One of the realities of social media addiction is the self-awareness of the addicted. A recent survey from the British Standards Institution found that 68% of teen respondents said they feel worse when they spend too much time on social media, and 47% would remove them from existence if they could.

So it's not surprising that hundreds of thousands of people are now attending 'IRL' events (in real life) where phones are either banned or limited.

Several new services are now curating "offline experiences" for social gatherings and dating, and the number of these events that are landing on the calendars of Americans and Europeans is a testament to the deep desire for human-to-human contact.

GNN has reported on the offline movement before. The Offline Club of Europe has over half-a-million Instagram followers (an ironic yardstick of success), and chapters across the continent gather at venues where one's smartphone is locked in a box at the start of the event.

Once inside, reading, chatting, sharing a drink, playing a board game—in short, everything we used to do to socialize—are preferred over looking down at your phone.

In addition to the Offline Club, companies like Kanso, Sofar Sounds, and the app 222, are making a business out of disconnecting humans from their social media feeds that overflow with targeted ads and AI-generated drivel.

Each one has found itself a niche, but all are returning us to the social activities that our parents used to do before phones. Kanso, which is not an app but rather an event planner, has hosted a few curated, phone-free events at different venues in large cities, mostly NYC, San Francisco, or London.