In recent years, there’s been a noticeable rise in what some call ‘trinket’ culture, small, often cute collectible items such as Sonny Angels, Jellycats, and other niche figurines or plush toys.
Psychological Needs and the Role of Collecting
Collecting can meet several core psychological needs that support wellbeing. According to positive psychology, our wellbeing is maintained and improved by positive emotions, engaging activities, meaningful relationships, a sense of purpose, and feelings of achievement.
At its most basic level, interacting with items we enjoy or find meaningful, like a favourite plush or figurine, can elicit feelings of pleasure, comfort and satisfaction. These positive emotional experiences are then positive reinforcement; when an activity makes us feel good, we’re more likely to repeat it. So, if owning or searching for a particular trinket brings joy, the desire to continue collecting grows.
Collecting also serves a social function. Research shows that shared interests and hobbies promote social connection and can lead to communities that offer emotional support, which is a key factor in coping with life’s challenges. Online platforms, in particular, have made it easier to connect with others who share the same niche interests, contributing to a sense of belonging.
Nostalgia, Identity and Emotion Regulation
Nostalgia likely plays an important role, too. Engaging with nostalgic objects or activities can help maintain a stable sense of identity and support emotional regulation, especially during periods of stress or uncertainty. For Gen Z, who’ve grown up during a time of global instability twinned with increasingly online lives, these small tokens of joy may offer comfort, grounding, and even a link to a simpler or idealised version of the past.
Potential Downsides of Collecting
While collecting can be beneficial, it’s not without its risks. When a hobby begins to dominate someone’s life, either taking up significant space, becoming financially burdensome, or fostering unhealthy competition, it may negatively affect wellbeing. Social dynamics around collecting can become toxic if they shift from shared joy to comparison, competition, or status. In some cases, collecting may also serve as a form of avoidance, distracting from deeper emotional or psychological challenges, rather than helping to resolve them.
A Timeless Human Habit
The rise of online communities, social media, and digital marketplaces has made collecting more visible, more social, and more accessible. Trends may shift, and the specific items collected will evolve, but collecting, whether for joy, comfort, meaning, or connection, is likely here to stay. Trinket culture may just be the latest expression of a long-standing human habit.
If you’re looking to reset your relationship with your tech, forming healthier habits is possible with a bit of thought, planning, and self-compassion.
Start with a Clear Goal
Before you jump into making changes, take a moment to think about why you want a healthier relationship with your tech. Defining your goal clearly can give you direction, a plan, and improve your motivation.
Ask yourself:
Is this a long- or short-term goal?
Can you break it into smaller steps?
Short-term goals help you stay on track and build confidence, while long-term goals provide something to strive for, which is linked to better wellbeing. For example, your overall goal might be to ‘Stop checking emails after work’. A useful short-term step could be setting a 10-minute window for emails, then putting your phone away for the evening, then muting notifications. You can make your tech work for you by using screen time limiters on specific apps after work.
When setting goals, try to frame them as something you want to move towards rather than something you’re trying to avoid. Instead of a goal of ‘Stop using tech’, try ‘Spend more time doing things I enjoy in the evening’. Research shows that goals based on positive outcomes, rather than avoiding negatives, are more likely to improve your wellbeing and help you stay motivated.
Be Specific and Measurable
A vague goal like ‘Spend less time on my phone’ is hard to stick to. Instead, be specific: ‘Put my phone in another room for 10 minutes after dinner’. That way, you’ll be able to measure your progress and feel a sense of achievement as you stick to your goal. If you want to increase your time away from tech, you can set new goals as time goes on. Increasing your tech-free time to 20 or 30 minutes will help build the habit over time, and show how far you’ve come!
A simple but effective way to stay on track is to use mental imagery. This means imagining yourself in the future, and the possibilities available to you as you work on and achieve your goals. Picture the steps you took to get there, what decisions you made, what challenges you overcame, and how you will feel when you’ve done it. You could visualise one week from now, then two weeks, a month, and so on. This process helps build belief in yourself and maintains motivation.
Make It Practical and Doable
A goal like ‘Spend more time on activities I enjoy’ sounds lovely, but what does that actually look like? Start small: even just 10 minutes focused on your interests can lead to big changes in your wellbeing, and build long-term habits around your tech use. Consistency is key. Choosing behaviours that you know are manageable regularly are more likely to lead to lasting success.
If you want hints and tips on how to make new, Happy Habits, try the Happy Habits Box or Positive Postcards; science-backed tools for everyday happiness.
Doomscrolling is the habit of endlessly scrolling through online media, consuming unfulfilling content and bad news. Whilst it might feel almost addictive, research has shown that the fear of missing out or being uninformed drives people’s inability to stop scrolling.
The fear of missing out comes from feelings of uncertainty and anxiety about current events, where consuming more information makes people temporarily feel more certain and in control. When algorithmic recommendations and ‘endless’ feeds then present similar content, we may experience excessive scrolling.
Being immersed in negative news may feel like it keeps us informed, but over time this has a negative impact on our psychological wellbeing and overall life satisfaction. Research has shown that people who spent just a few minutes daily consuming negative news feeds experienced fewer positive emotions, less optimism, and more negative emotions than people who did not.
What’s the difference between Doomscrolling and Brain Rot?
Both doomscrolling and brain rot are linked to lower wellbeing, and anxiety when not using a phone. Research has shown that overall excessive internet use in younger people is related to a reduction in the brains ability to processes reward, and regulate behaviour and emotion regulation.
How can we become more aware and stop doomscrolling?
You don’t have to ditch technology to break a scrolling habit – regardless of what content you are consuming. It’s all about being self-aware by asking yourself why you’re using your phone, and how you feel. This takes practice and a conscious effort to recognise and change habits.
If you notice you are scrolling with no clear purpose and feel unfulfilled, you can switch to something more intentional. Research shows that positive emotions help us recover more quickly from negative experiences, so choosing activities that genuinely uplift you can make a real difference.
Setting clear boundaries on when and how long you use your phone can help reduce scrolling, and build healthier habits. Having an enjoyable alternative activity will make this easier. To really reinforce this habit, you can reward yourself each time you make the choice to say ‘No’ to scrolling.
Try This: Happy Habits & Positive Postcards
If you’re looking to build these practices into daily life, check out the Happy Habits Box – a toolkit designed to help you find joy in the everyday. Positive postcards provide ideas and guidance for small, everyday activities to promote positivity.
This week I am attending the Early Career Hallucinations Research Group annual conference. This is the first non-lockdown year I am attending the hybrid format online, and have some reflections after my first day.
Benefits
The biggest advantage is accessibility. Physically, this hybrid format is incredibly convenient. Attendees don’t have to travel if the date, location, or other factors don’t align with your schedule. For me, my tiny human is starting school full time this week, so it just wasn’t practical—both logistically and emotionally—to spend four days in Portugal.
There’s also the cost aspect of accessibility. Not everyone has a research budget that covers travel expenses, so hybrid events allow more people, especially early-career researchers with tighter finances, to participate and contribute.
Another benefit is that you can still fully engage. I can take notes, learn about new research, and celebrate successes with my colleagues, all from a distance.
Drawbacks
On the downside, there’s the issue of excessive screen time. I’ll be attending for three days, and that means a lot of Zoom sessions.
Plus, I miss the coffee break interactions—those spontaneous chats with old friends and new colleagues that are so integral to conferences. Networking is a key element, and it’s hard to have the same meaningful conversations when you’re not there in person.
Emma Palmer-Cooper 