Feature Writer - Scott Baret
June 26, 2010
Vacationing from the World Online
by Scott Baret
by Scott Baret
To quote Cole Porter in the excellent musical Anything Goes, "there's no cure like travel to help you unravel the worries of living today." Indeed, we take vacations for exactly this reason. Usually, when we travel for non-business purposes, we leave behind our jobs, our neighbors, and the things we love to hate about our hometowns.
Getting away from the concrete world of our home and workplace is something we are all familiar with–we do it every time we take a vacation. Many of us, however, forget to get away from that "other" world for a bit–the world online.
The Internet is a world in of itself. There are butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. Merchants compete to sell the best goods and services at the best price. The postal system often fails to deliver and is littered with junk mail. Communities are ruled by government systems, some of which have definite problems. Politics always seem to come into play, including battles between posters on online forums that make even the Lincoln-Douglas debate seem like nothing in comparison. There are telephone systems (such as Skype), security alarms, biased news articles, police forces, quack doctors, places for singles to meet each other, and even "medical clinics" (anti-malware programs). Of course, no community would be complete without a steady dose of scrupulous characters, seedy businesses, crime, time-wasting activities, and tons of drama between friends and family–all of which can be found in Webville.
The drama factor has escalated dramatically in the past decade. When the 2000s started, AIM and chat rooms were king. Sure, you'd have a few folks who would stir up trouble, but at least conversations were either one-on-one or centered around some sort of common interest. MySpace burst onto the scene in the early part of the decade and immediately became the equivalent of a middle school cafeteria. In 2005, a little-known networking site for college students called Facebook expanded its reach to high schoolers and eventually anyone with internet access. While the intent was good and plenty have used it to catch up with old friends, set up study sessions, or even find employment, it has also created a daily deluge of drama for most people in the form of a news feed.
For all its problems, however, the web does offer quite a bit of good, especially for those who like to travel. I began planning for a vacation across the midwest in May, which I was advised by one of my doctors to take to clear my mind after a period of my life in which I was shelved for several weeks due to illness, forcing me to postpone my final two student teaching placements and graduation until the fall. Once I had returned to good health, I began contemplating what I would do with a week away from Pittsburgh. The overwhelming majority of planning for this trip was done online. Sites such as TripAdvisor and MapQuest came in handy for deciding where to stay, which roads to take, and which restaurants were most worthy of patronage. I ordered tickets for a baseball game online instead of driving over 1000 miles to Minneapolis to the ticket office, conversed with a traveler who had recently been through the midwest for some recommendations on what to visit, and looked at long-term weather forecasts to determine what to pack.
Online tools may have helped plan a vacation, but part of me also wanted to get offline for a while, especially from the daily grind of social networking. Tired of hearing about everyone's problems with romantic relationships, disgust with places of employment, sappy inspirational quotes, success in growing crops on simulated farms, and hour-by-hour accounts of daily life written in improper English, I decided that I would take a break from Facebook when I went away. Two minutes later, I realized that avoiding Facebook for a week would simply be the equivalent of going to work yet skipping the meal in the cafeteria. I decided to leave behind all aspects of the world online for a little over a week.
I did take a computer with me, but not anything recent that could easily be connected to the web. I packed a trusty old Macintosh PowerBook 180c, mostly so I could play Battle Chess in hotel rooms on those nights when I had nothing else planned.
This was not my first "web vacation". I had gone without it for a week two years ago while vacationing in Florida. However, I knew it may be tougher this time around, as the array of activities done online has expanded since then. Additionally, the Florida vacation was fast-paced and involved very little down time in the hotel. The midwest trip promised to be slower and more relaxing in nature and included one night in which I was doing nothing but making a stop between stops.
