‘I don’t have Instagram’: how being offline became the new status symbol | The Standard

“Isn’t it refreshing to be phone free!” somebody shouts as we descend into the underbelly of Shaftesbury Avenue. It’s a thudding Friday night at Lost, London’s hottest club night in years, which has taken over the former Odeon Covent Garden. Our iPhones, sealed in magnet-locked pouches and slung across our bodies, won’t be accessible until we leave. While the party has been hailed for offering a screen-free haven in an otherwise chronically online world, a friend turns up their nose at the enthusiastic clubgoer. “Really? I don’t notice — I hardly use my phone anymore,” she says, with a tone that said: “Oh dear, I’m with one of those people raised by an iPad.” Herein lies the new status symbol for 2026. Being glued to your phone is déclassé. Needing an external party to confiscate it so you can concentrate on the present is embarrassing. It’s exposing to hold others up while you get the perfect outfit snap or document your holiday on Instagram stories. And the flip: the ability to log off freely is as big a flex today as it was to have the iPhone 11 when it launched in 2019. This isn’t a fringe phenomenon. Adults in
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