在伦敦东区 Dalston，一次 The Offline Club 聚会要求入场即交出手机并收进专用柜；场地约可容纳 40 人，参与者年龄约 25–40 岁，性别大致各半。作者于周一 18:45（London，UTC+0；折算 UTC+8 为周二 02:45）到场，之后房间被引导进入近乎半静默的集体专注：有人上色、有人读书、有人拼图。该组织在欧洲多座大城市举办类似活动，票价约 US$17；Laura Wilson 将其描述为「gentle rebellion」，而伦敦场次自「去年」起开始经常售罄。
The Offline Club 起于 2021 年由 Ilya Kneppelhout、Jordy van Bennekon、Valentijn Klol 在荷兰乡间组织的离网周末；三人于 2024 年 2 月正式成立并在阿姆斯特丹咖啡馆办聚会，之后把概念输出到另外 19 个城市，多数在欧洲，各分支以兼职组织者按类加盟运作。其固定流程是 1 小时沉默（阅读、手作、上色、拼图等自由活动）加 1 小时无手机交谈。伦敦分支在「去年夏天」尝试以 2,000 人于 Primrose Hill 山顶看日落、避免「手机海」遮挡视线的方式带动声量，此后门票更快被抢购。
动机被呈现为对城市生活「噪音、节奏过快、人格化不足」的修补：把每个被通知切碎的时间单位暂时收回，换取短暂无责任的空档。个案叙述包含：Max 几乎只为工作勉强用智慧机、从未有社群帐号；他在沉默时读 Jonathan Haidt 的 The Anxious Generation。Sangeet Narayan 自 Bangalore 移居伦敦「去年」加入 Meta，工作内容是 Facebook、Instagram、WhatsApp 的通知系统，却自述「I feel I am addicted to my phone」并描述无理由想打开手机的冲动。作者本人在沉默段落中「两次」伸手摸口袋想确认时间；交谈段落反复出现一种比例式矛盾：多数人相信 doomscrolling、通知与演算法在侵蚀休闲与话语，但又不愿放弃；而不少人正是从 Instagram 得知活动。首次参与者 Eleanor 表示离开时意外更有精力；作者取回手机后立刻接电话、戴耳机、开 Google Maps 回家。
In East London’s Dalston, a The Offline Club hangout required attendees to hand over phones at the door into a purpose-built cabinet; the room fit about 40 people, roughly ages 25–40, fairly evenly split by gender. The author arrived on Monday at 6:45 pm (London, UTC+0; 2:45 am Tuesday in UTC+8), then joined a semi-silent, collective focus: coloring, reading, puzzles. The group runs similar events across Europe’s big cities, charging about US$17; Laura Wilson frames it as a “gentle rebellion,” and London sessions have regularly sold out since “last year.”
The Offline Club began in 2021 with an off-grid weekend in the Dutch countryside organized by Ilya Kneppelhout, Jordy van Bennekon, and Valentijn Klol; they formally founded it in February 2024 and started hangouts in an Amsterdam café, then exported the concept to 19 other cities, mostly in Europe, run franchise-style by part-time organizers. The standard format is 1 hour of silence (reading, crafts, coloring, puzzling) followed by 1 hour of phone-free conversation. London’s branch accelerated “last summer” after attempting an unofficial world record by gathering 2,000 people on Primrose Hill to watch sunset without a blocking “sea of phones,” after which tickets were snapped up faster.
Motives are described as a remedy for noisy, frenetic, impersonal city life: reclaiming time units fragmented by alerts into a short pocket with fewer responsibilities. Reported cases include Max, who uses a smartphone begrudgingly for work and has never had social media, reading Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation during the silent hour. Sangeet Narayan emigrated from Bangalore to London “last year” to work at Meta, building notification systems for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, while saying “I feel I am addicted to my phone” and describing urges to open it for no reason. The author twice reached for a missing pocket phone to check elapsed time; the conversation phase returned to a ratio-like contradiction: many believe doomscrolling, notifications, and algorithms degrade leisure and discourse yet refuse to forfeit them, and many first learned of the club on Instagram. First-timer Eleanor said she left unexpectedly energized; the author retrieved the phone, took a call, put in earbuds, and opened Google Maps to get home.