Armed with a trusty old Rand McNally road atlas, I felt liberated in many ways as I drove down the turnpike to begin the trip. It didn't feel strange to be without the web–it felt good. In fact, the thought of the world online didn't even come to mind until the second night of the trip, when I walked past the business center at a hotel. However, I quickly shook off the possibility of ending my sabbatical from the Internet prematurely. In fact, I was getting used to the simple life of getting the news, weather, sports scores, and stock quotes from newspapers and television. I had to re-adapt to the old method of getting directions to a destination–asking the desk clerk or one of the locals. I admittedly got lost once, but did find my way out of the jam thanks to a very kind individual at a shopping plaza.
The most notable moment of temptation came in the form of an Apple Store. I browsed the Apple Store at the Mall of America, where every computer seemed to be begging me to use it to catch up with the world online. However, I resisted the urge to do so and stepped out of the premises of the store before I could click on a Safari icon.
As I walked down the corridor, I thought about all that we do online and how it has changed our ways of life over the past ten years. If I had not planned the vacation online, I would have been fighting scalpers for tickets to a nearly sold-out Twins game, may have stayed at a hotel with a three-diamond rating in AAA's book that wouldn't even deserve a fraction of a diamond from someone who values clean rooms and good service, and would have had to guess the Sunday hours of the museums I visited prior to arrival. I may have taken routes that would have used more fuel and placed more wear and tear on my automobile. I may not have even taken the vacation I did, as most of the things I did while away were researched with online searches.
I also realized what the web has made possible for society–and not just the jobs it created for web designers, administrators, and e-businessmen. News can be selected by story–no more sitting through irrelevant celebrity gossip to hear about what is going on with the economy, as is commonplace on radio and television broadcasts. Comparative shopping, apartment hunting, and job searching have all been made easier, especially for those who are looking in areas other than their own. For educators, hundreds of resources have become available for use in classrooms (although I admittedly prefer to make my own, as it better suits the needs of the students being taught). Discussion on obscure topics such as obsolete computers, traffic signals, or evolutionary psychology is now possible, as enthusiasts have banded together to form communities revolving around unique interests. Old newspapers can now be read online instead of in a library's microfilm department, antiques can be appraised through simple eBay browsing, and music can be purchased instantly for a small fee. While getting the latest release within a few seconds may be nice, it sure is lacking the thrill of visiting the record store to pick up that shiny new album, lined with lyrics and artwork.
I then contemplated how the web changed another area of my life–my friendships. While I have interacted with a number of my friends online in recent times, I have not seen many of them in person or even called them in years. As I reflected on this sad statistic, I made myself a promise to try to catch up with as many of them as possible in the months before student teaching starts–even if it's just sending an e-mail message to someone whom I haven't communicated with in a while (since I no longer have phone numbers for some folks). The digits stating how many friends we have on Facebook or how many followers we have on Twitter may sound impressive for some of us, but how many of those 500, 1000, or 1500 people have we actually caught up with lately? It may be nice to reacquaint ourselves with our best friends from first grade, little league teammates, and co-workers from previous jobs, but actually conversing with them and finding out what they've done in the past decade is far better than simply accepting a friend request.
I also thought back to how the world was before we had news feeds to write about our daily activities in. Back then, if Johnny broke up with Sally or Mikey got into a fight with his boss, only a few people knew about it. Nobody knew that Petey had to work at the bank from 10:00 until 5:00 unless they actually went there during his shift or worked with him that day. Only the close friends of Wanda knew that her Calculus class was "super lame". If someone was going to laugh out loud, they actually did so sincerely, not superficially through the three-letter acronym that stands for "Land-O-Lakes" on many grocery store receipts. The only ones who ever saw the crazy pictures from Pauline's party were Pauline and the guy at the photo store who developed them. Her future employer would have never stumbled across the picture of her 21 shots of whiskey unless he broke into her house and stole her photo album. Perhaps most importantly, 999 acquaintances of Georgie would not have found out that he got dumped on Thursday night through the appearance of a little pink heart icon and the phrase "Georgie is now single".
