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December 28, 2007
The Social Media “Vacation”
from Answers.com:
“vacation
va•ca•tion (vā-kā'shən, və-)
n.
1. A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation, especially one with pay granted to an employee.
2.
a. A holiday.
b. A fixed period of holidays, especially one during which a school, court, or business suspends activities.
3. Archaic. The act or an instance of vacating “
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Back when I was in school I remember sometimes going away with my family for winter break. While I was spending time with my family, I never had any direct contact with my friends back home. For the possible exception when I might have spoken with a friend on the Ham Radio that I brought with me on vacation. But generally speaking, I was “off the grid”, and not in daily contact with anyone from school.
Fast forward to Winter Break 2007 and for my kids who are in the 8th grade, everything seems different now.
Since leaving New York my kids have been in daily contact with many of their friends who are part of their social networks on Facebook and AIM.
Thanks to Facebook, vacation photos are being shared on an almost real-time basis, status messages and wall posts reflect daily (sometimes hourly) events and my kids have yet to experience the feeling of being “disconnected” except when we are outside of WiFi and/or cell phone coverage areas.
I’m not sure how “vacation” will be defined in the future, but at the moment, while my kids are way from home, they are not away from their friends and have not disconnected from their daily online routines. And my kids are not alone. I’m guilty too. While I’m also in theory “on vacation”, I continue to spend a lot of my time consumed by not only social media but about ideas I have which I hope to help turn into new products and/or services in 2008.
In the future, I wonder if the words defining “vacation” will be redefined.
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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.
Tags: vacation, von, Facebook, Social Media, Jeff Pulver
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Posted by jeff on December 28, 2007 09:58 AM | Permalink
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Comments
When I was studying abroad several years ago, one of the benefits was the absence of any internet access. I had e-mail and that was it. I was able to have time to think and discover a lot about myself.
Jerry Seinfeld wrote in his book SeinLanguage:
"I would say the concept behind the car phone, and the phone machine, the speaker phone, the airline phone, the portable phone, the pay phone, the cordless phone, the multi-line phone, the phone pager, the call waiting, the call forwarding, call conferencing, speed dialing, direct dialing, and the redialing, is that we all have absolutely nothing to say, and we've got to talk to someone about it right now. Cannot wait another second!
I mean come on, you're at home you're on the phone, you're in the car you're makin' calls, you get to work, "Any messages for me?" You've got to give people a chance to miss you a little bit!""
This is even more true in today's world.
Posted by: Andrew at January 2, 2008 11:30 AM
Now you know why I take my kids to far flung canoe trips, hiking in the moutains and to remote destinations for "vacation". No cell phones, no IM and no email - that's a vacation!
Posted by: Alan Percy at December 28, 2007 03:47 PM
Suspending my skepticism for a moment I imagined my own kids in that situation. (They're grown, but C=64 c/w modem was part of their experience, and me using assembler to build a game for a pair of Z80 NEC Treks.)
What came to mind had nothing to do with hi-tech and Matrix ... that traditionally, in our distant past, we stayed in touch with one another at one remove, usually with something like song.
But yes, as Laurel points out, we do need to unplug now and again.
Perhaps more reason to encourage such as swimming and soccer!
Posted by: Ben Tremblay at December 28, 2007 12:05 PM
Greetings, Jeff. It's good to be able to unplug, but my brother recently brought a webcams for the whole family, so my parents won't feel so out of touch when he and his wife move to Hawaii. The older generation sees it as 'distance,' whereas we plugged-in people don't feel the separation. It's a fascinating phenomenon.
Posted by: vicequeenmaria at December 28, 2007 11:18 AM
Laurel,
I am aware of a few technology free spas. Not sure if they offer social media rehab just yet. At the moment, the only time I am able to disconnect is when I'm sleeping and/or in transit.
Posted by: Jeff Pulver at December 28, 2007 11:14 AM
As soon as I become filthy rich - any day now - I'm going to invest in 'technology free spa and rehab resorts'(TM). Check your mobile device, laptop, etc at the door and go offline for 2 weeks. Scary no? Take a deep breath, you can do it! :D
Posted by: Laurel Papworth at December 28, 2007 11:11 AM
As great as this is, I really hope that people don't forget how good it feels to unplug as well. We consume so much data and details and I love every minute of it, but at the same time I love the time away from it all focused on the people I'm with and the location I'm at.
Posted by: C.C. Chapman at December 28, 2007 11:08 AM