A new kind of club has emerged in Amsterdam - one where participants choose to go offline, away from their phones and other devices. (AP video by Aleksandar Furtula)
NEW YORK (AP) — More than a dozen millennials gathered in a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn and placed their phones in a metal colander before two hours of reading, drawing and conversation — anything but staring at screens.
A similar scene played out a few miles away, in an early 20th-century cardboard box factory turned high-end office space. Nearly 20 people in their 30s stared at their cellphones for a few minutes. Then they set them down and looked at their bared palms for a while. Then those of their neighbors.
The exercise was meant to drive home the importance of paying attention to real life, not the gleaming little screens that have taken over our world.
Guests collect their smartphones at the end of a weekly phone-free gathering at the home of organizer Dan Fox in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
