Go back to just being.
Every screen has a back button. This one is a key labelled human. For a few hours, a café in Da Nang puts every phone in a basket by the door, and there is nothing to do, nothing to post and nowhere else to be.
What happens
Hand over your phone
As you walk in, the café team will keep it safe in a basket by the door. You can have it back whenever you need it; you'll just step outside to use it.
Order from the café
Order as you normally would. For these few hours, the whole café is offline with you.
Then simply be
Read, draw, write, look out of the window, talk or stay quiet. There's nothing you need to do, and nothing you need to finish.
Nothing to do, unless you want to.
On the tables you'll find decks of question cards, paper and pencils, and a few things to make with your hands. Pick them up, or leave them be. Being unproductive is the whole idea.
An afternoon by the big windows
A café near the Hàn River with slow coffee and soft light. Arrive whenever you like and stay as long as you like.
A slow Sunday morning
A small garden café a few streets from the beach. Come for one coffee or the whole morning.
A few gentle agreements
- 01Your phone rests in the basket
- 02No laptops, tablets or other digital tech (Kindles are fine)
- 03Nobody has to talk
- 04Stay ten minutes or the whole time
- 05Experience it, don't film it
- 06Little ones are welcome, softly
- 07The café is our host
A three-month experiment.
Back to Being Human begins here, as the Vietnam edition: three months in Da Nang of asking what happens when a whole café puts its phones down for an afternoon. There's always a host in the room, keeping things calm and making sure everyone is comfortable.
Hear about the next Offline Hours.
Follow our calendar on Luma and you'll be the first to know when a new one is set.
Run a café in Da Nang?
Open your doors to Offline Hours. We bring the posters and the people; your café becomes somewhere they remember.