by Chris Bodenner
Sue Thomas’ post is making me pine for the wilderness:
This year some people might consider the idea of a digital detox vacation. Perhaps a trip to the Scottish Highlands, where communities deprived of decent broadband are wondering whether to market themselves as digital-free destinations in an attempt to flip a lack of poor reception into “meaningful and emotional experiences”. A digital detox can be simply achieved by disconnecting yourself from the internet and turning off your phone for short bursts of time to flush out the anxiety infesting your poor wired mind. Digital detox coach Frances Booth lists the benefits of switching off including reduced stress, an increased sense of calm, better sleep and a sense of freedom.
But is it worth the bother and expense?
Some hardliners go offline for a whole year, but usually only to write a book about it. Or you might purchase a detox vacation in some area of wild natural beauty where others take control of your consumption by confiscating your kit and enticing you towards other kinds of social and unwired interactions. The Caribbean island of St Vincent and the Grenadines offers a digital detox holiday package where travellers exchange their smartphones for a guidebook explaining how to function without technology and a life coach to help them through it. And in northern California, Camp Grounded says it helps visitors to “disconnect from technology and reconnect with yourself”.
However, in line with her book on the benefits of technobiophilia, Thomas suggests that the ideal escape “offers not detox but intoxication – with both nature and with digital life.” Apparently even Dish features can provide a respite:
[I’ve come] across a number of influential and widely cited experiments which demonstrated the positive effects of nature on physiological and mental health. But a considerable amount of their data came from subjects looking at still or moving images, such as window views, … rather than going outdoors.
So in lieu of that detox:
San Juan, Puerto Rico, 9.48 am
(Top photo by Ruben Brulat. See many more stirring images from his series here. Read more Sue Thomas at the The Conversation.)
The Dish 