Beat Digital Burnout — Using Travel to Detox From Technology

Did you know that Americans have fewer vacation days than people in most countries, yet we still leave days unused? To be exact, most Americans use only half of their eligible paid vacation time and paid time off. That may not sound like a huge deal, but when you add it all up, U.S. workers failed to use a total of 429 million days of paid time off in 2014.

Something is wrong with that picture.

Adding insult to injury, even when Americans go on vacation, they’re not totally unplugging — 61 percent admit that they work while on vacation, despite complaints from family members. It sounds like we need an intervention.

Related: Didn’t Take Your Vacation Days? Good Job, You Just Helped Waste $52.4 Billion

Yahoo Travel editor in chief Paula Froelich moderated a panel at South by Southwest focused entirely on how unplugging during travel can be a transformative experience.

Joining in the discussion was Natalie Cofield, president of the Greater Austin Black Chamber of Commerce. After starting her own business, Cofield admits, she lost herself in a lonely world of technology, until a spur-of-the-moment trip to Argentina put things into perspective. “When I came back to Washington, D.C., I felt so rejuvenated,” said Cofield.

Although we’d like to fully unplug on vacation, sometimes it’s hard to actually check out for an entire week. In the case of Laura Weidman Powers, unplugging means placing restrictions on technology use. The cofounder of Code2040 explained that she’ll use social media for fun personal posts but will only respond to work messages and emails that are extremely important —which doesn’t happen very often. “Turns out I’m actually not that important,” she joked. “And when I go away and shut that off, it works out.”

Of all the panelists, Jeremy Simon has the toughest time unplugging on vacation — and he thinks that’s a good thing. Simon, director of client services and social media at KBS+, admits that he very rarely puts technology on the back burner. He believes that technology on vacation can be important, depending on how you use it. “It can spark conversations,” said Simon. “You can start with digital, but really build relationships from there.”

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