IAre you intimidated by a pile of unread books? Or put off by the climbing gear hiding in the cupboard? If you’re one of the UK adults who spends an average of 10 hours a day, five hours a day If we’re no longer staring at screens while playing games, maybe it’s time to join the offline revolution.
Instead of spending those five hours staring at a screen, you could read about 300 pages of a book, climb mount snowdonor – depending on your pace – run a marathon. Some even choose to turn off their devices during the day.
On Sunday, more than 1,000 people gathered Fiance to take back control of their free time and do a 24-hour digital detox. The event is organised by Offline Club, which says its mission is to “trade screen time for real time.” Those who have signed up will be invited to a Zoom call on Saturday where they will receive tips and tricks for surviving the next day without internet.
Philip, a 33-year-old brand manager from Rotterdam, the Netherlands, is one of the participants. Between working behind a desk all day and coming home to watch TV and browse social media, he can spend up to 14 hours a day staring at a screen.
He said: “I’m sick of them. I thought it might be nice to try it to feel a bit more relaxed. I want to live in the moment a bit more instead of scrolling through social media and seeing what other people are doing in their ‘perfect lives’.”
Philip wants “more face-to-face interaction and more trips outside.” Going through a whole day without relying on navigation apps to get from A to B or staying in constant contact with friends and family will be a challenge, but Philip said he was “excited” to take part.
Fernanda Grace, a 38-year-old community manager from Barcelona, Spain, will also be disconnecting on Sunday. She wants the digital detox to become a widespread and recurring event, along the lines of Earth Hour Where people are encouraged to donate 60 minutes to the planet by turning off non-essential lights.
Grace said: “Sometimes I just want to stop using my phone. When we do things in a group, it has a bigger impact. It’s like when you go to the gym and you have a friend waiting for you there, then you have to go.”
Since she discovered the Offline Club, she has already started making small changes: “When I go out to dinner with a friend, my phone never leaves my bag.”
Another habit Grace has adopted is using a traditional alarm clock instead of relying on her phone to wake up. “An email or WhatsApp can set the tone for the whole day. If it’s something urgent, it keeps you alert for the rest of the day. I’m trying not to do that anymore.”
She hopes to read some books, sleep better and get into the habit of responding to others less frequently. “I want to have a better relationship with social media in general and not really feel guilty about logging off.”
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The Offline Club held its first in-person “digital detox meetup” in Amsterdam in February. In the months since, the company has expanded to Paris, Dubai and London. At these meetups, phones are locked away for a few hours and attendees are encouraged to read or interact with each other. Sunday marks the club’s first attempt at a mass mobilization to get people to disconnect.
Ilya Kneppelhout, co-founder of the Offline Club, said people were surprised by how just a few hours offline “made them feel much less stressed and more connected to themselves and others.”
The company also organises an offline weekend getaway in the Dutch countryside, where phones are locked away on arrival. A ticket for the two-day event costs at least €425 (£356). Of the retreat, Kneppelhout said: “People had a lot of mental space. They left their jobs afterwards because they finally stopped and thought about their lives.”
Kneppelhout said the inspiration to start the club came after spending his own weekend without a phone. “I wasn’t reading enough, I wasn’t writing enough, and I wasn’t getting out into nature enough. Afterwards, I felt super creative. I came back with a lot of energy and inspiration.”
He has quit his job due to the company’s rapid growth. “(The Offline Club) is not financially sustainable yet. That’s one of the reasons we are expanding to different cities, but the business is working. We are grateful enough to (be able to) take a little bit out of our savings and borrow some money from our parents for the time being.”
Kneppelhout believes the digital detox movement is just beginning. “We would like to see phone-free spaces in cities and perhaps phone-free holidays.”