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| I’m a holiday Wi-Fi addict – and proud | |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| What do you do first on arriving at a hotel? Check out the pool? Or the view from the balcony? No. Apparently most of us now demand the Wi-Fi code and logon, with a massive 65% admitting to tuning in within seven minutes of arrival, according to a new survey. All I can say, as a frequent traveller, is, what took you so long? | What do you do first on arriving at a hotel? Check out the pool? Or the view from the balcony? No. Apparently most of us now demand the Wi-Fi code and logon, with a massive 65% admitting to tuning in within seven minutes of arrival, according to a new survey. All I can say, as a frequent traveller, is, what took you so long? |
| Confession: I am an instinctive and habitual Wi-Fi user, the sort who mainlines Instagram and Twitter without much reflection on the implications for my own mental and physical health. Who cares? | Confession: I am an instinctive and habitual Wi-Fi user, the sort who mainlines Instagram and Twitter without much reflection on the implications for my own mental and physical health. Who cares? |
| Frankly, it would not surprise me if we start to hear of Wi-Fi-rage before long. Let’s call it Wi-Fury. It will become a recognised syndrome, a plea bargain in court: “I am sorry, your Honour, the hotel Wi-Fi was slow and I just snapped, and using my phone as a weapon, I caused £10,000 worth of damage. Here’s the doctor’s report.” | Frankly, it would not surprise me if we start to hear of Wi-Fi-rage before long. Let’s call it Wi-Fury. It will become a recognised syndrome, a plea bargain in court: “I am sorry, your Honour, the hotel Wi-Fi was slow and I just snapped, and using my phone as a weapon, I caused £10,000 worth of damage. Here’s the doctor’s report.” |
| Related: How I quit my smartphone addiction and really started living | Related: How I quit my smartphone addiction and really started living |
| The underlying subtle implication of this survey, I reckon, is that this is wrong. We should feel bad about it. The correct behaviour on arrival is to seek directions to the 12th-century cathedral, or at least check out the view and dive into the pool. We should be there, fully there, alert and responsive to our new surroundings, not blearily glaring at a tiny screen, twiddling our thumbs and wondering who posted that picture of a man eating a guinea pig on Brooklyn Bridge. | The underlying subtle implication of this survey, I reckon, is that this is wrong. We should feel bad about it. The correct behaviour on arrival is to seek directions to the 12th-century cathedral, or at least check out the view and dive into the pool. We should be there, fully there, alert and responsive to our new surroundings, not blearily glaring at a tiny screen, twiddling our thumbs and wondering who posted that picture of a man eating a guinea pig on Brooklyn Bridge. |
| To this I would reply: when is anyone fully there? What about the novel you are reading? The film you watched on the plane? Surely every experience is mangled and digested by a million different forces, not least those of memory. What difference can it make if I am connected to people around the globe in a new and different way than before? | To this I would reply: when is anyone fully there? What about the novel you are reading? The film you watched on the plane? Surely every experience is mangled and digested by a million different forces, not least those of memory. What difference can it make if I am connected to people around the globe in a new and different way than before? |
| Unfortunately there is a deeper unease that lies beneath: the fear that these screens are damaging us in ways that will only become apparent when it’s too late. Like the Roman elite poisoned by the very lead pipes that brought life-giving sanitation, we are succumbing to a hidden menace that we cannot yet understand. This is a dark place in the human psyche and one in which reason ventures at its peril. | Unfortunately there is a deeper unease that lies beneath: the fear that these screens are damaging us in ways that will only become apparent when it’s too late. Like the Roman elite poisoned by the very lead pipes that brought life-giving sanitation, we are succumbing to a hidden menace that we cannot yet understand. This is a dark place in the human psyche and one in which reason ventures at its peril. |
| Practically every menace that you could dream of has already been blamed on smartphones: bad backs (drastically increasing in teenagers, according to the British Chiropractic Association), deteriorating eyesight, insomnia (the Clinical Sleep Research Unit at Loughborough University offers advice, ironically most conveniently accessed online), and even a drop in teenage pregnancy rates. | Practically every menace that you could dream of has already been blamed on smartphones: bad backs (drastically increasing in teenagers, according to the British Chiropractic Association), deteriorating eyesight, insomnia (the Clinical Sleep Research Unit at Loughborough University offers advice, ironically most conveniently accessed online), and even a drop in teenage pregnancy rates. |
| Other studies show that a smartphone equals a stupid brain. The reliance on Google-memory leads to mental atrophy. Then, of course, there is the tendency to walk into lampposts while texting, suffer bouts of paranoia when no one “likes” your picture, or simply descend into “nomophobia” – the irrational fear of being left without a charger. It has been suggested that children who overuse smartphones are more likely to become criminals. Adults, I presume, simply spiral downwards into the depths of depression. | Other studies show that a smartphone equals a stupid brain. The reliance on Google-memory leads to mental atrophy. Then, of course, there is the tendency to walk into lampposts while texting, suffer bouts of paranoia when no one “likes” your picture, or simply descend into “nomophobia” – the irrational fear of being left without a charger. It has been suggested that children who overuse smartphones are more likely to become criminals. Adults, I presume, simply spiral downwards into the depths of depression. |
| Related: Why you shouldn’t let your smartphone be the boss of you | Peter Fleming | Related: Why you shouldn’t let your smartphone be the boss of you | Peter Fleming |
| Put all this together and we might conclude that the hotel without Wi-Fi ought to be a beacon of hope and enlightenment. Or we might notice that all these defects can be divided into the physical and the mental. I reckon the former are more worrying, but that technologists will solve the eyesight and spinal problems. On the mental side, I would point to the contacts I’ve made, the information that has enriched my experience of places, and the pleasure of sharing, surely a positive human attribute? | Put all this together and we might conclude that the hotel without Wi-Fi ought to be a beacon of hope and enlightenment. Or we might notice that all these defects can be divided into the physical and the mental. I reckon the former are more worrying, but that technologists will solve the eyesight and spinal problems. On the mental side, I would point to the contacts I’ve made, the information that has enriched my experience of places, and the pleasure of sharing, surely a positive human attribute? |
| Recently I put all those surveys to the test. I went cold turkey for a week in a region of Ethiopia that does not even have electricity, let alone mobile network. I put my phone on airplane mode and used it purely as a camera. At night I stared into wood fires, or read a book. During the day I gazed on vast mountain vistas and rarely squinted at my hand, since it was empty. Did I like the experience? Yes, I did. I felt stronger and healthier, although that might have been all the walking – what else was there to do? I did not miss the Wi-Fi. I realised it’s like smoking or drinking, in fact any drug. If no one else is doing it, you scarcely notice its absence. | Recently I put all those surveys to the test. I went cold turkey for a week in a region of Ethiopia that does not even have electricity, let alone mobile network. I put my phone on airplane mode and used it purely as a camera. At night I stared into wood fires, or read a book. During the day I gazed on vast mountain vistas and rarely squinted at my hand, since it was empty. Did I like the experience? Yes, I did. I felt stronger and healthier, although that might have been all the walking – what else was there to do? I did not miss the Wi-Fi. I realised it’s like smoking or drinking, in fact any drug. If no one else is doing it, you scarcely notice its absence. |
| We would probably all be better off without those devilish screens and I seriously intend to take future breaks from my addiction. Mind you, when I finally reached a signal in Addis Ababa, and all the messages and photos came flooding in, the dopamine hit was a highlight of my trip. | We would probably all be better off without those devilish screens and I seriously intend to take future breaks from my addiction. Mind you, when I finally reached a signal in Addis Ababa, and all the messages and photos came flooding in, the dopamine hit was a highlight of my trip. |