{"id":24206,"date":"2026-08-01T12:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T10:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/01\/the-great-british-switch-off-how-floating-retreats-mobile-free-pubs-and-sauna-book-groups-are-freeing-people-from-their-smartphones\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T12:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T10:37:26","slug":"the-great-british-switch-off-how-floating-retreats-mobile-free-pubs-and-sauna-book-groups-are-freeing-people-from-their-smartphones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/01\/the-great-british-switch-off-how-floating-retreats-mobile-free-pubs-and-sauna-book-groups-are-freeing-people-from-their-smartphones\/","title":{"rendered":"The great British switch-off: how floating retreats, mobile-free pubs and sauna book groups are freeing people from their smartphones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sick of doomscrolling? From venues with smartphone swear jars to cabins with absolutely no signal, here are the fun and freeing ways to ditch your device<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a ritual at the start of every event hosted by the Offline Project<\/a>. Run by Pel\u00e9 Zachariah, the activities vary \u2013 it could be a group walk, a\u00a0collage\u2011making class or a supper club \u2013 but each one begins in the same way, *with an invitation to hand over your phone. Devices go in a lockbox. Once they\u2019re all in, Zachariah closes the door and turns the key. \u201cI don\u2019t place them in for people, because it\u2019s nice for them to physically put it in the box themselves, walk away, and think: for the next two or three hours, I\u2019m fully present.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has been running these screen-free events in London since August 2025. First-timers can be apprehensive about being separated from their phone. \u201cYou can sense the vibe when they\u2019re putting it away,\u201d says Zachariah. \u201cPeople have said to me, \u2018I felt really weird\u2019 or \u2018I felt super uncomfortable for the first few minutes not having my phone on me.\u2019 Then they\u2019ll say, \u2018I didn\u2019t know how much I needed that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nSick of doomscrolling? From venues with smartphone swear jars to cabins with absolutely no signal, here are the fun and freeing ways to ditch your device
\nThere\u2019s a ritual at the start of every event hosted by the Offline Project. Run by Pel\u00e9 Zachariah, the activities vary \u2013 it could be a group walk, a\u00a0collage\u2011making class or a supper club \u2013 but each one begins in the same way, *with an invitation to hand over your phone. Devices go in a lockbox. Once they\u2019re all in, Zachariah closes the door and turns the key. \u201cI don\u2019t place them in for people, because it\u2019s nice for them to physically put it in the box themselves, walk away, and think: for the next two or three hours, I\u2019m fully present.\u201d
\nHe has been running these screen-free events in London since August 2025. First-timers can be apprehensive about being separated from their phone. \u201cYou can sense the vibe when they\u2019re putting it away,\u201d says Zachariah. \u201cPeople have said to me, \u2018I felt really weird\u2019 or \u2018I felt super uncomfortable for the first few minutes not having my phone on me.\u2019 Then they\u2019ll say, \u2018I didn\u2019t know how much I needed that.\u2019\u201d Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sick of doomscrolling? From venues with smartphone swear jars to cabins with absolutely no signal, here are the fun and freeing ways to ditch your device There\u2019s a ritual at the start of every event hosted by the Offline Project. Run by Pel\u00e9 Zachariah, the activities vary \u2013 it could be a group walk, a\u00a0collage\u2011making …<\/p>\n

The great British switch-off: how floating retreats, mobile-free pubs and sauna book groups are freeing people from their smartphones<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":24207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24206"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}