I just returned from vacation. Before I left, several people told me to turn off my BlackBerry. Maj. David Faggard, U.S. Air Force, who was on a PRSA-NCC Twitter panel I recently moderated, said his time in Afghanistan allowed him to “turn-off” the social media noise. He recommended we all do it from time to time. Can you do it?
This CNN article suggests it is “anxiety” that keeps most of us from unplugging completely on vacation. I’ll admit I, just like “tech-loving kids and parents,” could not do it. I knew there would be emails sent only to me which I would then need to forward to others. I’m also a news junkie, and Twitter is one of my best news feeds.
But, I did try to limit my time on the “crackberry” and computer to a few minutes a day. Peter Bregman’s post The Mostly Unplugged Vacation for the Harvard Business Review shares many of my same feelings and strategies. His suggestion for those who can’t unplug completely: “Choose a specified time — and timeframe — each evening… Scheduling time sets clear expectations — for you, for the other people on your vacation, and for the people reaching you.”
Social media doesn’t have to be for work, so I decided to use Foursquare and Facebook to share my vacation with my friends. Since I was headed to see family and friends in North Dakota, I knew the locations would be quite different from the usual tourist spots others would be visiting. I really enjoyed the comments I received, especially after visiting the world’s largest Holstein Cow in New Salem, ND. (However, I was surprised no one responded, when I became the “mayor” of Wood Lake, ND.) And, many people shared my pain as I was delayed, re-routed, and delayed again in my attempt to fly home.
The key to enjoying your vacation seems to be setting limits on your online interaction. Here are a few good posts on ways to manage your time:
- Five Reasons to Unplug Your Vacation by Annie Scott
- How to Manage Social Media (And Still Have a Life) by Caitie Hawley
- Tips for Unplugging While on Vacation by Michael Giuffrida
Are you unplugging on your vacation? What tips do you have for the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers?
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Much to my wife’s chagrin, I managed to stay connected for the month we were vacationing in Taipei and Hong Kong. She thought I was nuts/ unnappreciative/wasting time; I maintained that I was relaxing more by knowing what was going on back on the “home front”!
Like Debbie, I limited (sort of) my time to a relatively small timeframe, but I was able to respond to students’ queries about jobs and/or the previous semester’s final grades as well as to a couple of low-impact media queries.
I’ve managed as well to avoid the crackberry syndrome, but found myself seeking out public Wi-Fi opportunities around both cities. (Interestingly enough, Taipei offered many more public connections than did Hong Kong. Not sure what the significance is there, but…
Again, like Debbie, I was able to generate a smidge of jealousy by tweeting and Facebooking about some of the amazing restaurants we ate ourselves through…my colleagues at Curry College are gradually starting to speak to me again!
So the long-and-short of it is…maintain some sort of control over your compulsion to be “on” all the time. And have a firm grip on your priorities. Then you will be able to decide when enough is enough and power down.
Kirk,
Thanks for sharing your story and providing tips for the readers. It’s nice to hear I’m not alone in my struggle.
[...] Do You Need To Unplug From Social Media? [...]
[...] this time last year, I asked, “Do you need to unplug from social media?” in a BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas post. At the time, I admitted I couldn’t completely do it, but I [...]