a tech consultancy.
Because you can create all the apps, integrations and tools as you want, but ultimately, if people don’t want to use them, or they make their lives harder instead of easier, you’re creating unnecessary resistance.
Businesses shouldn’t rush to evolve their tech because everyone else is. Instead, they should be speaking to the people using their tech – whether customers, employees, suppliers – and finding out what’s going to positively impact their experiences. Starting with human behaviour, needs and motivators, and building experiences and technology around them.
If you’re interested in how we’re approaching this and want to know how a jobs-to-be-done framework can help you build solutions that work for your users or your customers, we’d love to chat. Get in touch!
