Have you ever planned to go on holiday, and not check emails, Facebook, Instagram, blogs, and other social media platforms? Was your holiday digital detox successful, or did it crash and burn after a few hours, with you hungrily logging on to Twitter, to see what you have missed? The whole idea of going on holiday, is so you can relax, unwind and have a good time, but many of us cannot stay away from whatever we call work, and social media.

As a full-time blogger, I have accepted the fact that I cannot go on holiday and have a full digital detox. I can go a few hours, but at the end of the day, I will have to log on and see what is happening. That is the major issue with being a blogger, you can’t just decide to log off social media and your blog for too long, if you do, your blog will likely suffer the repercussions of you being away.

However, before I became a blogger, I could go days without going on social media.  Having a holiday digital detox would have been a walk in the park for me then, so I know it is possible, but the question is, how many people actually do it? We are currently in a fast pace, technology driven society, and many of us are addicted to social media and blogs.

 

A new research carried out by an online travel agency – Sunshine, has uncovered a lot about the whole holiday digital detoxing, in terms of how long the average tech-free plan lasts for. According to the findings, holidaymakers who plan to go on a complete holiday digital detox, give in after just six hours into their holiday, on average; with social media being the main lure.

A recent poll that was carried out in the UK by Sunshine, revealed that many failed in their pursuit of a technology-free holiday, and 54% of the total respondents who took part in the poll said that they used technology more on holiday than they did at home. Wow who knew!?

The top 5 answers were as follows:
1.    I wanted to look/post on social media – 32%
2.    I needed to check something work-related (e.g. emails) – 27%
3.    I forgot I had planned a digital detox/force of habit – 21%
4.    I needed to call/message back home – 16%
5.    I got bored – 2%

Now, I will fall into the number 1 and 2. I will need to check and respond to emails at some point while on holiday, and I will need to check social media, even if it is just once a day, while on holiday. I can never see myself at this stage in my life, having a full holiday digital detox, it just won’t work. I will break in 24 hours, to check my blog, lol.

What I do see myself doing, and what I need to do, is to have a WHOLE day off social media, blogs and emails. I think I am becoming too addicted to the whole social media thingy, so I am planning a day off it completely. I will see how that goes, and then I may plan a whole weekend off.

I tweeted about this some days ago, and chatted with Alice; who blogs at Zest of Alice. We chatted about the benefits of having a digital detox every now and again. She wrote a lovely post about how she quit social media, only to go back on it, so check out her blog post, if you are in need of a good read.

Have you ever planned a digital detox while on holiday? How did it go?

 

*This is a collaborative post.