Thinking about the last paragraph, aren't there some definite virtues to the old way of living? Sure, it's nice to be connected with others, but it sure can get annoying to see 35 instances of "OMG THIS DUDE IS SO CUTE, MY EX IS AN IDIOT FOR GETTING A TATTOO, AND MY JOB IS SO LAME LOL" every single day–and a list of the ten people who liked hearing that. The superficialness of social networking relationships makes me appreciate the olden days when all interactions were taken care of in person, over the telephone, or by *gasp* postal mail.
When I got home from the trip, I looked at my e-mail accounts after one week of accumulation. Sadly, they looked more like a garbage dump, filled with junk mail (and maybe five messages worth my time in my five inboxes combined). I then proceeded to log onto Facebook. It was as if nothing had changed from the time I had left–everyone was still complaining about their lives and probably wishing they could take a break from having to tell the world about them on a daily basis. I quickly closed the window and looked forward to talking to my co-workers about my trip the following morning at work.
Since the trip, I have cut back on my social networking and web usage in general. The interactions I have had online have been more genuine than those I have had before, and I'm hoping to call some old friends next week to catch up. I have been spending the time I would have spent online outdoors and with family, and I couldn't be happier with how life has been since I left on that vacation.
There may be no cure like travel, but there's really no cure like a true vacation from that "other world" to help one appreciate what it can do for you and to rediscover true friendships and the great outdoors, among other things that tend to fly by while folks sit at their computers and publicly complain to their acquaintances about their boss and ex-girlfriend.
Try it–back away from the web (if your job permits–many do require online activities these days) or at least social networking for a week. (Note that this includes the use of services other than phone calls on your cell phone). Take a vacation, go camping, or enjoy the beauty of your world at home. Call that old friend you only seem to interact with through Facebook comments and catch up. Play catch in the backyard with your children or join in the badminton game at your neighbor's house. Try something new, perhaps an activity at the library or a place of worship. Turn off the computer and take a walk down the street, paying attention to the unexpected surprises and intimate details of the real world as you take your mind off that urge to constantly be connected. You won't find this wonderful world behind a computer screen, and while the world online is a necessity for today's society, taking a vacation from it, no matter how brief or how lengthy, may be the best thing for anyone to do in this fast-paced world we live in.
Getting away from the concrete world of our home and workplace is something we are all familiar with–we do it every time we take a vacation. Many of us, however, forget to get away from that "other" world for a bit–the world online.
The Internet is a world in of itself. There are butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers. Merchants compete to sell the best goods and services at the best price. The postal system often fails to deliver and is littered with junk mail. Communities are ruled by government systems, some of which have definite problems. Politics always seem to come into play, including battles between posters on online forums that make even the Lincoln-Douglas debate seem like nothing in comparison. There are telephone systems (such as Skype), security alarms, biased news articles, police forces, quack doctors, places for singles to meet each other, and even "medical clinics" (anti-malware programs). Of course, no community would be complete without a steady dose of scrupulous characters, seedy businesses, crime, time-wasting activities, and tons of drama between friends and family–all of which can be found in Webville.
The drama factor has escalated dramatically in the past decade. When the 2000s started, AIM and chat rooms were king. Sure, you'd have a few folks who would stir up trouble, but at least conversations were either one-on-one or centered around some sort of common interest. MySpace burst onto the scene in the early part of the decade and immediately became the equivalent of a middle school cafeteria. In 2005, a little-known networking site for college students called Facebook expanded its reach to high schoolers and eventually anyone with internet access. While the intent was good and plenty have used it to catch up with old friends, set up study sessions, or even find employment, it has also created a daily deluge of drama for most people in the form of a news feed.
For all its problems, however, the web does offer quite a bit of good, especially for those who like to travel. I began planning for a vacation across the midwest in May, which I was advised by one of my doctors to take to clear my mind after a period of my life in which I was shelved for several weeks due to illness, forcing me to postpone my final two student teaching placements and graduation until the fall. Once I had returned to good health, I began contemplating what I would do with a week away from Pittsburgh. The overwhelming majority of planning for this trip was done online. Sites such as TripAdvisor and MapQuest came in handy for deciding where to stay, which roads to take, and which restaurants were most worthy of patronage. I ordered tickets for a baseball game online instead of driving over 1000 miles to Minneapolis to the ticket office, conversed with a traveler who had recently been through the midwest for some recommendations on what to visit, and looked at long-term weather forecasts to determine what to pack.
