Young adults drop screen time for real time

CULTURE

Almost half the teenagers polled in a survey by the British Standards Institution (BSI) prefer to be young in a world without the internet, with more than two-thirds of them saying they felt worse when they spend too much time on their socials.

Despite often being seen as the most vulnerable generation to smartphone addiction and social media use, it appears teenagers, who in any generation are quick to pick up emerging social trends, are picking up on the negative impact social media has had on their lives, and are enthusiastically looking to cut back.

Enter The Offline Club — which ironically has 530,000 followers on Instagram — a Dutch social movement looking to create screen-free public spaces and events in cafés to revive a time before mobile phones, when people played board games, met up in person, read books, wrote, drew, and had IRL (in real life) conversations.

The clubs also host digital detox retreats, where participants unplug from not only their smartphones, but computers too, and experience a life before the internet.

In a time when social media and mass, internet-enabled communication through text and video have allowed psychology and medical professionals to gain celebrity levels of influence, many of those same professionals, be it Jonathan Haidt or Dr Phil (McGraw), are sounding the alarm over the harm the introduction of handheld internet access has had on the mental wellbeing of the younger generations.

BSI’s research showed that out of 1,290 individuals aged 16-21, half (50%) said a social media curfew would improve their lives.

“That nearly half of young people would prefer to grow up without the internet should be a wake-up call for all of us,” says Daisy Greenwell, co-founder and director of Smart Phone Free Childhood. “We’ve built a world where it’s normal for children to spend hours each day in digital spaces designed to keep them hooked. Young people are now asking for boundaries — for curfews, age checks, meaningful limits, and real protection. They are ready for change.”

The Offline Club is helping its followers replace “screen time with real time”. The founders envision a world where time spent in public is present and offline.

While the Club started in Amsterdam, chapters have quickly emerged in Milan, Berlin, Paris, London, Barcelona, Brussels, Antwerp, Dubai, Copenhagen, and Lisbon. Anyone can start a club in a city. Provided they register a business entity in their country, the Club provides training and branded material.

ABOVE Offline Club, a return to earlier era, without the internet

PHOTO The Offline Club via Instagram

| WATCH A SHORT CLIP

We’ve built a world where it’s normal for children to spend hours each day in digital spaces designed to keep them hooked. Young people are now asking for boundaries — for curfews, age checks, meaningful limits, and real protection. They are ready for change.

Daisy Greenwell

SOURCE