A Love Letter to Physical Media That’s Worth Keeping.

By: Megan Waddington

Somewhere between the return of physical media and the rise of what TikTok calls a “journal ecosystem,” something has shifted. We document everything now, screenshots, voice notes, camera rolls swollen with half-remembered moments, yet almost nothing is curated. There are jokes online that say, “to my grandchildren, I leave my 40,000 screenshots.” It’s funny because it’s uncomfortably close to the truth.

There’s a reason places like Climax Books - named fashion’s favourite bookstore- are popping up as cultural destinations with stores in London and NYC. As British Vogue recently highlighted in late 2025, the cult bookshop founded by former Dazed editor-in-chief Isabella Burley is stocked with rare magazines, art books and VHS tapes, but it isn’t just a place to buy things. It’s a place to experience culture and the beauty of physical media on your own terms. It offers something increasingly rare: an encounter with media that feels slow and unmediated. 

2026 might be a year of small shifts: romanticising the everyday and rethinking how we consume what fills our days. Embracing more physical media doesn’t mean rejecting the digital world; it’s an expansion of it. Adding texture. Turning consumption into experience, and taste into something you can hold. Deciding what’s worth your attention. 

Discovering Climax Books and Isabella Burley’s love for meaningful physical media prompted a quiet rethink of how I document my life. In 2025, I leaned into slower, more intentional practices: journaling, collecting, preserving. I found myself genuinely loving the process. It’s something I’m taking with me into 2026. 

Journal ecosystem

I stopped trying to keep one perfect journal and let it become a system instead. Notes, scraps, photos, lists, and passing thoughts all live together. Some days I write, some days I collect. It’s less about discipline or routine, and more about paying attention to what feels worth keeping. It has become an archive of all the things I love and don’t want to forget. 

Magazines

There’s something undeniably chic about an archival magazine collection. Glossy spreads invite time and attention, something to return to rather than pass through. I started treating them as cherished objects, annotating pages and scrapbooking looks.

Film cameras

During my last few months at university, I picked up a film camera and a handful of disposable cameras; this was the best decision I could have made. I captured beautiful moments with my now long-distance friends that I have framed. I cherish and look at these more than any other pictures that sit forgotten on my phone. 

Postcards

Last October, I received a postcard from Madrid from someone close to me. His writing lingered longer than any text message ever could. It made me want to become the kind of person who sends affection through the post, messages meant to be kept, returned to, passed back and forth over time. To build a small archive of words from the people I love, addressed only to me.

Choosing what enters your world with intention, letting your environment reflect your tastes, and experiencing media as a personal act and not a blur of scrolling is how Muuz is starting 2026. Whether it’s a photobook that makes you pause mid-page, a postcard with someone you love handwriting on it, or a disposable camera roll full of unedited moments, these pieces ground you and slow you down. Physical media is a love letter that allows us to actively choose what to read, watch, and capture in a world where you are overwhelmed by the abundance of options.