Saturday, August 21st, 2010...10:29 AM
Vacationing In The Digital Era
I realize that taking a vacation is a time to “recreate” and “relax.” Spend time with family and friends. Slow down to reflect and recharge. I know all of this. I practice this.
Some of the ways that I accent this is listening to some good music. Actually reading the paper or a book…not just links on my iGoogle page or reader.
It is very interesting to accomplish this when the same devices and applications that can be used to accentuate your relaxation also power your work life.
I love my iPhone. I use it all the time for email and phone and sms. I also use the the iPhone all the time to listen to music as an iPod or Pandora. I use it to check and update Facebook. I use it to monitor the weather. I use it as a GPS device for directions. I also use the iPhone as a camera, which allows me to capture more of the little things in life than you would if it was up to carrying around the big Cannon.
I also love reading the paper. The iPad has been the only device that allows me to do this an enjoy the paper as if I had that newspaper in my hand. I have loved the Kindle…but have come to love the Kindle app on the iPad even better for book reading. It has helped me expand my reading…multiple books at one time.
What am I supposed to do…disable the email, sms and phone while on vacation?
The other night we were camping. You could touch the stars…thousands of them. The loons were belting out their enchanting howls on the lake. It was a beautiful night. We have a tradition in my family that every Summer we watch “On Golden Pond.” We had not watched the movie yet this summer so it seemed like a nice night to take it in. So I pulled out the battery-powered Mac. Popped in the DVD and voila. I posted it on Facebook. I knew that this would get some comments…I was ready for it. One of my creative friends named Steve mocked up this fantastic picture.
Other friends on Facebook implied in some comments that ‘this was not camping.” Maybe it is not in a traditional sense. I agree and I for one do love traditions. I also think we need to live in 2010 as well. On this wonderful night with family it sure was relaxing and enjoyable to carry on this annual tradition of watching this classic movie…which is all that is important in the end right?
The next night we went fishing. Our own pursuit of “Walter” from the movie. We had a fantastic night and brought five salmon into the boat. One was a 5lb salmon…a real trophy…you could say our “Walter.” The use of the iPhone allowed us to capture in video my kids and wife catching these fantastic fish. I am still on the mend with this broken arm so I was there to capture the moment and enjoy the experience. In my mind, on this lake, I have vivid memories of this same past time, with my my dear Uncle and brothers. Vivid in my mind to this day. Problem is that I cant share that vivid picture other than through words. But now we have these fantastic video footage so that everyone can share this event going forward of my kids and wife doing the same thing. Priceless.
So when you go on vacation what do you do? Shut all of this off? Leave all of this technology @ the office? Cut yourself off from work…but all of the other interconnections you have formed?
I don’t know the answer. I guess the old story of everything in moderation is best? Maybe. But this technology surely enhanced our vacation and time together. It is very gray when the tools we use to work are embedded into the ways we enhance our entertainment.
Love your comments on this. I sense that this is not a question that goes away. Probably gets more and more interesting as we go forward. Lets kick it around here to help us all with it as we go forward. Your comments are welcome.
17 Comments
August 21st, 2010 at 10:52 AM
i love this post jeff! i view technology and social media platforms as an enhancement to my world, not a drag on my time. like you, i leverage them to capture and share great vacation moments and enhance my time off. the only thing i try (note “try” is the operative word) to throttle back on when on vacation is email. i do secretly monitor it, but usually forward time-sensitive emails to the rest of the k&p team so they can respond. i find that little adjustment alone allows me to decompress during a vacation and actually check-out.
August 21st, 2010 at 11:09 AM
Jeff,
So odd to write this as I sit on the porch next to my own spot on a New England lake, looking down on the dock where I was headed before I took a “quick look” at email.
Honestly, I think I would be better off (from a weekend rest and recharge perspective) to leave the laptop and iPad at home (I have both here in Maine.) My brain and fingers need to process less, not more, on the weekends. The heart of my work is creative and most of the magic I can muster happens in my quiet moments, in my head.
BUT….I start to twitch when I know “stuff” is piling up and, more importantly, I travel and am out of the office so much that the weekends are literally the only time I can really be the thoughtful CEO I need to be. When I can write those blog posts, or send those “should we be thinking about…” emails, or create ideas and plans. I guess in the old days I would have just jotted down notes and handled all the follow-up on Monday. But I love the speed of new technologies and my hand gets cramped when I write.
So I live a constant tech dilemma.
I think your two examples are not huge compromises and the fishing video is truly an advance. I love that sharing rich media enables me to be more connected personally with the people I care about, and vice versa. As an overscheduled person that is actually deeply satisfying…to be MORE in touch, despite having no free time.
August 21st, 2010 at 11:26 AM
i dont speak for my whole family but i used my laptop at the cape and i consider communications external to my setting a “natural” exercise in the 21st century. my boys used their laptop for games and exploring unknowns. how many times have questions arisen which only the mighty OZ (macbook) could answer? family time is about connecting and extending. digital media can enhance discussion and help everyone to relax and enjoy…we watched “Tetro” and it was visually stunning and in no way detracted from our quiet time together. i dont have an i pad or kindle or iphone…stuck in blkbrry world for now..but i am living in the present and reading Youngstown Sheet and Tube from a heavy book…we should tap into all sources for knowledge and information and as long as your not ignoring your family or friends as you indulge yourself…what harm?
