When have you been offline for the last time? Did you choose yourself to be offline or was internet not working? To be offline seems more and more to become a choice that we see as a luxury. Is being offline the new luxury or is it still a luxury to be online for some people?

Digital networks are becoming denser and denser. We are online all the time everywhere and they are fewer places where we really can be alone. Where and when can we still disconnect? To be offline has become a luxury. Will we permanently use data or do we take back control over our connectivity? In this documentary we go on a journey to the edge of internet.

To be online all the time and everywhere. It sounds great, but it has its drawbacks. As digital networks are closing in, there are fewer places to be really on your own. Being offline is becoming a luxury. Where can you be offline?

We are connected to the internet even in our bedrooms. It’s the ambition of companies like Google and Facebook to connect the entire world, so that we can be online all the time and everywhere. Google has sent balloons up into the skies over Sri Lanka to provide the island state with free Wi-Fi for a month. On the ground, more and more devices communicate through the so-called Internet-of-Things. We are going to be ‘glass citizens’ in a transparent house, connected for life to a wireless intravenous drip and traced anywhere via our smartphones. What does it mean?

A small but growing group of people is saying goodbye to lifetime connectability. They are researching ways to keep control. What can we learn from them about life in the digital era? With: Paul Frissen (political scientist), Sherry Turkle (psychologist MIT), Evgeny Morozov (internet critic) and Birgitta Jonsdottir (hacker & founder Pirate Party)

Original title: Offline als luxe
Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2016.
© VPRO Backlight May 2016

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Credits:
Director: Bregtje van der Haak
Research: Tijl van Hillekom, Wiesje Kuijpers, Marijntje Denters
Producer: Jeroen Beumer
Commissioning Editors: Marije Meerman, Doke Romeijn
English, French and Spanish subtitles: Ericsson.
French and Spanish subtitles are co-funded by European Union.