Sign up to write for an hour with hundreds of strangers London Writers SalonJoin a local walking group on Facebook, buy tickets to a chef influencer’s supper club, or get together for a book club with the four neighbors in your front room: each of these clubs and the people in them is a shared desire to write, read together, walk together, eat together – and be present.
‘There are no strangers… just friends you haven’t met yet’ is the tagline for London-based supper club The Candid Club and it speaks to the growing number of people looking to find and build a community around them. As are the people Ditching dating apps To meet people in real life, We’re seeing UK adults posting slightly less on social media And sign up to more clubs. Even online hosting clubs ask us to be present and engage in live, face-to-face interaction. Interestingly, A Part of the research Looking at mental health and comparing digital communication with face-to-face interactions concluded that devices ‘cannot replace the mental health and well-being benefits of in-person communication’. It seems we are waking up to it and finding ways to cultivate it in our lives.
Maybe, but beyond the expansion of fandom, joining more clubs is really our collective attempt to break ties with our phones. You won’t be surprised to know that we spend on average 7.5 hours A day at the screen and 1 in 8 adults suffer with some A form of behavioral addiction On the internet and social media. At the same time, there is more remote working and fewer community spaces. I think we all feel it. It’s impossible to ignore how many people around me are trying hard to control their phone use, myself included. It makes sense that when we crave freedom from our phones, we sign up to clubs to force ourselves to do something intentional with a community that can hold us accountable. It is, as the phrase goes, a way to ‘touch the grass’, to root oneself in the real world.
Whether you want to be part of the scene or building community is your motivation, there’s no denying that these clubs are the ultimate antidote to the doom-scroll. Joining one will enrich your life more than watching the Instagram reels of people you’ve never considered joining a club.
