Break up with your phone with Illuminate’s Offline Club
Illuminate’s Offline Club sees attendees locking their phones away and connecting with strangers to break the cycle of dependency on technology.
After spending three days totally disconnected in nature, Offline Club co-founder Ilya Kneppellhout realised how important it is to switch off from the online realm.
“I wanted some time to myself to think about my life and my career and the idea of having no distractions felt like heaven to me,” says the 28-year-old.
Ilya says that after three days, the positive benefits of going offline were profound.
“I felt calmer, I had so much time for myself, time seemed to go slower, I felt more creative and inspired and I had more clarity in my mind,” Ilya says.
Following his eye-opening retreat, Ilya, along with fellow Amsterdam locals Jordy Van Bennekom and Valentijn Klok created the Offline Club – a space where people can disconnect from their phones and reconnect with community.
Understanding that not everyone has the opportunity to leave society and detox in the forest for a weekend, the Offline Club aims to “help people make digital detoxing a habit in a community style setting.”
The Offline Club will be making its way to Adelaide as a part of the Illuminate Adelaide installation in an Australian first.
After touring events around Europe with great success, the Adelaide instalments of the Offline Club events will be hosted across city venues, McGregors, Queens Theatre and Adelaide University’s Lumen Bar as well as Willunga South’s Papershell Farm and Alberton’s The Pear.
You might like
Ilya and the Offline Club team are very particular about what venues host these events.
“We do not work with chains,” says Ilya, “we want it to feel very homey and unique.”
“For our smaller events, [venues] need to have a warm, living room vibe where you can sit back and enjoy,” he says.
For higher capacity events, the Offline Club founders prefer unique spaces like churches, parks or farms.
As reconnecting with yourself and others is at the core of the Offline Club’s mission, hosts “encourage people to bring their own offline hobby.”
Ilya says that “people read, they journal, they knit, they do colouring or arts-and-crafts, and we also provide some creative supplies if people want to try something new.”
When recounting the retreat that sparked the idea for the Offline Club, Ilya says that he “felt no anxiety”.
“I immediately felt relief. I was like no one can fucking disturb me, it’s going to be three days just for me.
“Right before, I was asked myself: ‘what if there’s an emergency?’ Well, there are solutions for that,” Ilya says.
After giving his mother his neighbour’s phone number and letting his friends know that he would be offline for a couple of days, Ilya was able to blissfully revel in his disconnected bubble.
Subscribe for updates
While his experience was overwhelmingly positive, Ilya understands that going offline is a scary proposition for many.
“Something we get back from people who join our retreats is that the first couple of minutes is about just getting used to it, like their bodies are detoxing from all the overload of stimuli,” he says.
Ilya also noted that the fear of missing out often stops people from disconnecting.
He says that once your phone is off, “FOMO becomes way less because you don’t even realise what other people are doing in the first place”.
Understanding that technology plays an important part in the everyday workings of modern life, Ilya makes the distinction that the Offline Club is not inherently anti-smartphone.
“We aim to promote a healthy relationship with your digital devices,” he says.
“We’re at a point where social media and phone use are taking away the most beautiful things we have as people.
“It’s damaging our mental health. It’s damaging our self-image. It’s taking away our time, which is the most valuable thing we have in life.
“It’s taking away our attention. It’s taking away our ability to connect and be present around others.”
With Offline Club events already a success overseas, Ilya says that phone use is “coming at a cost that cannot be supported, and I think people are starting to realise that now”.
Considering 25 per cent of Aussies aged 15-24 report feeling lonely, the silent loneliness epidemic is one that Offline Club founders want to combat.
Ilya says that “we live in a society where social media, combined with our individualised way of living, has really isolated people”.
He says past events have been well-received, and “one of our club members literally came up and said, ‘you guys have saved me from loneliness’”.
Ilya urges those interested in detoxifying their lives to “start slow”.
“Start with small changes in your day like doing groceries or going for a walk without your phone,” he says.
The most helpful hint that Ilya preaches is to “get a physical alarm clock so you don’t have your phone in your bedroom and turn all your notifications off.”
For those interested in switching off, even just for a few hours, Offline Club events will be happening across Adelaide from Saturday, July 5 to Sunday, July 13.
Ticket prices are from $25-$55 and are available on the Illuminate Adelaide website.