You get onboard your flight. You’ve got big plans to catch up on your tv shows. The entertainment options are seriously good for once and you’re in for a relaxing several hours.
Then you hear the announcement.
Something along the lines of ‘this flight is proud to offer in-flight wifi’.
Woah! How high-tech! How forward thinking! 10$ for several hours of wifi? Catching up on emails, updating blog posts, engaging with social media followers. All valid work. All sometimes necessary things to be done.
But wait.
Flying in a plane is one of the few last places anywhere where you can’t be connected. You have an excuse. Can’t answer that email right this second because I’m on a flight. I’ll be out of contact for the next 10 hours. Why? Flying.
It’s one of the last viable excuses to be out of touch. To not respond quickly. To give yourself a break from being connected.
In a world where wifi and internet access are increasingly in-demand, and being given, and yes, are sometimes necessary, why would you seek to connect yourself in transit as well. When you should be sleeping, watching a movie, reading. Pretty much anything except being connected.
When I was looking for African Safari companies to tour with this summer, one company advertised ‘wifi on all Safari trucks’. I did not go with that company. What is so important that you have to connect yourself while exploring African Safari parks. When typing out a response to an email might cause you to miss the elusive rhino?
Sure. It can be really tempting to connect, to use the downtime the same way you might use any other commute. But it’s worth noting you can do almost all of this without wifi. It takes no internet connection to draft emails. Write a blog post, edit photos. All can be done without internet connectivity. But what you miss out on, is the demands of new email. New information. New requests, comments, corrections. The back and forth that indubitably leads to stress, in connection to connectivity.
When most people work a job, there is at least some level of connectivity required. Of course, in your own time, you are likely connected to friends and family on various social media platforms. Go to bed and read a book, a way to relax right? Unless you’ve connected to your kindle.
We should be actively taking time away from those little blue screens, not seeking another opportunity to do as we do back home. You’re on holiday for a reason. Take the first step, and disconnect.
Join me, people of connected earth, and on your next flight, do anything you like. Except tune into that wifi signal.
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