Online tools may have helped plan a vacation, but part of me also wanted to get offline for a while, especially from the daily grind of social networking. Tired of hearing about everyone's problems with romantic relationships, disgust with places of employment, sappy inspirational quotes, success in growing crops on simulated farms, and hour-by-hour accounts of daily life written in improper English, I decided that I would take a break from Facebook when I went away. Two minutes later, I realized that avoiding Facebook for a week would simply be the equivalent of going to work yet skipping the meal in the cafeteria. I decided to leave behind all aspects of the world online for a little over a week.
I did take a computer with me, but not anything recent that could easily be connected to the web. I packed a trusty old Macintosh PowerBook 180c, mostly so I could play Battle Chess in hotel rooms on those nights when I had nothing else planned.
This was not my first "web vacation". I had gone without it for a week two years ago while vacationing in Florida. However, I knew it may be tougher this time around, as the array of activities done online has expanded since then. Additionally, the Florida vacation was fast-paced and involved very little down time in the hotel. The midwest trip promised to be slower and more relaxing in nature and included one night in which I was doing nothing but making a stop between stops.
Armed with a trusty old Rand McNally road atlas, I felt liberated in many ways as I drove down the turnpike to begin the trip. It didn't feel strange to be without the web–it felt good. In fact, the thought of the world online didn't even come to mind until the second night of the trip, when I walked past the business center at a hotel. However, I quickly shook off the possibility of ending my sabbatical from the Internet prematurely. In fact, I was getting used to the simple life of getting the news, weather, sports scores, and stock quotes from newspapers and television. I had to re-adapt to the old method of getting directions to a destination–asking the desk clerk or one of the locals. I admittedly got lost once, but did find my way out of the jam thanks to a very kind individual at a shopping plaza.
The most notable moment of temptation came in the form of an Apple Store. I browsed the Apple Store at the Mall of America, where every computer seemed to be begging me to use it to catch up with the world online. However, I resisted the urge to do so and stepped out of the premises of the store before I could click on a Safari icon.
As I walked down the corridor, I thought about all that we do online and how it has changed our ways of life over the past ten years. If I had not planned the vacation online, I would have been fighting scalpers for tickets to a nearly sold-out Twins game, may have stayed at a hotel with a three-diamond rating in AAA's book that wouldn't even deserve a fraction of a diamond from someone who values clean rooms and good service, and would have had to guess the Sunday hours of the museums I visited prior to arrival. I may have taken routes that would have used more fuel and placed more wear and tear on my automobile. I may not have even taken the vacation I did, as most of the things I did while away were researched with online searches.
I also realized what the web has made possible for society–and not just the jobs it created for web designers, administrators, and e-businessmen. News can be selected by story–no more sitting through irrelevant celebrity gossip to hear about what is going on with the economy, as is commonplace on radio and television broadcasts. Comparative shopping, apartment hunting, and job searching have all been made easier, especially for those who are looking in areas other than their own. For educators, hundreds of resources have become available for use in classrooms (although I admittedly prefer to make my own, as it better suits the needs of the students being taught). Discussion on obscure topics such as obsolete computers, traffic signals, or evolutionary psychology is now possible, as enthusiasts have banded together to form communities revolving around unique interests. Old newspapers can now be read online instead of in a library's microfilm department, antiques can be appraised through simple eBay browsing, and music can be purchased instantly for a small fee. While getting the latest release within a few seconds may be nice, it sure is lacking the thrill of visiting the record store to pick up that shiny new album, lined with lyrics and artwork.
