How to Make Digital Detox Part of Your Vacation

Digital technologies are ubiquitous in today’s family and business world. Their adoption has enabled numerous benefits such as pervasive access to information, rapid communication, and increased productivity and family safety. While businesses have also benefited from a ten-fold increase in terms of effectiveness and efficiency, the human toll has had many negative consequences like depression, fatigue, mood swings and even changes in brainwave activity and heart rate.

With the increase of scientific literature on the risk of social media use, including Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), the empirical results indicate that excessive and uncontrolled use of social networking sites may be associated with various negative psychological (e.g., perceived depression) and physiological effects (e.g., human brain alteration). Combined with technostress from work, also referred to as digital stress, constitutes a serious issue in both economy and society in general. Post-pandemic research studies have shown that Zoom Fatigue is real, and associated with physical changes correlated with mental fatigue, drowsiness, reduced brain waves and heartrate.

With over 65 empirical digital detox studies giving us the same result, its clear that “vacation time” is needed more than ever. But it needs to be combined with digital detox to ensure a healthy reset of your mind and body, reduce the feelings of perceived loneliness and depression. The added benefit of digital detox is that it will create awareness of your actual social media consumption, and help you gauge future interactions with the medium. According to studies, digital detox also leads to better work performance among employees. The participants also confirmed that digital detox helped them to identify more with their work and increase their motivation to work.

THE MAIN GOALS OF DIGITAL DETOX

Enable a conscious, temporary break from the digital world to reduce stress, strengthen social bonds, and escape from the daily hustle. The three main goals you need to keep in mind:‍

• Improve your personal nature and re-connect with authenticity, away from the need to meet social expectations.
• Re-connecting with the self, finding inner emotional balance.
• Connecting with family/friends/locals or new experiences.

THE BEST APPROACH TO DIGITAL DETOX ON A VACATION

• Log out of your social media accounts, turn off notifications, or better yet, turn off your phone entirely and leave it in your room.
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• Try to live in the moment and the experience, rather than capturing it on your phone. Instead of your smartphone, use a digital camera to capture pictures and experiences to upload at a later time.
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• Learn how to use an old school map, read road signs and plan your route in advance. Don’t be afraid to explore the unknown and just step out the door, see where things take you.
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• At dinnertime reconnect with friends and family, tell everyone to turn off their phones, stack them upside down in the middle of the table. Whoever touches their phone during dinner, pays the entire dinner bill for everyone. A bit of financial motivation will ensure success.
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• If you are on a cruise vacation, don’t purchase the Internet / Wi-Fi package. Focus on real-world activities offered by the daily on-ship guide. Seat yourself at the social tables and meet new people.
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• Try an unfamiliar activity, experience or tour that you would normally never take. You might be surprised at how much fun it is.
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• Buy a real book on Amazon. Sit yourself at a Café, relax, read and watch the people pass by. Try and notice how technology obsessed all the people are around you. Creating awareness of the problem is the first step in making the change.
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• Buy a “dumb” pay-as-you go phone to take with you. Write down phone numbers of emergency contacts only. Give your number only to one contact for emergencies. Keep it with you, so you can feel safe even while being disconnected.
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• Don’t answer work calls or emails. Better yet, if you have a dedicated work phone and laptop. Leave both of them at home. Your health and wellbeing is more important than any pseudo work crisis.
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• Make it an annual thing. Once a year, disconnect from technology entirely. Preferably for two weeks.

Thomas is CEO of Trip Concierge, an Award Winning Travel Agency with offices in Miami, FL and Las Vegas, NV.‍