August 21st, 2010 at 2:50 PM
Although I am not good at practicing the old addage, I do believe it’s true – “everything in moderation”. So when on vacation, staying connected in today’s day and age is magnetic force that is nearly impossible to break, but if you do so “in moderation” while putting the experiences of your family, friends, and general good times in the forefron, then maintaining a thread of connection isn’t such a bad thing. (BTW, my wife totally disagrees).
August 21st, 2010 at 3:53 PM
Jeff,
Great article, and certainly very thought provoking!
I have mixed feelings about vacationing in the digital era. Those feelings depend mainly on which digital devices we’re talking about, and how they’re used while on vacation.
First of all, I love vacations — especially our yearly trek to Kauai, and my occasional diving forays into the Caribbean. For me, these both represent a complete departure from what I normally do on a daily basis, and I like to keep it that way! When it comes to vacations, I’m not about mixing business and pleasure. I’ve been around long enough to know that my work world will go on whether or not I return. Therefore, despite the fact that modern digital technology has the capability of allowing me to access and/or participate in work e-mails, phone calls, teleconferences, etc., these things are strictly “verboten.” On vacation, I want to focus only on enjoying myself and my family!
That said, being a lover of music, a photography buff (both above and below water), and a parent and grandparent, all of the digital devices that I use on a daily basis accompany me when I go on vacation. That includes: my iPhone to keep in touch with family (as sparingly as possible); my iPod and Bose headset to make the journey to Kauai, the Caribbean, or other destinations less tedious, and to connect to our local sound system so we can enjoy or favorite music; and my digital camera and laptop so that I can take all the pictures I want and, when my memory card is full, download the pictures to the laptop and start all over again. (Digital photography has certainly made photography, especially underwater photography, much easier and more cost effective. Gone are the days when I snapped 30 rolls of slide film, processed them when I returned home [ka-ching], then ended up trashing perhaps 90% of them because they were truly awful!) In addition to the photography, the laptop also helps to keep me in touch with family and world events — I don’t, after all, want to completely disassociated myself from the outside world when I’m on vacation!
Essentially, my philosophy is to use digital era technology to enhance my vacation experience, and not to take my day-to-day life on vacation with me.
To vacations and the digital era — may the two always enhance each other — cheers!!!!
August 21st, 2010 at 8:09 PM
Jeff,
Great examples how the convergence of personal and business technology enhances the family vacation. I would not think of managing a gaggle of kids (we usually vacation with another family) without being able to quickly find activities, have the parents communicate quickly with each other, and entertain in a pinch. Ultimately, I think discipline is the key; the same way we discipline ourselves at work by minimizing the personal, we can do the reverse on vacation. I’ll echo @kel and @Jules that email activity actually helps me decompress. Having devices with distinct uses really helps in this regard: the BlackBerry’s all business, and then I put it down, pick up the Droid and take the kids to the beach.
Adam
August 22nd, 2010 at 8:45 AM
Beautifully written!
August 23rd, 2010 at 8:09 AM
- Steve Mardis posts: “Great article!”
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:38 PM
I certainly like to have the technology at my disposal while away on weekends in Vermont – but Adam is right – it’s about disipline. Tho, it is fun to rub it in to my FB friends all the fantastic things I’m doing.
At the end of the day, I own the technology – it certainly does not own me!
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:50 PM
- Tina Siart Boylan: “Really good reading. As someone who enjoys art as well as documentation I have often wondered if having a device (iPhone) between me and my subject on vacations distracts from being in the moment… does it take away from the experience and obstruct true relaxation? Whether we pay attention to the email beeps or not, even taking pictures can be a technical distraction. We teeter between capturing the moment “for later” and being “in” the moment. In another sense, it takes work to be completely present, lol.”
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:50 PM
Melissa Massello DuBeau posts: “Just read a study about how, since 2004, we’re all living our lives like 7-day workweeks and feel guilty about taking “down time” to actually enjoy ourselves and have relationships. Still hard to put the iPhone down on vacation, though.
”
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:51 PM
- John Appler posts: “I agree, Jeff, the technology works when it enhances the time together rather than distracting from it – sounds like your thumbs up on the current iPhone4 despite the issues.”
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:52 PM
-Sarah Fay posted: “I am an offender, there is no doubt. But there are still places on earth where you cannot use your iPhone or Blackberry, and if you spend a week or more there you will feel like a different person – in a good way. See what philosopher Neil Postman has to say about the pros and cons of technological advancement: http://www.mat.upm.es/~jcm/neil-postman–five-things.html “
August 23rd, 2010 at 1:06 PM
My daughter just got back from a 2 week overnight stay at Camp Coniston in New Hampshire. No TV’s, cell phones, computers or video games. I thought she’d have withdrawals, but she loved it! In fact she said the best part of the trip was the lack of electronic distractions.
I love my iPhone much as anyone, but even Steve Jobs can’t create a gadget that will replace the simple pleasures of a campfire, rod and reel, and an impromptu pick-up game with friends. I’m glad my daughter is starting to appreciate this…even if it is only for 2 weeks!
August 23rd, 2010 at 1:53 PM
Thanks for the post Ted. We had the same situation happen in our family this year with summer camp. There is more to life than these technology gadgets. But they do enhance our life as well.
August 23rd, 2010 at 4:18 PM
I find it really hard to break the force field. I promised my family that this trip on the Cape I’d be unplugged from 9-5 but the phone is burning a hole in my pocket, let’s be honest. At the end of the day, the only question that matters is what comes first. So long as I can remind myself of that frequently enough, the emails piling up and the twitter feed not getting read matter just a little bit less than they normally do!
August 23rd, 2010 at 4:26 PM
I hear you Jesse…and agree!
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