My name is Philipp and you are reading Creativerly, the internet corner where I unpack my musings, curate and write about noteworthy apps and software, and explore the latest trends in design and tech.

Hey and welcome to Creativerly 358 👋

To those who already celebrated the new year, just like me, I wish you a happy new year, and hope you had a great start into 2026. I decided to kick off the new year at my happy place which is on my road cycle, cruising around wintery scenery at -3 degrees Celsius. The weather was beautiful, and while it was cold indeed, it was exactly the fresh and active start I needed for this new year. Whenever I hop on my road cycle, it feels like flipping a switch. It may sound cliché but it literally puts me in a better place, no matter what I am going through right now, hopping on the cycle and heading out for a ride is all I need to be the happiest person ever.

I am usually not the person to set new year's resolutions, but for 2026, I am setting out for doing new things, gaining new experiences, embrace positivity, focus on the things I can control, I can build, and especially create the time for those kind of things.

Besides that, I am also excited to start into the new year with a fresh new blog post for Creativerly. My backlog of posts is still packed, but I am getting slowly back to writing and finishing up one post after the other, which also makes me excited about the new year.

I wish you all the best, and I am deeply thankful for every single one of you sticking around and reading my newsletter, and the blog posts I am publishing.

The 'save for later' paradox: why we hoard digital content we never read

You probably have saved 500 articles, 200 videos, and 100 podcasts, right? You will get to them ... someday. But will you really?

I know, I know. There have been loads of in-depth, and lengthy discussion about whether save-for-later apps actually work, or if they are just digital graveyards packed with articles, blog posts, videos, and podcast you wanted to consume but never revisited. The 'save for later' paradox is the gap between our intention to consume content and our actual behavior. And it is not only as present as ever, but is likely intensifying due to the explosion of AI-generated content and the accelerating pace of information creation. The internet has always been flooded with new content every single day, but with the recent developments of AI-generated content, the flood reached new highs.

AI tools are now flooding the internet with content at an unprecedented scale, which makes it harder than ever to discern what is worth saving, let alone reading. Looking back, information was scarce, and saving it made sense. However, now information is overabundant, but our saving habits have not adapted. We need to ask ourself the question whether "saving for later" is still a rational strategy in an age where more content will always be generated tomorrow.

The more we save, the more we feel overwhelmed, and the less we actually consume.

Obviously, that does not affect everyone. Personally, I like the idea of having a personal library of articles and blog posts I can come back to whenever I want to read something. I set some dedicated time aside to simply browse through my read-it-later app, read some articles, and delete others I am no longer interested in. Information overload can be overwhelming, but there is a chance to filter signal from noise and create your personalized information and content streams, which can become a goldmine of knowledge.

Read the whole post here:

The ‘save for later’ paradox: why we hoard digital content we never read
You’ve saved 500 articles, 200 videos, and 100 podcasts, promising to revisit them ‘someday.’ But will you? Explore the ‘save for later’ paradox: why we hoard digital content, the illusion of productivity, and how to embrace (or break) the cycle in an age of AI-generated overload.
CreativerlyPhilipp Temmel
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Mental Wealth

❯ On doing new things – “I have been doing a lot of new things as of recently. There are multiple reasons for that, one of them is that I found myself in a weird head-space a couple of months ago, as I was going through a breakup. I knew that I wanted to change things in my life. I wanted to introduce myself to new things, routines, habits, patterns, experiences. In the first place, I wanted to distract myself from the weird head-space, I did not want to deal with it. However, I quickly realized that I enjoy it way more actually dealing with this weird head-space, talking about my feelings and emotions, and opening up to my family and close friends. While this fueled my healing process, exposing myself to new things and experiences, had a similar effect, but it also helped me learn about my needs, what I value in life, and what boosts my self-esteem.”

❯ I Wish People Were More Public – “Probably not a popular thing to say today. The zeitgeisty thing to say is that we should all log off and live terrible cottagecore solarpunk lives raising chickens and being mindful. I wish people were more online and more public. I have rarely wished the opposite. Consider this post addressed to you, the reader.”

❯ When the Internet Felt Like Freedom – “The first time I went online, it felt like freedom. I was no longer just a kid in a small Eastern European country. Suddenly I was part of the whole world. The early internet was a blast. I feel very lucky to have lived in the 90s and to be there at the birth of the web. I could talk about dial-up modems and the strange beeping sounds when you tried to connect, but that was only the surface. The real change was deeper.”

❯ Why voice is not the user interface of the future – “In the last few months, various prominent figures in big tech have claimed that voice is the user interface of the future. It’s an interesting revival of voice interaction, which already fell flat on its face in the late 2010s during the era of voice assistants. Despite that failure, the idea is back, and I’m here to tell you why voice is not the user interface of the future.”

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Appendix

❯ ICYMI

I wrapped up the year with Creativerly by reflecting on the apps that became my favourite ones throughout the past year. It is a tradition that has been ongoing since 2021. The past year, I beamce more thoughtful about the volume of apps I am featuring and writing about in Creativerly, as well as more selective and mindful about the apps I am using on a daily basis. And this is also reflected and Creativerly's Favourite Apps of 2025.

❯ Quick Bits

Till next time! 👋‌‌‌‌

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