Is Our Obsession With Fall Activities Really About Getting Off Our Phones? Here’s Kenzie Elizabeth’s Perfect Plan for Autumn

Fall might be the coziest season of all, but on House Guest, host Kenzie Elizabeth points to a bigger cultural shift: The pull of “grandma hobbies” to step away from phones, screens, and the nonstop scroll.

“I feel like most of my life is spent trying to find hobbies that get me off my phone,” Kenzie admits, before noting that needlepointing, sourdough baking, mahjong nights, and gardening in her garage are her beloved fall rituals, which line up perfectly with a broader Gen Z shift.

Knitting, crocheting, scrapbooking, baking, and gardening are all trending on TikTok and #BookTok, giving younger audiences a sense of calm, accomplishment, and connection. The “grandma core” aesthetic celebrates the cozy, handmade vibe, but underneath the surface, the trend reflects a growing desire to unplug. As Kenzie says, these rituals “make Martha Stewart and Ina Garten proud.” More importantly, they create space away from digital fatigue.

Grandma’s hobbies as a digital detox 

Kenzie is hardly alone in looking for screen-free joy. She explains that she even bought one of those “brick” phone lockout devices to limit her scrolling, in hopes that replacing those hours on Instagram with a tactile project changes the rhythm of her day. “I just got one of those brick things, and I need to go back to reading a good old magazine, a good old cookbook,” she says.

Her fall plan includes mornings spent outside with coffee, wrapped in a blanket, and paging through vintage issues of Martha Stewart Living. In her words, “That is what I see for myself.” These activities resonate in colder weather because they’re slower, physical, and rooted in presence. The hunt for the magazines also lends itself to a perfect fall activity: She’s acquired her collection from Facebook Marketplace, driving an hour to pick them up around Nashville. “I’m going to find a way to display them perfectly,” she says.

The cultural pull of fall magic 

Kenzie is clear about why fall is her season for a kind of reset. “There is nothing that I love more than fall. The football, the chili, the food, the recipes, the cooking, the baking, the fall leaves, the music, the sourdough, all the grandma hobbies,” she sahres. It’s a love letter to the season, but also an invitation to reframe how we spend it.

Culturally, fall has always lent itself to cozy rituals—apple picking, pumpkin patches, book clubs and movie marathons—but the shift now is in the intention. These moments are becoming less about aesthetics for social media and more about recovery from it. The rise of vinyl record collecting, letter writing, and jigsaw puzzles points to the same need Kenzie voices: to break from overstimulation and return to tangible, screen-free practices.

Food, folks, & fun

Kenzie also mentioned seeing “article nights” on TikTok—gatherings where people bring a dish and an interesting article to share. “This doesn’t need to be any scholarly article,” she clarifies. “I’m talking something that’s interesting to me, entertaining, and I just want to get off my phone scrolling.”

The format transforms passive consumption into active discussion. Instead of doom-scrolling alone, you’re choosing specific content to engage with and then talking about it with other people. “This is one of those things that I say I’m going do and then we’ll check back in a couple of months,” she admits.

But even here, the underlying theme is less about perfection and more about connection. Flipping through an Ina Garten cookbook and then turning it into a full-on dinner or inviting friends over for a Gilmore Girls friendsgiving (which she’s planning, complete with guests dressed as characters) becomes a chance to slow down, savor, and build community outside of phones. 

Treating yourself by romanticizing life 

Kenzie wraps her seasonal report with a “full life edit”—a plan to declutter, reorganize, and romanticize her space. “My home is going to be so organized and clean and perfect,” she says, describing pumpkin candles, cozy corners, and fresh mums. But it’s the act of curating and caring for her environment—not just the result—that embodies the essence of fall magic.

Her reminder is simple: “Make it a goal to do one thing for Martha and one thing for Ina every single week.” Taken literally, it’s about recipes and homemaking. But taken on a larger scale, it’s about embracing practices that get us off our phones and into our lives.

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