Young adults in Europe are putting away smartphones – DW – 05/25/2025

DW

25-05-2025

A British survey found that almost half of young adults would prefer to live in a time without the Internet. One startup from the Netherlands is trying to accommodate such people by organizing offline meetups.
The Offline Club Instagram account has almost 530,000 followers. This seems almost ironic, as The Offline Club promotes taking a conscious break from social media, including Instagram.
"Swap screen time for real time" is the slogan used by the event management company's three Dutch founders, Ilya Kneppelhout, Jordy van Bennekom and Valentijn Klok.
Their aim is to use The Offline Club to "reconnect people with themselves and others through real-world communities and authentic, offline experiences."
For the past year, the three have organized meetups during which smartphones and laptops were not allowed. "Are you ready to ditch your phone?" they ask in a pinned reel on Instagram.
Apparently, more and more people are willing to switch off their cellphones, at least for these organized events.
Instead of taking their smartphones out, people read, play games, do arts and crafts or relax for a few hours. Workshops, called Digital Detox Retreats, take several days.
"We envision a world in which phone-free spaces and offline communities are the norm," the three founders write on their website .
The Dutch concept has been spreading worldwide over the last year. Amsterdam was one of the first locations, then came London, Paris, Milan and Copenhagen.
Berlin also hosted the first meetings of this kind. Also, a growing number of restaurants and clubs ask their guests to leave cellphones at home.
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More people want to spend less time online, studies find
The Dutch founders seem to have struck a nerve. After all, young people in particular often find it difficult to switch off their smartphones despite having all the settings that could limit their usage time.
Even the return of the "boring phone" without apps has not been able to seriously displace smartphones despite being celebrated on social networks.
According to figures by the German industry association Bitkom from the end of 2024, people aged 16-29 spend more than three hours per day on their smartphones. That is the highest usage time of all age groups, and the actual duration is probably even longer.
Young people spend three hours per day on their smartphones, most likely even more Image: Wolfram Steinberg/dpa/picture alliance
Yet, a large number of young people would like to spend significantly less time on their smartphones.
According to a new survey by the British Standards Institution (BSI), almost 70% of the 1,293 people aged 16-21 feel worse when they spend time on social media. Half would be in favor of a "digital curfew" that would restrict access to certain apps and websites after 10 p.m. Around 46% even stated that they would have preferred to be young in a world without the internet.
These results align with other surveys, such as the one Harris Polls, an American polling institute, conducted in late 2024 . In that survey, many young people wished that TikTok, Instagram or X had never been invented.
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Political protection
On Tuesday, British Technology Minister Peter Kyle hinted at considering mandatory curfews , according to The Guardian newspaper.
Norway wants to raise the age limit for the use of social media from 13 to 15.
As a global pioneer, Australia already raised the age limit to 16 in late 2024. Other countries, such as Denmark, ban tablets and smartphones almost entirely from schoolyards. In 2024, Danish Minister of Education Mattias Tesfaye said that the country had been in its approach to digitalization.
Australia has banned children under the age of 16 from social media Image: William West/AFP/Getty Images
Harmful effects of smartphone use
Excessive smartphone use is further associated with various mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, stress, sleep disorders and addictive behavior.
A study published in the journal BMC Medicine earlier this year found that depressive symptoms decreased by 27% after three weeks of reduced smartphone use.
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), young people's mental health has deteriorated dramatically over the past 15 years. This trend was further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, when digital media was increasingly used. However, the OECD also stated that research has not yet been able to prove any direct causality between those two factors.
On the other hand, the founders of the Dutch Offline Club want to take action and expand their meetups. Offline events are increasingly happening in different cities.
In early April, over 1,000 people switched off their cell phones and smiled happily into the camera in London. This marks a new record, the offline influencers proudly declared, of course, on Instagram.
This article was originally published in German.