Digital Holliday 2024

Perhaps it would be more accurate to talk about a holiday from a digital connection. A holiday from the compulsive, almost neurotic, drive with which I constantly revisit emails, networks, chats...

In my case, I suffer from a triple addiction: LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and emails, lots of emails...

As I did last year, I will take a holiday from digital environments and communications during August (from 5 to 31 August to be precise).

Here on LinkedIn, I plan to change my ‘status’ to something like ‘I'm on holiday from Linkedin. I'll be back on 1 September.’ The idea is not to post, not to comment, not to react, not to read or respond to messages or connection requests, not even to scroll through the feed...

This means that in August there will be no 48k Newsletter (Ooooh).

On WhatsApp, I already have most of the notifications switched off. An essential precaution when your part of lists of fellow students on student adventures and who use these groups to keep alive the old academic tradition of engaging in endless sterile debates on the fringes of prevailing conventions.

I'm only going to keep the direct family notifications active on WhatsApp, so I don't miss any invitations to a summer get-together.

In my institutional emails I'm going to put one of those automatic reply messages (something like: ‘I'm on holiday. I won't check my emails until 31 August! If the matter is important, please contact me again from 1 September.") It's more difficult to do the same with personal emails.

I've already told my students that I'll be on holiday in August. I don't think they believed me...

But the hardest thing, as I had the opportunity to test last year, is to lose the habit of constantly opening the apps on my mobile phone and then switching them off while I resist the urge to check how many messages, I have unread.

It's in these moments that we realise that ignorance is an underestimated gift. A mere glance at an unread message can destroy in seconds the hard-won peace of mind of an entire week of disconnection.

I'm comforted by the idea that in the digital holiday experiences I've had in the past I've found that the world has continued its rotation around the sun regardless of my absence from digital, and nothing has been lost because of it...

Can I give you a piece of advice?

Take a holiday from digital!

It's free and you'll find it's more relaxing than a beach on a desert island...

PDV

2024

#48k #sociologiadigital #psicologiadigital #holidays #disconnect #unplug #rest

This text was written with the help of the translator DeepL (https://www.deepl.com/ ) and the Grammarly corrector (https://www.grammarly.com).