This month’s new status symbol: offline

An analogue end of summer

Aug 03, 2026

The rich in taste are choosing to “opt out” this summer.

Privacy and being offline are the new status symbols. Eugene Healey explores this idea more in depth in Post-Luxury Status Symbol #1: Connected Privacy, which is part of his series on status shifting from products to behaviours. He talks about the BlackBerry being a flex a while back, showing you were needed at all hours. Nowadays, it’s the opposite: being chronically offline is a privilege.

Interestingly, I was reading another piece making a related point that oversharing every part of your life isn’t cool anymore, it’s predictable. Could be. Being original takes courage and work, and it also requires time to recharge.

For the past five weeks I’ve been learning from Vogue Creative Directors, stylists and collaborators and one of the many takeaways for me was that your sources of inspiration, your references inform your output. That is true both from a creative standpoint, but also it applies to real life too. If your daily references are doom scrolling, colleagues you don’t get along with and no exercise, what do you think your actions will be?

The reality is we don’t realize the impact different habits, moments, people (be it those we follow online) have on us, because it’s a slow burn. It builds over time. And that deepens the gap between who you are and who you are becoming.

So the point of going offline is in fact to curate the input, be intentional with your choices and allow yourself to process. Most of the time we consume without taking the time to reflect and assimilate only what’s aligned.

What's Worth Your Attention

Worth Sitting With

Going offline is a luxury, and depending on your lifestyle, it will take a different form for you than for someone else. But within that, you are the master of how your life unfolds, and you decide what it looks like.

So, what’s your offline menu this month?