There’s a café in Amsterdam called the Offline Club. You pay about $8 to lock your phone in a box. Then you just… talk to people.
It’s growing fast. They’re expanding to the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands. And they’re not the only ones. People everywhere are paying money to put their phones away.
Rachel Botsman wrote about this in Wired. She calls it a “revolution of reverse.” People are choosing analog over digital. In-person over online. Real connection over scrolling. And the data on why is striking.
The Loneliness Numbers Are Bad
Let’s start with the hard data.
80% of young people under 18 feel lonely. And 22% say they have no real friends. That’s from Gallup.
12% of adults had no close friends in 2021. That’s up from just 3% thirty years ago. Think about that. Four times as many people have zero close friends today.
I wrote about this trend in my post on the friendship recession. It’s getting worse, not better.
And the screen time connection is hard to ignore. Americans spend over 7 hours per day on screens. That time used to go to socializing, hobbies, community activities. Now it goes to scrolling. The American Time Use Survey showed that time spent with friends dropped from 60 minutes per day in 2003 to 34 minutes in 2019. Screens filled that gap.
People Are Paying to Put Down Their Phones
There’s a place in Amsterdam called the Offline Club. You pay about $8 to leave your phone in a lockbox. Then you spend hours unplugged with other people.
And it’s growing. They’re expanding to the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
Then there’s Yondr. They make pouches that lock your phone during events. Artists like Jack White, Bob Dylan, Madonna, and Adele have used them at concerts.
People aren’t just tolerating phone-free spaces. They’re seeking them out.
I love this trend. When I host events, I don’t confiscate phones. But the best conversations always happen when people put them away on their own. There’s a shift in energy when everyone in the room is actually present. You can feel it.
The Analog Comeback Is Real
This isn’t just about phones. People are choosing old-school stuff across the board.
Vinyl records: 43.2 million sold last year. Compare that to less than 1 million in 2006.
Board games: the market is growing 9% every year.
Polaroid cameras: the market is expected to double by 2031.
Independent bookstores: there are 2,185 in the US and 1,072 in the UK. That’s the 6th year in a row of growth.
Botsman mentions a word I hadn’t heard before: “anemoia.” It means nostalgia for a time you never knew. Gen-Z is driving a lot of this. They want the things their parents had. Vinyl. Film cameras. Real books. Face-to-face hangouts.
There’s something hopeful about this. The generation that grew up with smartphones is the same generation actively looking for ways to escape them. They know something is missing. And they’re going looking for it.
People Want to Meet In Person
Meetup saw a 19% rise in registrations in 2023. And the most popular search term on the platform? “Friends.”
“Book Club” is back in the top 10 searches too.
Even dating apps are pivoting. Gen-Z is only 26% of dating app users compared to millennials at 61%. So Bumble is now hosting IRL events. Tennis. Cooking classes. Cocktail nights.
And in the UK, half of all adults say they intend to volunteer locally. That’s according to the National Lottery Community Fund.
The trend is clear. People are tired of screens. They want real interaction. The health research backs them up. Your brain literally works differently when you’re in the same room as someone versus texting them.
Why Screens Make Loneliness Worse
Here’s what the research actually shows about screens and friendship. It’s not that phones are evil. It’s that they create a feeling of connection without the actual connection.
You scroll Instagram and see your friends’ posts. You feel like you know what’s going on in their lives. So you don’t call. You don’t visit. You already “saw” them today.
But your brain knows the difference. A study found that excessive scrolling actually heightens feelings of loneliness. The lonelier people felt, the more they scrolled. It’s a cycle. And breaking it requires doing the uncomfortable thing: putting the phone down and showing up somewhere in person.
I think about this for men especially. A lot of guys maintain friendships almost entirely through text and group chats. It feels like enough. But it’s not. The friendship recession data is clear. Men who rely only on digital connection are lonelier than men who meet up regularly.
What You Can Do
I talk about this stuff all the time. In my book The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, I lay out a simple system for hosting gatherings. But you don’t need to throw a party to start.
Here are some easy steps:
- Try a phone-free dinner. Have everyone put their phones in a basket. See what happens to the conversation.
- Join a Meetup group. Search for “friends” or “book club” in your area. Show up once. That’s all you need to start.
- Volunteer locally. Food banks, park cleanups, community gardens. You’ll meet people who care about the same things you do.
- Start a book club or game night. Board games are making a comeback for a reason. They force you to sit across from someone and talk.
- Go to a live event without your phone. Or at least keep it in your pocket. Watch the show. Talk to the person next to you.
The common thread here? Put yourself in rooms with other people. Then pay attention to them.
The Bottom Line
We’re in a friendship recession. But people are fighting back. They’re choosing vinyl over Spotify. Bookstores over Amazon. Phone-free events over doom-scrolling.
The fix isn’t complicated. Put down your phone. Show up somewhere. Talk to someone new.
It’s that simple. And it’s that hard.
(Related: Why Texting Your Friends Isn’t Enough and Making Friends as an Adult Is Hard)
Source: Rachel Botsman, “Ditch Your Screens to End the Global Friendship Recession,” Wired (November 2024)