The Offline Club, a digital detox café in Amsterdam, is offering customers the chance to leave their phones at the door and indulge in board games, books and tranquillity. The club provides a haven of solace, promoting the notion of moments of quiet introspection in favour of scrolling through endless news feeds, and random conversations in lieu of online arguments. The club nurtures the concept of swapping device recharging for soul replenishing, in pursuit of a few hours’ peace from the frenetic hustle of digital life. Growing organically from retreats named “offline getaways” arranged by Ilya Kneppelhout, Jordy van Bennekom and Valentijn Klok, The Offline Club has proved extremely popular even ironically through social media. Kneppelhout enthused at the great reviews that club members have given since visiting the café, saying that people love it, telling them that it is exactly what they have been waiting for, and they can’t believe that it did not exist till now.
Switching off is not just a question of paying to leave a mobile phone at the door, it is also about connecting with people and making new friends offline. Kneppelhout said that people don’t just go to the café to put their phones down: they also pay to meet people. In today’s isolated world, where people are more connected online than in the real world, human connection is more challenging than ever before. The concept aims to enable people to communicate as human beings in a café with thirty others while drawing, reading books or other activities.
Kneppelhout hopes that customers will create permanent habits from their café visits and learn to switch off from the ever more intrusive online world. The digital detox cafés have already generated considerable interest from UK clients. Health professionals describe the positive impact of reducing the need for constant phone screen-viewing on people’s mental and emotional well-being, describing it as a counter-movement that is necessary in modern times
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