On vacation you open Facebook before you have time to check in at the hotel. If there is a wi-fi sticker on the door of a restaurant, you are definitely dining there (even if the quality of the food leaves much to be desired). Instagram, Contact and Facebook should know about your every step. A beautiful door, a cup of coffee, a wall covered in ivy, or your knees against the backdrop of the sea? You simply have to take a picture of it, find the Internet and post it online. Familiar? If yes, sit back and get ready to read this article from start to finish. We know how to deal with this.
Vacation is a time to relax and discover something new. Spend time with loved ones, and if you travel alone, time to be alone with yourself or, conversely, find new friends. You don’t need to constantly update your feed and watch all the videos with cats that your friends have liked. And let’s face it – if you find out about the wedding of a classmate you don’t even communicate with a week later, no one will die.
Our 9 tips are written to get you off the internet and into the real world. It’s great here: only some coffee machines have filters, comments are just normal conversations, and you can like a stranger just by smiling.
Delete social media applications from your smartphone
Seriously, every single one of them. Delete them at least for the duration of your vacation, come back and restore them. This is the easiest and most guaranteed way to avoid being captured by social networks while on vacation.
Disable notifications
If the first point is too radical for you, and you can’t help but occasionally delight your Instagram followers with your happy selfies, at least get rid of notifications. You’re on vacation! Are minute-by-minute updates from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram really that important? Do you really want to wake up in the middle of the night to an alert that some guy from your work liked your post from two years ago?
Buy a disposable camera (yes, they still exist)
No one argues that a phone with a camera is a quick and convenient way to take photos. But it’s much more fun to take a couple of disposable cameras with you and take pictures the old-fashioned way. You will be much more attentive to each frame, you will definitely not overdo it with filters, and waiting for pictures from the press will be another little adventure and a great end to your vacation.
Upload pictures when you get home
Do people really need to see a photo of your legs (even with a very beautiful pedicure) on the cobblestone street right now? At this very second? Let’s be honest: no. Stop worrying that your virtual friends will get bored and unfollow you, better go to the beach and build a sandcastle with one of your real friends.
Send postcards
Instead of reporting your holiday online, why not focus on the people you care about and send them a real paper card? If you choose a nice one, it will linger on their fridge for a long time, rather than just popping up in their news feed.
Keep a diary
Some people use social media as an online journal. But there are other ways to store travel information. Take a regular diary with you on vacation and try to write notes every day. Save it, and in a few years you will have something to remember. An added bonus: the diary can be used as a convenient place to store tickets and other necessary papers that will be useful to you on your trip. And then all these tickets can be pasted onto pages, colored and made into a real art book!
Don’t use wi-fi
Believe it or not, there was a time when you didn’t use the Internet at all outside of your home. This time is over, but why not remember it? When you first come to a hotel or restaurant, try not to ask for the wi-fi password unless it is absolutely necessary, such as responding to an urgent email for work. Because we know how it works: I’ll just check my email for a second. What’s on Instagram? Oh, so many new comments on the blog, I need to answer everyone!
Travel where there is no Internet
If you are serious about kicking your social media addiction while on vacation, you can do a “digital detox” and travel to places where there is no Internet access at all.
Get rid of your addiction: leave your smartphone at home
You were so scared that you almost spilled coffee on your iPhone? Listen to the end. If you really decide to get rid of social networks during your vacation, buy a cheap feature phone and take it with you instead of a smartphone. This way, you will be able to make calls if necessary, but will not be able to log into the network.
