A group of Singaporean students are competing to see whether they can survive for three days with nothing but a laptop and about US$70. The 37 students, ranging in age from 14 to 20, began their confinement at 1230 (0530 GMT) on Tuesday.
One participant told the BBC the experiment had already indicated e-commerce "isn't as bustling as we all thought it to be".
 The hardest thing is ordering food online  Competing team Kampung Kids |
The event is being organised by Singapore's North East Development Community Council, which found its volunteers through local schools.
"We came up with the idea when we imagined if you only had a computer, how would you survive?" an official with the council, Vincent Tay, told the Associated Press news agency.
The students are in teams of three or four in four-metre (13-feet) by three-metre (10-feet) cubicles set up in a community centre auditorium, Mr Tay said.
Participants are allowed one break a day when they can shower, but they have to go as a group, Mr Tay said.
Each cubical contains only a table, chairs and sleeping bags.
No phones are allowed, but the BBC's East Asia Today programme has been in touch with some of the teams by e-mail to ask them how they are getting on.
Until one has experienced both the pleasures and pains of surviving wholly online, we wouldn't appreciate the internet for what it's worth - both good and bad |
"The hardest thing is ordering food online," wrote one team, Kampung Kids.
But one participant, Terence, admitted to "periods of extensive boredom, back-breaking tedium and near-impossible challenges...
"In all seriousness, until one has experienced both the pleasures and pains of surviving wholly online, we wouldn't appreciate the Internet for what it's worth - both good, and bad. Surprise surprise, e-commerce isn't as bustling as we all thought it to be," he wrote.
Another team, Tiger Club, said they wanted to prove they could be self-reliant and to empathise with others who have faced incarceration.
"We did this to be able to break free from our parents' warmth and comfort, and experience the hardship faced by people who are quarantined for Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)," they wrote.
Nearly US$2,300 worth of prizes will be awarded to the four best-performing teams, Mr Tay said.
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