The Greek philosopher Socrates once said: “Everything in moderation, nothing in excess.” He probably wasn’t talking about the 14 year old girls of today who pound out thousands of text messages every month, but his lesson still applies. Lots of people are going to go on vacation this summer, and Boston.com wanted to see just how much today’s hyper connected lifestyle if affecting our time off. Brittany Wallace, age 22, says: “I know it sounds bad, but seeing if I had an e-mail was more exciting than looking at the sunset.” She’s obviously mentally ill. Then there’s Eric Stumberg, President of TengoInternet, a company that provides WiFi access to R.V. parks, campgrounds, marinas, those kind of places. He says back in 2002 there were just 10 campgrounds with WiFi access out of total of 13,000. Today that number is closer to 5,000. Annette Hazzard, who owns a small hotel in Maine, says she had to buy power bricks to provide her guests more electrical outlets because the maids kept having to replug everything when people checked out.
What exactly does this say about us as a society, that we can’t go without our toys for just a few short days? We love our smartphones and tablets as much or even more than you guys do, otherwise we wouldn’t have even started IntoMobile, but even we’ve got to acknowledge that there certain times when being disconnected can work wonders on our mental health. It may be comforting to be connected to a vast library of information and everyone you’ve ever had a social interaction with, but the buzzing, blinking, whirring sounds that mess with our sense of time, and often cause us to forget what’s really important in life, simply need to be turned off every once in a while.
Just try it out. Take a 3 days weekend this summer and don’t take your phone or laptop with you. Let us know how it went using the contact form.
[Note: Photo above is a still from the film “Trainspotting”, which centers around the problems caused by heroin addiction]