I then contemplated how the web changed another area of my life–my friendships. While I have interacted with a number of my friends online in recent times, I have not seen many of them in person or even called them in years. As I reflected on this sad statistic, I made myself a promise to try to catch up with as many of them as possible in the months before student teaching starts–even if it's just sending an e-mail message to someone whom I haven't communicated with in a while (since I no longer have phone numbers for some folks). The digits stating how many friends we have on Facebook or how many followers we have on Twitter may sound impressive for some of us, but how many of those 500, 1000, or 1500 people have we actually caught up with lately? It may be nice to reacquaint ourselves with our best friends from first grade, little league teammates, and co-workers from previous jobs, but actually conversing with them and finding out what they've done in the past decade is far better than simply accepting a friend request.
I also thought back to how the world was before we had news feeds to write about our daily activities in. Back then, if Johnny broke up with Sally or Mikey got into a fight with his boss, only a few people knew about it. Nobody knew that Petey had to work at the bank from 10:00 until 5:00 unless they actually went there during his shift or worked with him that day. Only the close friends of Wanda knew that her Calculus class was "super lame". If someone was going to laugh out loud, they actually did so sincerely, not superficially through the three-letter acronym that stands for "Land-O-Lakes" on many grocery store receipts. The only ones who ever saw the crazy pictures from Pauline's party were Pauline and the guy at the photo store who developed them. Her future employer would have never stumbled across the picture of her 21 shots of whiskey unless he broke into her house and stole her photo album. Perhaps most importantly, 999 acquaintances of Georgie would not have found out that he got dumped on Thursday night through the appearance of a little pink heart icon and the phrase "Georgie is now single".
Thinking about the last paragraph, aren't there some definite virtues to the old way of living? Sure, it's nice to be connected with others, but it sure can get annoying to see 35 instances of "OMG THIS DUDE IS SO CUTE, MY EX IS AN IDIOT FOR GETTING A TATTOO, AND MY JOB IS SO LAME LOL" every single day–and a list of the ten people who liked hearing that. The superficialness of social networking relationships makes me appreciate the olden days when all interactions were taken care of in person, over the telephone, or by *gasp* postal mail.
When I got home from the trip, I looked at my e-mail accounts after one week of accumulation. Sadly, they looked more like a garbage dump, filled with junk mail (and maybe five messages worth my time in my five inboxes combined). I then proceeded to log onto Facebook. It was as if nothing had changed from the time I had left–everyone was still complaining about their lives and probably wishing they could take a break from having to tell the world about them on a daily basis. I quickly closed the window and looked forward to talking to my co-workers about my trip the following morning at work.
Since the trip, I have cut back on my social networking and web usage in general. The interactions I have had online have been more genuine than those I have had before, and I'm hoping to call some old friends next week to catch up. I have been spending the time I would have spent online outdoors and with family, and I couldn't be happier with how life has been since I left on that vacation.
There may be no cure like travel, but there's really no cure like a true vacation from that "other world" to help one appreciate what it can do for you and to rediscover true friendships and the great outdoors, among other things that tend to fly by while folks sit at their computers and publicly complain to their acquaintances about their boss and ex-girlfriend.
Try it–back away from the web (if your job permits–many do require online activities these days) or at least social networking for a week. (Note that this includes the use of services other than phone calls on your cell phone). Take a vacation, go camping, or enjoy the beauty of your world at home. Call that old friend you only seem to interact with through Facebook comments and catch up. Play catch in the backyard with your children or join in the badminton game at your neighbor's house. Try something new, perhaps an activity at the library or a place of worship. Turn off the computer and take a walk down the street, paying attention to the unexpected surprises and intimate details of the real world as you take your mind off that urge to constantly be connected. You won't find this wonderful world behind a computer screen, and while the world online is a necessity for today's society, taking a vacation from it, no matter how brief or how lengthy, may be the best thing for anyone to do in this fast-paced world we live in.
Opinions expressed belong solely to the author, and do not represent the views of The Mac 512.
