Phones off and living real life

OFFLINE: CELL USERS DETOX’ FOR TWO HOURS AT CLUB, INTERACTING W

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Lois Shafier dropped her cellphone 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 evening out organised by the Offline Club in London.

Tickets were snatched up when they went on sale for the twohour "digital detox" night, with more than 150 young adults aged mostly between 20 and 35 eager to ditch their screens for an IRL evening - meeting up in real life.

They each paid £9.50 (about R220) for the chance to switch off their phones and make in-person human connections.

"We are the technology generation, but we're tired of it. We want to reconnect with the real world," said Bianca Bolum.

The 25-year-old jeweller had come on her own and was hoping to meet new people.