I’m lying on a beach, stretched out on a lounger, one foot raking the sand as a hot sun sinks into the horizon. In front of me, my three sons are jumping through the waves. The obvious thing to do is to reach for my phone, to capture this utterly perfect moment that our summer holiday has served up to me.
Except I’m in Greece and my phone is 2,000 miles away, back home in Manchester. This is intentional, not forgetfulness, and it means that not only do I not have access to my phone for 10 days, but also no camera, WhatsApp, emails or Instagram. I imposed this wholesale digital detox on myself in an effort to recapture the one thing hard-earned holidays like this are meant to offer above all else: rest.
In a hyper-connected world, where statistics tell us that we spend, on average, over six hours a day on phones or computer screens, it can feel like you’d have to be stranded on a desert island to force a switch off from the technology that is enmeshed in daily life. Managing constant availability, inhaling information and keeping dozens of mental and digital tabs open takes an inevitable toll which can span the gamut of dropping a few head exploding emojis at the end of a busy week to wanting to chuck your phone out of the window altogether. No wonder then that digital detoxes are now marketed like spa stays for overwhelmed and overworked minds crying out for someone to enforce a temporary taste of life offline.
Resorts have popped up everywhere from Yorkshire to Mexico,.
