No phones. Only real people. Welcome to The Offline Club
Published: 6:15pm, 21 Feb 2025
Lois Shafier dropped her mobile phone into a deposit box, happy in the knowledge that for the next two hours she would be completely offline. No pings, beeps or distractions.
'I'm bad at switching off. I have a proper addiction to my phone,' she said as she headed into an event organised by The Offline Club in London.
Tickets for the two-hour 'digital detox' evening were snatched up when they went on sale, with more than 150 young adults aged mostly between 20 and 35 eager to ditch their screens for an IRL (in real life) evening.
They each paid £9.50 (US$12) for the chance to get away from phones and make in-person human connections.
'We are the technology generation, but we're tired of it,' said Bianca Bolum. 'We want to reconnect with the real world.'
The 25-year-old jeweller had come on her own and was hoping to meet new people.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RTHK
6 days ago
- RTHK
Smokey Robinson counter-sues against rape allegations
Smokey Robinson counter-sues against rape allegations Smokey Robinson and his wife Frances at a pre-Grammy gala in Beverly Hills, California, in 2023. File photo: AFP American singer Smokey Robinson has filed a defamation lawsuit against four former housekeepers who accused him of rape and prompted a police investigation. Robinson and his wife, Frances Robinson, filed the counterclaim on Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court against the women and their lawyers, whose allegations, they say, were 'fabricated in an extortionate scheme'. The filing is a fast and forceful legal and public pushback from the 85-year-old Motown music luminary in response to the women's May 6 lawsuit and a May 15 announcement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department that its special victims bureau is 'actively investigating criminal allegations' against Robinson. The Robinsons also filed a motion to strike the women's lawsuit. The women are seeking at least US$50 million, alleging Smokey Robinson repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted them in his home when they worked for him between 2007 and 2024. They said Frances Robinson, a co-defendant, enabled him and created an abusive workplace. The counterclaim opens with friendly text messages from the women to contradict their claims against Robinson, whose songs, including 'Tears of a Clown' and 'The Tracks of My Tears," established him among the biggest hitmakers of the 1960s. The filing says the women 'stayed with the Robinsons year after year,' vacationed with them, celebrated holidays with them, exchanged gifts with them, asked for tickets to his concerts, and sought and received help from them, including money for dental surgery, financial support for a disabled family member and 'even a car'. The filing - which includes photos from the vacations and gatherings as exhibits – says that despite the couple's generosity, the women 'secretly harboured resentment for the Robinsons and sought to enrich themselves through the Robinsons' wealth'. John Harris and Herbert Hayden, attorneys for the former housekeepers, said the defamation lawsuit 'is nothing more than an attempt to silence and intimidate the survivors of Mr Robinson's sexual battery and assault. It is a baseless and vindictive legal manoeuvre designed to re-victimise, shift blame and discourage others from coming forward'. The lawyers said they intend to get the Robinsons' lawsuit thrown out by invoking California's laws against using the courts to silence and intimidate people who sue. The four women, whose names are withheld in their lawsuit, each allege that Robinson would wait until they were alone with him in his Los Angeles house and then sexually assault and rape them. One woman said she was assaulted at least 20 times while working for Robinson from 2012 until 2024. Another said she worked for him from 2014 until 2020 and was assaulted at least 23 times. (AP)
South China Morning Post
05-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
Trump's 100% tariff on films will have little impact on Hong Kong industry: experts
US President Donald Trump has announced a 100 per cent tariff on any films produced outside America wanting to enter its market, with experts saying the move would have little impact on the industry in Hong Kong. Advertisement President Trump posted on his social media platforms at around 7am Hong Kong time that non-US produced films constitute a 'national security threat' and that the tariff was intended to bring film production back to America. 'Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat,' he wrote on Truth Social and X. According to Trump, the US film industry was 'dying a very fast death', and initiatives to bring film production elsewhere than the country were 'propaganda'. 'WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!' his post read. Advertisement 'I am authorising the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100 per cent Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.'
South China Morning Post
04-05-2025
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong blockbuster The Last Dance wins 2 awards at Udine Far East Film Festival
Hong Kong blockbuster The Last Dance has won two awards in Italy's popular Udine Far East Film Festival, the latest in a string of other recent accolades. Advertisement It is the only Hong Kong film to win an award at this year's festival, the organiser announced on Saturday. The drama earned nearly HK$170 million (US$21.9 million) at the box office as of May 2, the highest-grossing Hong Kong film of all time. The festival, which focuses on screening films from around Asia, awarded the 'Black Dragon Audience Award' and the 'Audience Award' to the extended version of film. The extended version of The Last Dance, which included 12 extra minutes of previously unseen footage, was released on April 4, the date of the Ching Ming Festival. Advertisement The film tells the story of a debt-ridden wedding planner, played by Dayo Wong Tze-wah, who tries his hand at being a funeral agent out of desperation, and a Taoist priest, played by Michael Hui Koon-man, who struggles to stay on good terms with his children, played by Chu Pak-hong and Michelle Wai Sze-nga.
