Unplug: Make More Meaningful Connections in 2026

By Craig Smith

On average, we now spend four and a half to seven hours a day on our screens. We are increasingly isolated from each other, and social media gets a lot of blame for that. The US Surgeon General refers to this as a loneliness epidemic, with severe mental, emotional and physical consequences. Yikes! What are we to do?

Fortunately, there is a way out: play games, work puzzles or join groups. All of these make us feel better, and the number of people engaged in any of these activities is up 30% in the last five years. And while the pandemic may have gotten the ball rolling, the upward trend to non-screen, socially engaging fun, is growing. And it isn’t just boomers—Gen Z and millennials are in on the board game action, in part because of new games like Cascadia, Codenames and Ticket to Ride, but classics like Chess, Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, Clue and Go.

The increasing popularity for games is based exactly what you might think it is—people are looking for a way to digitally detox in ways that foster face-to-face interaction. Higher quality of design helps, and crowd funding makes it possible for more games to be released. Local businesses now offer game nights. But that’s just games. Clubs are also stronger than ever. As in book clubs.

Betty Teller, who moved to Napa from DC over twenty years ago, helped start a Cookbook Book Club when she arrived. “I was part of a poker club in Washington, but I’m a Foodie, so this made sense,” she said. It’s a private group of fifteen or sixteen. Every other month, the host for that month selects a cookbook, and members sign up to make recipes. “There are two non-negotiable rules,” explained Teller. “One is that you can’t double the recipe, and the other is that you have to follow the recipe exactly.” Attendance is usually around ten per meeting, with the sixth meeting of the year being open to members’ partners. “The real benefit to this is the community we’ve formed. We see each other outside of meetings. Plus, because we use cookbooks from around the world, I now have the world’s most ridiculous pantry.” Teller encourages people to start their own groups around whatever interests them. She noticed that dinner parties seem to be a thing of the past. “With this group, I’m assured of five a year.”

Cass Walker and Marcia Hull were two of the founding members of a more traditional women’s book club that has been meeting monthly since 2000, including during COVID, when they met online. Of the twelve members, half are originals. “Over the years, some have dropped out because of personal issues, then come back,” said Walker. It’s not just about the books, either. “Sometimes people don’t even read the book, but they come for the discussion,” she said. “In a lot of ways, we’ve become a support group for each other.”

“Sometimes I don’t even like the books we read,” said Hull, “but I love hearing what others think. It’s become a safe place. After all these years, we click. That doesn’t mean we agree with each other about a book, but it doesn’t matter.” Hull has also learned that “Not all Pulitzer Prize winners are good!”

Both women agree that starting a book club is easier than you might think. “We ask somebody to join, ask them if they knew anybody, and before long we were meeting,” said Walker.

Books not your thing? Games might be, and their popularity is soaring, especially with younger generations. Zachary Hortom, from the University of Pittsburgh, has been studying the trend. “Board games are as old as civilization itself,” he said in a BBS interview. “There’s a board game for every genre now,” be it nature, sci-fi, food or whatever. “Check online for meetups. Chances are that a local club has a game night.”

And if you’re ready for the big leagues, check out Mahjong. Eve Kahn has been teaching Mahjong at the Senior Center for five years now, when she took over for Rachal Friedman. “It’s competitive and friendly, a real mind game, kind of like Gin Rummy.” Kahn says that a national Mahjong governing body sends out new “rules” every year. “No matter how long you’ve been playing, everybody has to more or less start over every year with the new knowledge,” she says.

And we’ll end this with—jigsaw puzzles. There’s a quote, “A jigsaw puzzle won’t solve your problems, but it’s a problem you can solve.” I couldn’t believe it when my wife, Denise Layten, recently spread a thousand jigsaw pieces across a table, I wondered if she’s lost her mind. I shook my head, sat down, picked up a piece, and began looking for its mate. Then I looked for the next one. The next thing I knew, an hour had gone by. And we were both perfectly content.